Nancy Pelosi Lies Again: This Time About Knowing of Torture
By David Theroux on May 7, 2009 in Civil Liberties, Constitution, Criminal Justice, Integrity, Law, Middle East, Personal Liberty, Politics, The State, Torture, Video, War
Could House Speaker Nancy Pelosi be lying once again?
The Washington Post has now reported that directly contrary to her repeated claims, a newly released intelligence memo indicates that less than a year after 9/11, Pelosi was fully briefed in 2002 about CIA torture techniques being used.
In a 10-page memo outlining an almost seven-year history of classified briefings, intelligence officials said that Pelosi and then-Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.) were the first two members of Congress ever briefed on the interrogation tactics. Then the ranking member and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, respectively, Pelosi and Goss were briefed Sept. 4, 2002, one week before the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
In an April 25th article in the Post, Porter Goss, who later became CIA Director, confirms that Pelosi and other congressional leaders are now lying about the matter in order to cover up their total complicity in supporting the use of torture techniques:
A disturbing epidemic of amnesia seems to be plaguing my former colleagues on Capitol Hill. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, members of the committees charged with overseeing our nation’s intelligence services had no higher priority than stopping al-Qaeda. In the fall of 2002, while I was chairman of the House intelligence committee, senior members of Congress were briefed on the CIA’s “High Value Terrorist Program,” including the development of “enhanced interrogation techniques” and what those techniques were. This was not a one-time briefing but an ongoing subject with lots of back and forth between those members and the briefers.
Today, I am slack-jawed to read that members claim to have not understood that the techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed; or that specific techniques such as “waterboarding” were never mentioned. It must be hard for most Americans of common sense to imagine how a member of Congress can forget being told about the interrogations of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. In that case, though, perhaps it is not amnesia but political expedience.
Let me be clear. It is my recollection that:
- The chairs and the ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, known as the Gang of Four, were briefed that the CIA was holding and interrogating high-value terrorists.
- We understood what the CIA was doing.
- We gave the CIA our bipartisan support.
- We gave the CIA funding to carry out its activities.
- On a bipartisan basis, we asked if the CIA needed more support from Congress to carry out its mission against al-Qaeda.
I do not recall a single objection from my colleagues. They did not vote to stop authorizing CIA funding. And for those who now reveal filed “memorandums for the record” suggesting concern, real concern should have been expressed immediately—to the committee chairs, the briefers, the House speaker or minority leader, the CIA director or the president’s national security adviser—and not quietly filed away in case the day came when the political winds shifted. And shifted they have.
In addition, the Post reported in December 2007 that:
[L]eaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees had been briefed in the fall of 2002 about waterboarding—which simulates drowning—and other techniques, and that no congressional leaders protested its use. At the time Pelosi said she was not told that waterboarding was being used, a position she stood by repeatedly last month when the Bush-era Justice Department legal documents justifying the interrogation tactics were released by Attorney General Eric Holder.
The new memo shows that intelligence officials were willing to share the information about waterboarding with only a sharply closed group of people. Three years after the initial Pelosi-Goss briefing, Bush officials still limited interrogation technique briefings to just the chairman and ranking member of the House and Senate intelligence committees, the so-called Gang of Four in the intelligence world.
In October 2005, CIA officials began briefing other congressional leaders with oversight of the intelligence community, including top appropriators who provided the agency its annual funding. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam and an opponent of torture techniques, was also read into the program at that time even though he did not hold a special committee position overseeing the intelligence community.
A bipartisan collection of lawmakers have criticized the practice of limiting information to just the “Gang of Four”, who were expressly forbidden from talking about the information from other colleagues, including fellow members of the intelligence committees.
Here is Pelosi trying to spin the matter at her April 24th news conference, “We were not! I repeat not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used.”
In her press conference, the gist of Pelosi’s excuse seems to be that her “briefers” were coming not to seek approval, but to inform. In the words of Deep Throat: “Follow the money.” Isn’t Congress supposed to be the holder of the purse-strings, without which NONE of these agencies and agents have the resources with which to conduct their nefarious activities? Did Pelosi continue to vote them funds after the briefings?
Yes/No
Should Pelosi and her fellow-Congress Members’ abdication of their War Powers responsibilities be an acceptable excuse?
The Nuremberg Trials’ conclusion was “No.”
Mary Theroux | May 7, 2009 | Reply
The true torture is knowing that a pompous, arrogant, self-righteous and power-mad totalitarian like Nancy Pelosi is actually allowed to shape and run through legislation designed to destroy, one by one, the hard fought rights of Americans as well as the entire free-enterprise system. Every day brings a new outrage as Nancy, Harry, Barack and the rest of the lunatic left continue their march toward transforming America into a one-party, socialist police state. Orwell was off by a few years with his 1984 but his Animal Farm predictions are certainly coming true. Considering how much social and economic damage has been done in only 100 days, it is truly frightening to imagine what the Obamanation may be like after four years of statist insanity. If all of this sounds vaguely familiar, you have a good memory of the rise of Nazi Germany—”Nazi,” of course, stands for “national socialist.”
Gooba Gare | May 8, 2009 | Reply
It’s makes one yearn for the days of Bill “Bubba” Clinton. You knew the guy was lying, but at least it was entertaining, not to mention convincing.
Can anyone with a room temperature IQ listen to this sorry excuse for a human being and say, “Yeah, I believe her”?
You’d think the people of San Francisco would be embarrassed to foist this regrettable woman on the rest of the country. Apparently not.
Steve Hogan | May 8, 2009 | Reply
Gooba Gare: You raise good points, although the slide toward fascism, socialism, totalitarianism and a police state began before Obama. It was well underway under Bush and before.
Anthony Gregory | May 8, 2009 | Reply
Your description of the ‘lunatic left’ is right on target. As stated on the back cover of his 2008 book, “The Liberal Mind-The Psychological Causes of Political Madness” by Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr., M.D. and Forensic Psychiatrist, ‘”Modern liberalism’s irrationality can only be understood as the product of psychopathology. So extravagant are the patterns of thinking, emoting, behaving and relating that characterize the liberal mind that its relentless protests and demands become understandable only as disorders of the psyche. “The Liberal Mind” reveals the madness of the modern liberal for what it is: a massive transference neurosis acted out in the world’s political arenas, with devastating effects on the institutions of liberty.’
Doug S. | May 13, 2009 | Reply
How can she get away with this, she is obviously a liar and cannot make up a good enough excuse to remove her from the lie she has now been caught in.
Dwayne LOck | May 13, 2009 | Reply
Hypocrite! So, when President G. Bush lies it is okay? When you think Nancy Pelosi lied she should just resign? Are you a warped-minded individual. You may be able to scheme and scam others’ minds, but not mine. Why don’t you focus on SOLUTIONS for the remainder of your life so you can feel good in the morning for a change? Bush lied and look how many folk died! Bad intelligence What an OXYMORON!! We call that stupidity!
Selena | May 14, 2009 | Reply
Selena: I don’t know who you think we are, but David Theroux and the Independent Institute, unlike most Democrats, have been nothing but critical of Bush’s power grabs and war crimes for the last seven years. We are not Republican partisans, or Democratic partisans.
In April 2002, the Institute hosted a huge event, drawing over a thousand people, with Gore Vidal and others exposing how terrorism was a reaction to U.S. imperial foreign policies.
Here’s my piece from before the Iraq war, exposing the WMD lies long before the mainstream media or Democrats criticized the war.
As the war began, Robert Higgs attacked the very notion of “military precision” and condemned the war in all its immorality.
Ivan Eland at the Institute has written literally hundreds of articles criticizing Bush for war, torture, and spying on American citizens.
I can show you a hundred other examples. While we were not the only ones condemning Bush’s war policies, no one was more vocally opposed than we were. And David began warning about this on 9/11. Even before Bush—even before Clinton—we warned about the threat of terrorist blowback and a growing military empire and police state.
I think you assume we are Republican hypocrites because so much of the discourse is unfortunately between hypocrite partisans of one party or the other. But both parties are guilty of war crimes, brutality against Americans, and the killing of millions of people. We need more principled criticism. We don’t need more shills for either band of criminals. We would love you to abandon your apparent loyalty to the Democrats and join us in our principled cause for peace.
Anthony Gregory | May 14, 2009 | Reply
Those who have suffered for years under control in California by “Pelosi and friends” (local mayors, etc. who she must payback for $$$$ they raised to put BO in the White House) know very well that she is pulling the strings on her puppet who is called the president. She knew he had a better chance of being elected for his age, race, etc. So she let him get the title, but it is obvious that the big bucks and support she raised for him will put him in her debt and control forever. With members of her immediate family either producing movies or married to big name film makers, she was able to get major media bias and bucks to push her agenda forward. Her agenda here in California has been mainly to tell voters what they want to hear to get their votes and then change the whole plan after she gets the votes and money. Her only true agenda is self-empowerment and greed. After putting into effect so many “way beyond just saving the environment green” laws that have strangled every business down to the little corner stores, she uses a private jet to fly coast to coast for lunches.
Professional liar, Pelosi’s blueprint for her new America has already been in place in California for as long as she and her buddies have been in control. The results of her “tax and spend” plans which punish businesses for showing profit or creating jobs has brought California to bankruptcy and sent thousands of big employers out of the state. Her plans call for more people (voters) to depend on the government to help them eke out a living through meager checks sent by Uncle Sam. This will make them afraid not to vote for her and her friends or the lifeline may stop and they will be out on the street. In San Francisco Nancy and friends have put into place their “health care for everyone law” which they want to apply to the whole country ASAP. Sounds great until you learn the cost is put 100% on the backs of already strained employers. And the bonus for the big-spending White House is that once they force all employers to buy health insurance for every employee (in San Francisco that means anyone who works a minimum of 8 hours a week), they will then start taxing the employee on the value of his health insurance. More tax means more money for the liars to pay back $$$$ on campaign supporters pet projects. Wise up America, it did not work in Nancy’s California. While her plastic-surgery-stretched little face will smile and say she loves you, she is laughing at you all the way to her next appointment for a massage, while she sends someone to attend another briefing for her. Can’t let her adoring fans learn she is as old as McCain, after all that was one of her party’s important reasons why OB would make a good president, his youthful age……. Liar, liar, pants on fire!!!
SFBIZ | May 15, 2009 | Reply
I have no love for either party as they both stand today. Tired of voting for the lesser of evils because this society does not have the soil to produce anyone of true substance and PERSONAL integrity anymore.
Nancy Pelosi is a bald-faced liar in a position of power who got there by lies, manipulation, and a mainstream press that should be all dismissed and brought up on charges for sins omission and commission.
If anyone but a lib/dem had done this the media would be calling for heads to roll. But like they did to hide the sins of Obama, they will wash this away with silence and collusion until we hit critical mass in every way imaginable.
I am so ashamed of what this country has become. and we will all regret and mourn the day that these reality-denying (wish and it will be so) knuckleheads took America for a ride. I am a Black Man with no Illusions and am not captivated by any of this weak-kneed pie-in-the-sky junk.
This is ONLY THE BEGINNING.
Gene | May 15, 2009 | Reply
Selena,
I just love how those on the left claim that on one hand George W. Bush was possibly the stupidest man in America, if not the world. On the other hand claim that Bush lied and people died. Bush misled, tricked, buffaloed or bamboozled the dems. Who are the real dummies?
dion | May 18, 2009 | Reply
Since the elections of 2010 will be the pivotal election of our time, and since the incumbent politicians have perpetrated and perpetuated the most gross of travesties on the American Republic, should we not vote them all out of office?
Don | Jun 15, 2009 | Reply
Nancy is a lying hypocrite. 500,000,000 jobs are lost every month? Neat trick since there is only about 300,000,000 total population.
Calling the CIA a bunch of liars? We can start with the President and work our way down the food chain to all Liberal Democrats. Liberals were concerned that Sarah Palin didn’t have ANY experience. Being a mayor and governor having to balance the books doesn’t count with liberals. Did any of them show concern over Obama and his community organizing with VOTER FRAUD Inc., aka ACORN?
Were they concerned about Al Franken? Liberals live in another world and have no concepts of the word REALITY.
Ben405 | Jul 9, 2009 | Reply