Pelosi is splitting hairs. She at least knew waterboarding MIGHT be used - and since the US has previously executed Japanese soldiers for waterboarding American prisoners of war someone in Congress should have told the CIA not to do this. Let's also not forget Abu Ghraib - the encouragement of prisoner abuse came straight from Cheney and Rumsfeld's offices and anyone paying attention should have by that time known what the Bush administration was up to. She waited several years to become indignant about waterboarding. Just as was the case with the Iraq war, the Democrats at the time had no spine to stand up to Bush for the fear of being called weak. This is why no one wants to prosecute these crimes - Bush was smart enough to include the Democrats into what he was doing, thus making them accomplices who are now reluctant to let the chips fall where they may. The problem for Obama is that refusing to prosecute war crimes is criminal in itself - so I suspect eventually he will have to allow a proper criminal investigation by the Justice Department.
Pelosi's Tortured Denials
Email To A Friend
Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.
The CIA's most recent defense is more tepid. Responding to Obey's charge that parts of the CIA memo are incorrect, CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano told the Washington Independent on May 19 that:
Gimigliano: While CIA's information has Mr. Juola attending briefings on September 19, 2006 and October 11, 2007, there are different recollections of these events, which Mr. Obey's letter describes. As the agency has pointed out more than once, its list — compiled in response to congressional requests — reflects the records it has. These are notes, memos, and recollections, not transcripts and recordings.
So we're left with Democrats offering one (not always entirely accurate) story and the CIA and some Republicans offering a different (and, again, not always entirely accurate) story.
As Panetta told CIA employees in his May 15 memo, "Ultimately, it is up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened." That goes for the rest of us. More definitive evidence may yet emerge, but until then everyone will have to reach their own conclusions about how much Pelosi and other members of Congress were told.
Sources
Goss, Porter. "Security Before Politics." Washington Post, 25 April 2009.
Hoekstra, Peter. "Congress Knew About the Interrogations." Wall Street Journal, 22 April 2009.
Lochhead, Carolyn. "Torture battle escalating, Pelosi vs. Boehner: Transcript of April 23, 2009 Pelosi Press Conference." SFGate.com, 23 April 2009, accessed 19 May 2009.
Panetta, Leon. "Message from the Director: Turning Down the Volume." CIA.gov, 15 May 2009, accessed 21 May 2009.
"Pelosi News Conference on Waterboarding Disclosure." Washington Post, 14 May 2009.
Smith, R. Jeffrey. "Fired Officer Believed CIA Lied to Congress." Washington Post, 14 May 2006.
Stein, Sam. "Graham: CIA Gave Me False Information About Interrogation Briefings." Huffington Post, 14 May 2009, accessed 19 May 2009.
"Transcript: One on one with Nancy Pelosi." MSNBC.com, 25 February 2009.
© 2009
Discuss