Pelosi and Torture - Bombshell Evidence that the CIA Invented Evidence of Informing Democrats

[stevenleser]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Pelosi-and-Torture--Bombs-by-Steven-Leser-090515-707.html


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May 15, 2009

Pelosi and Torture - Bombshell Evidence that the CIA Invented Evidence of Informing Democrats

By Steven Leser


Watching today's press conference where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) tried to defend herself against allegations she was briefed about enhanced interrogation techniques prior to their use was itself torturous. See "Pelosi Accuses CIA of 'Misleading' Her on Interrogations" http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2009/05/pelosi_accuses_cia_of.html?nav=rss_email/components that says among other things:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi... acknowledging for the first time publicly she knew alleged terrorist detainees were subjected to waterboarding more than six years ago...called for the CIA to release detailed notes from her own September 2002 briefing about interrogation techniques. She said today that, at that 2002 briefing, she was told the CIA was not waterboarding detainees

"At every step of the way, the administration was misleading the Congress. And that is the issue," Pelosi said in a heated news conference...

Today was Pelosi's first chance to address the interrogation briefing issue since the CIA released a detailed memo last Thursday outlining 40 congressional briefings given since September 2002 regarding the use of what it calls "enhanced interrogation techniques" on suspected terrorists. That memo included footnotes that appeared to contradict Pelosi's previous statements that she was never personally briefed by Bush administration officials on the use of such tactics, including waterboarding, a controversial technique that simulates drowning.


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)

-------------------------------------------------

Believing Pelosi was becoming difficult. It seemed she was coming up with different versions of events. Then I thought about this a little bit. If someone asked me to recall and recount something I was told six or seven years ago, I would have problems doing so. Even if the event was a prominent one, I think I would miss details. Still, having seen several variations of her story about what she knew and when she knew it, there was the perception she was hiding or embarrassed about something.

A bombshell was dropped today in the form of a revelation that former Florida Senator Bob Graham said that the CIA claims he was briefed twice on torture but those briefings never took place. Senator Graham made these allegations on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show, see http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/14/senator-bob-graham-the-cia-made-up-two-briefing-sessions/ . If you are familiar with Bob Graham, you know he is the guy that was lampooned for writing down everything that happened and each person he met every day in his journals. If something isn't in his journals, it never happened. As a result, he knows EXACTLY what took place during those two days on which the CIA claims the briefings took place and he was never briefed. Score one for Bob Graham's journals. To those people who liked to make fun of them, I guess they don't seem so funny now, do they?


Bob Graham

Once confronted with Graham's evidence, the CIA started backtracking and saying that they may have been mistaken about the briefings and dates in question. Can a complete vindication of Pelosi be far behind? Speaker Pelosi should be aggressive and demand an investigation into who the CIA informed and when. The bad perceptions some people still may have are intolerable. The issue of torture is one on which Democrats should and must be unequivocal. Republicans can try to justify torture and those who approved it if that is what they want to do, but for Democrats, it is as President Obama said, "We Do Not Torture". It doesn’t get any simpler than that.

Since it should be obvious to just about everyone by now that investigations is where this is heading, President Obama has to face the situation and deal with it. I know he didn't want to address this now, and truth be told, I would have preferred that this waited until after Universal Healthcare and other important initiatives of the administration were addressed, but there is no other choice left. Obama has to appoint an independent counsel to probe allegations of torture, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the former administration.

Once we start an investigation, then we will see who starts backtracking on comments. Consider the various defenses the Bush administration and its former members has been using just in the past few months as written by a commenter to the above article at Emptywheel:

1) It was no big deal, we didn’t torture “that” much or “that” severely.

2) We don’t torture. Never tortured. Never hurt anyone…only saved lives.

3) If we did torture, it was the Democrats’ fault for not stopping us. And anyone who was tortured deserved it.

The country will be better for this investigation. Torture isn't just wrong, it is criminal and it is ineffective. An investigation would show how military intelligence officers tried to protest its use on multiple occasions and were ignored by the Bush administration. An investigation would show that the attacks that former Vice President Dick Cheney claims were prevented by intelligence gathered by torture were in fact thwarted with intelligence obtained through other means. Finally, an investigation and punishment of those responsible would show the world that the United States intends to live up to its creed and to the Geneva conventions on torture that have been in existence and well known to every member of the international community for the past 70+ years.

[The Magistrate]

1. Well Said, Sir!

[knowbody0]

2. Pelosi - smoke and mirrors

they are counting on short attention spans and new darker chaos to distract.

[firedupdem]

3. Rec'd n/t

[WCGreen]

4. Well thought out...

K&R

[JimGinPA]

5. K&R

[vaberella]

6. Actually Pelosi has called for evidence to be released & nothing she said has been contradictory.

She has always stated her position quite clearly...people just want to think that she's not telling the truth so they want to think she's stuttering and messing up the story. She's not. Graham comes out and vindication. I figured she wasn't lying and she was always very clear. She called for evidence to be released countless times and nothing was done.

[stevenleser]

22. Perhaps, but it has seemed that way to many.

I think you may be right though. As I said in my article though, I am not sure I would do any better with recounting something that may or may not have happened 6-7 years ago.

[democracy1st]

7. K & R

[opihimoimoi]

8. The Bull Shitters are having a hard time making their shit stick these days.....

Nancy will set the stage to reveal who lied and who did not...

Grab your drink and chips and stand by for some fun.....

The DSM-IV Diagnostic Criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder are:

A. A pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, lack of empathy, as indicated by at least five of:

1. a grandiose sense of self-importance
2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. believes that he or she is "special" and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
4. requires excessive admiration
5. has a sense of entitlement, ie unreasonable expectations of especially favourable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
6. is interpersonally exploitative, ie takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
7. lacks empathy and is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
8. is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviours or attitudes

Bully signs....know the signs so as to contend with the BULLIES.....

[depakid]

9. Well, Pelosi's now admitted that she knew about waterboarding in 2003

and while there may not have been much she could have done, she's handled this whole matter less than competently.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/us/politics/15cong.html?hp

[Hippo_Tron]

10. It doesn't matter what Pelosi was told and I can't believe she's even bothering with this crap

Her statement should simply have been... "I was briefed on classified material that I was bound by law not to reveal, therefore there was nothing I could do."

And when a reporter says "But but but Jane Harman wrote a strongly worded letter to the CIA director" she should've responded "Unlike Jane Harman, I didn't see the need to waste my time doing that."

[Supersedeas]

16. at least that would focus on the fact that some Dems did respond but were ignored

[jeanpalmer]

11. Pelosi let herself get sucked in

Doesn't she know, that's how the gameplayers try to transfer responsibility from them to you, by letting you in on their secret. They tell you, and suddenly the monkey jumps off their back onto yours. She was played.

OTOH is there a hidden agenda here? What is a Democratic administration doing putting out this kind of information against one of their own? The Thugs would never do that. Makes me think someone wants to get rid of Pelosi. Who's next in line?

[redqueen]

18. What kind of information against one of their own?

What are you referring to there?

[KayLaw]

12. What did she know and when did she know it?

That's how Matt Lauer started this morning - it's all about Nancy Pelosi now. He then had Kit Bond for his attack dog. I really couldn't listen.

[LiberalFighter]

14. Matt Lauer should go up to the space station and see if he can fix the Hubble telescope himself.

[leftynyc]

15. I saw the beginning of Morning Joe

and almost threw something as their assumption was the the CIA would never lie and that Speaker Pelosi is, of course, lying. Fuckers.

[Cha]

24. Attack the Democrat en masse and see

if it sticks. matt lauer needs to get his head extracted from GE's Ass.

[Supersedeas]

13. the Media, the GOP, and the CIA are all on the same page at the same time (coincidence?)

[redqueen]

17. All I hear on teevee news in the morning is PELOSI PELOSI PELOSI!

They are desperate. And hopefully worried.

[grantcart]

19. k and r

[Occam Bandage]

20. Absolutely. The Pelosi-blaming is just another sad attempt to excuse themselves. nt

[Jennicut]

21. Its obvious they are using Pelosi to deflect blame but this is starting to blow up

in their faces. She has another person to back her up, the CIA is starting to hem and haw.
I don't like Nancy much but in this instance it galls me to see her used here to deflect blame. And so what if she knew? Go after her too but those at the top are to blame for STARTING it in the first place. God, this pisses me off royally. They will never take responsibility for their actions, ever. I don't care what info they got, the downside is torture is torture, it made us look bad and it helped create a brand new set of terrorists. Lovely.

[Cha]

25. How Sweet! And, now the corporatemediaWhores

need to be held accountable.

[Cha]

23. Thanks, Steven!

This is encouraging.

[ibegurpard]

26. I love the way the Pelosi pile-on brigade

is suddenly horrified at torture instead of trying to minimize it.

[FrenchieCat]

27. Yep....

and thank you! :patriot: