Pelosi's Tortured Denials

Summary
Speaker Pelosi said in February that she was "never" told that the CIA was using waterboarding in interrogations. Then in May she changed her story to say she was told, but still claimed it was not quite as early as the CIA said.

On that point she's contradicted, however, both by a CIA memo and by a Republican former congressman who got the same briefing she did. The current CIA director, a Democrat, says his agency's story, though not infallible, is "the most thorough information we have."

Prominent Republicans, including former Speaker Gingrich, are saying that Pelosi should step down because of this.

Who's right? It is clear that Pelosi has contradicted herself, and that she knew as early as 2003 that waterboarding was in use, long before she raised any public or private objection. But as to whether she was misled by CIA officials in a 2002 briefing, we can't say on the basis of evidence than is publicly available now. That judgment may have to wait for the history books.

Meanwhile, we present in our Analysis section a detailed time line of Pelosi's shifting accounts, the claims of her critics and the evidence produced so far.

Analysis
Pelosi said unequivocally in February: "I can say flat out, they never told us that these enhancement interrogations were being used." In April, she said that "we were not told" about the program at any briefing.

But a CIA memo released May 6 flatly contradicts those claims, stating that CIA personnel gave Pelosi "a description of the particular EITs [Enhanced Interrogation Techniques] that had been employed." That briefing was in September 2002. Pelosi herself now admits that an aide told her about the interrogation techniques in 2003, but she still maintains that the CIA didn't tell her in 2002 that waterboarding had been used. On May 14, she escalated her charge, claiming that the CIA deliberately misled legislators. That prompted several Republicans, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former presidential candidate and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Fox News commentator Sean Hannity to call for Pelosi's resignation.

Who's Right?
So who is correct? Is Pelosi misleading Americans and then recklessly charging the CIA with deliberate misconduct to cover her tracks, as some Republicans are suggesting? Or is it the CIA memo that's false, perhaps put forth in an effort to claim there was tacit bipartisan approval for acts that some Democrats now say should be prosecuted as criminal?

Evidence is sketchy. So far, no recordings, verbatim transcripts or contemporary notes of Pelosi's 2002 briefing have surfaced, and for all we know none may even exist. All that's known publicly are conflicting, after-the-fact accounts. So we simply can't determine exactly what the CIA told Pelosi in 2002, or exactly when she became aware of what was going on.

One thing is clear: Pelosi herself now concedes that she knew about the CIA program — including the waterboarding — far earlier than she had led the public to believe. Her calls for a "Truth Commission" come six years after she now admits that she first learned about the CIA enhanced interrogation program.

In what follows, we'll lay out what both sides are saying, and leave it to our readers to judge.

She Said
We start with a February exchange between Pelosi and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, a liberal commentator who pressed the speaker to explain why she did nothing after being briefed on the techniques in Sept. 2002, at a time when she was the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Pelosi reacted defensively, denying that the CIA told her that the harsh techniques were actually in use:

Maddow (Feb. 25): September, 2002, you were briefed on CIA, detention issues and enhanced interrogation issues. Because of those briefings – and I know that you expressed concern for the NSA after that October 2001 briefing. You released that publicly in 2006. But you didn't express public concerns at the time after those briefings.

Pelosi: The fact is, they did not brief … well, first of all, we're not allowed to talk about what happens there, but I can say they did not brief us with these enhanced interrogations that were taking place. They did not brief us. They were talking about an array of interrogations that they might have at their disposal.