Allahpundit at Hot Air has lost count but he believes there are now three different sources that have contradicted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's contention that she didn't know what the CIA was doing as far as enhanced interrogation techniques: Remember, Madam Speaker's official story is that she was briefed merely on the White House's belief that waterboarding was legal, not that they ever planned to actually, you know, use it. I'm starting to lose count of how much evidence there is to the contrary at this point: First was this 2007 WaPo report on Pelosi being given a virtual tour of a CIA "black site" at which waterboarding would be used, then came Porter Goss's op-ed last week reminding her that he got the same briefings she got and he knew exactly what was going on,...
And now, a memo has surfaced from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA that shows "Truth Commission" Pelosi to be a towering hypocrite and a liar.
Paul Kane of the Washington Post has the details:
In a 10-page memo outlining an almost seven-year history of classified briefings, intelligence officials said that Pelosi and then-Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.) were the first two members of Congress briefed on the 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 anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The memo, issued to Capitol Hill by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency, notes that the Pelosi-Goss briefing covered "EITs including the use of EITs" on Abu Zubaida. EIT is an acronym for enhanced interrogation technique, and Abu Zubaida, whose real name is Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, was one of the earliest valuable al-Qaeda members captured. He also was the first to have the controversial tactic of simulated drowning, or waterboarding, used against him.
The issue of what Pelosi knew and when she knew it has become a tussle on Capitol Hill. Republicans have accused her of knowing for years about the interrogation techniques CIA agents were using and of objecting only when the tactics became public and antiwar activists protested.
Caught dead to rights in a lie, what does Madam Speaker do? As any liar who refuses to own up to her transgression, she doubles down and lies some more:
"As this document shows, the speaker was briefed only once, in September 2002. The briefers described these techniques, said they were legal, but said that waterboarding had not yet been used," said Brendan Daly, Pelosi's spokesman.
When in doubt, ignore all evidence to the contrary and repeat the lie.
And Greg Miller of the Los Angeles Times points out that numerous other lawmakers were briefed by the CIA about the EIT:
Republican congressional officials familiar with the document and other still-classified records on congressional briefings said it would have been negligent for CIA briefers to fail to mention the use of waterboarding after Abu Zubaydah had been subjected to the method so extensively.
Overall, the chart describes 40 briefings over a seven-year period during which CIA and other U.S. intelligence officials described the agency's interrogation program to senior lawmakers.
The records were requested by congressional Republicans, who have accused Democrats on Capitol Hill of hypocrisy for expressing outrage in recent weeks over the CIA's use of harsh interrogation methods after the release of Justice Department memos describing them in detail.
By all means, let's have congressional hearings on torture now. And first in the dock, Nancy Pelosi where she will be questioned about why she approved interrogation techniques that she later denounced and then lied about having been briefed on them.
Should make for great television.
Hat Tip: Ed Lasky
Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/05/pelosi_proved_a_liar_on_tortur.html at May 08, 2009 - 08:57:54 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment