Nancy Pelosi: CIA was misleading The U.S. Congress about torture methods- 05-14-09
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Pelosi says she learned of waterboarding in 2003
Breitbart
Under strong attack from Republicans, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the CIA and Bush administration of misleading her about waterboarding detainees in the war on terror and sharply rebutted claims she was complicit in its use.
“To the contrary … we were told explicitly that waterboarding was not being used,” she told reporters, referring to a formal CIA briefing she received in the fall of 2002.
Pelosi said she subsequently learned that other lawmakers were told several months later by the CIA about the use of waterboarding.
“I wasn’t briefed, I was informed that somebody else had been briefed about it,” she said.
The House’s top Democrat made her comments at a news conference where she was peppered with questions about her knowledge of a technique she and others have called torture. Republicans have insisted in recent weeks that Pelosi and other Democrats knew waterboarding was in use, but made no attempt to protest.
In a written response issued moments after Pelosi spoke, an official at the CIA neither disputed nor accepted the California Democrat’s statements.
Instead, George Little, head of the CIA office of public affairs, said it would be up to Congress to determine whether notes made by agency personnel at the time they briefed lawmakers were accurate. He said the notes could be made available at the CIA “for staff review.”
Pelosi renewed her call for a so-called truth commission to investigate the events in the Bush administration that led to the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques. While President Barack Obama has banned waterboarding, calling it torture, he has been notably cool toward an independent inquiry that might distract attention from his domestic agenda.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also has expressed opposition, as have congressional Republicans.
Pelosi was particularly harsh in describing the CIA.
“They mislead us all the time,” she said. And when a reporter asked whether the agency lied, she did not disagree.
She also suggested that the current Republican criticism marked an attempt to divert attention from the Bush administration’s actions.
“They misrepresented every step of the way, and they don’t want that focus on them, so they try to turn the attention on us,” she said.
Pelosi contended that Democrats did what they could to stop the use of waterboarding. The senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, who received the 2003 briefing on the practice, sent the CIA a formal letter of protest, she said.
But Pelosi defended her own lack of action on the issue, saying her focus at the time was on wresting congressional control from Republicans so her party could change course.
“No letter could change the policy. It was clear we had to change the leadership in Congress and in the White House. That was my job—the Congress part,” Pelosi said.
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Storm center over Pelosi
The Hill
( snipets from the article)
During a tense press conference, Pelosi sought to deflect criticism to the CIA, which she said lied to her about the practice.
Her accusation in her weekly press conference Thursday raised the stakes in that fight, pitting her against the agency charged with fighting international terrorism. And she twisted the knife when she compared the agency’s interrogation briefings to its faulty intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a sensitive topic at the CIA.
“Those briefings gave me inaccurate and incomplete information,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference.
“I think the problem is that the Speaker has had way too many stories on this issue,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said at his weekly news conference. “It’s pretty clear that [Democratic leaders] were well-aware of what these enhanced interrogation techniques were, they were well-aware that they had been used, and it seems to me that they want to have it both ways.”
He also said he found Pelosi’s assertion that she was misled by the CIA highly dubious.
“I’ve dealt with our intelligence professionals for the last three and a half years on an almost daily basis, and it’s hard for me to imagine that our intelligence area would ever mislead a member of Congress … I don’t know what motivation they would have to mislead anyone.”
The CIA stood by the account of its briefings, which were released last week after a request from Republicans.
“The language in the chart — ‘a description of the particular EITs [enhanced interrogation techniques] that had been employed’ — is true to the language in the agency’s records,” said George Little, a CIA spokesman.
The CIA records indicate Pelosi was briefed specifically about interrogation methods used on suspected terrorist Abu Zubaydah. But the records don’t specifically cite the practice of waterboarding.
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Wild Thing’s comment………….
LOL Can you imagine Nancy Pelosi as a CIA Spook. I think it would be a short career. hahahaha They have to remember who, what, where, when and Nancy is falling apart trying to keep up with her lies.
Hello, I’m Nancy Pelosi, and I’ve got a secret.
I caught part of it. She looked like a five year old when caught in the cookie jar.
I caught that several times yesterday. She put herself in a box and it will be amusing to watch her squirm and listen to her trying to wiggle her way out of it.
Bob A.
yeah, she sure does! You can’t cover up lies with more lies. It just makes it worse. I love seeing her sweat and squirm. Funny!!! She got caught, neener, neener, neener!!!!!
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108918.html
Go to this page to see names of all Speakers of the House and get a graphic illustration of how far the Republic has fallen. The House is supposed to represent the people while the Senate represents the Elite. The worst thing and best thing about being an old man is that I remember many of these Speakers. How did it come to this?
Keep talking Nancy. You are digging the hole deeper. Yeah, and piss off the CIA. Heh, heh, the most ethical Congress ever.
She claims she was too busy trying to defeat Republicans to perform her job as a Congresswoman and committee member. In the miltary that would be dereliction of duty.
Does ANYONE really believe ANYTHING that comes out of Nazi Pelosis mouth to be the truth anymore??????
Thats the whole problem with democrats they never know when to stop diggin. Now she has pissed off the CIA, that is one organization you ought to keep on your good side. At least on the surface.
This might just be the dealth knell Steny Hoyer has been looking for even the democrats can’t stand her and that says something about Miss Personality. Then she can try to blink her way home on the highway to no-where and transportation by an educated thumb,
It looked as though she had been drinking. Whatever the case, she definitely didn’t have it all together. Alan Keyes had it right, it’s like insane children are in charge. They need to start behaving like grown-ups.
The CPC exposed. Pelosi a liar? Does a bear crap in the woods? Like I’ve always been told, if you live in a glass house you’d better not be throwing stones and she just threw a stone into a quarry of stone masters, the CIA. She just might have ripped the lid off a whole lot of liars, exposing them all to scrutiny. She has no inkling of who Vince Foster was or that the Clitton’s are both on the loose. General Bull Murtha isn’t going to cover her butt when he himself is exposed, YCMTSU, it doesn’t get any better than this.
Glenn Cassel AMH1(AW) USN RET, LOL she
sure did. She was stammering around and
couldn’t find her place in her notes.
Bob A., yes she really did squirm.
Lynn, I am not sure but I think she has
changed her story now 4 or 5 times.
Horace, thanks for the link and the
information. Wow amazing list and
dates the whole thing.
Thank you so much Horace.
Tom, your right, the more she talks
the more she gets herself in deeper
trouble.
Fercryinoutloud, the answer is no. haha
I don’t trust her at all.
Mark, LMAO too funny.
“Then she can try to blink her way home on the highway”
Yes she is nuts to make the CIA an enemy.
Tonight one of the guys on TV said the CIA
could leak a ton of information on her if
they felt like it. She was so stupid to do
these lies.
Jim, I agree, thanks for that from Alan
Keyes.
Jack, Oh yesssss, she better read up about
Foster and the others.
Nancy is hollowing foul and timeout, but the onrushing events are over-taking her the game clock is winding down and her speakerhip is coming to an end.