Pelosi/Cheny slugfest

[scandal 951]

Nancy says she was never told about illegal actions. ####### says the actions weren't illegal to start with.

It's the Nancy&####### reality show

(Actually, these are incredibly serious allegations she is making. Not just about former Bush administration officials. But about CIA career staffers as well. If this is true, it's pretty shocking.)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/na...,0,155310.story

Pelosi denies being informed about waterboarding

The House speaker says the Bush administration deliberately misled Congress. GOP says Democrats were told.

By Michael Muskal

May 15, 2009

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has become a lightning rod for GOP criticism on the issue of enhanced interrogation of terror suspects, denied today that she was told waterboarding was used on detainees and insisted that the Bush administration had deliberately misled lawmakers.

In a televised news conference, Pelosi accused the CIA of misrepresenting what was going on with the questioning of terrorism suspects when intelligence officials briefed legislators on the Intelligence Committee in 2002. At the time, Pelosi was the ranking Democrat.

"We were told that they had legal opinions that it was legal and were not told about other legal opinions to the contrary," Pelosi said of the briefings. "We were told specifically that waterboarding was not being used."

Pelosi said she learned later from other members of Congress about the CIA use of waterboarding. "I wasn't briefed. I was informed that somebody else had been briefed about it," she said.

The issue of who knew what about the use of enhanced interrogation techniques has become a political firestorm. Republicans, led in recent days by former Vice President ####### Cheney, have generally backed the use of "enhanced" interrogation methods on terrorist suspects.

When Democrats complained and called for investigations that could lead to criminal charges against top Bush administration officials, Republicans have countered that the techniques were approved by Democrats like Pelosi. In effect, Republicans have threatened to turn the issue into an attack on leading Democrats, implying that they too could face charges.

Pelosi today insisted that she still backed an investigation into the use of possible torture and repeated her support for a type of truth commission to examine who did what at the time and who authorized what techniques.

But she was forceful in fighting back against GOP claims against her.

"They misrepresented every step of the way, and they don't want that focus on them, so they try to turn the focus on us," she said.

Pelosi was scathing in her criticism of intelligence officials. While there were memos supporting waterboarding, other former officials have testified in congressional hearings that there were also memos opposing the techniques.

When Pelosi said she was briefed on interrogation, she was told that waterboarding was not being used, though intelligence officials have since conceded that they used such techniques on suspects.

"They mislead us all of the time," Pelosi said. "I was fighting the war in Iraq at that point, telling my members that the intelligence does not support the imminent threat" that was used to justify the invasion of Iraq."

President Obama has banned waterboarding, calling it torture. He has not embraced an independent inquiry that could lead to charges, though some of his more liberal supporters have. Congressional Republicans have generally opposed a truth commission, as has Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

"It is hard for me to imagine that anyone in the intelligence area would ever mislead a member of Congress," Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Republican minority leader, said today.

He said he opposed a truth commission but favored further investigation of the whole issue, including the context in which the questioning took place. Republicans have argued that any enhanced techniques were justified by the need to secure information, a position that liberals oppose.

[Peikko 1,575]

I read that earlier. It's getting increasingly difficult to believe anyone

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

The next Speaker of the House

Nancy Pelosi, then a member of the House Intelligence Committee and now speaker of the House, was briefed on the techniques Democrats now describe as "torture" and raised no objections. Yesterday the No. 2 House Democrat seemed to say she should be investigated too, CQ reports:

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Tuesday that investigations into the Bush administration's use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects should look into what congressional leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, knew about the methods that have been criticized as torture. . . .

"Frankly, information about what was said, when it was said, who said it, that ought to be on the record so the American public knows," Hoyer said.

Asked if the GOP criticism of Pelosi had lessened her support among House Democrats, Hoyer answered with a terse: "No."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124223281255415763.html