Here’s a very interesting line from the statement Nancy Pelosi just gave:
We also now know that techniques, including waterboarding, had already been employed, and that those briefing me in September 2002 gave me inaccurate and incomplete information.At the same time, the Bush Administration was misleading the American people about the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. (our itals)
Why did Pelosi mention that Bush administration’s campaign to convince people that Iraq had WMD at this point?
In part, surely, simply to say that the Bush administration was misleading Congress and the public every step of the way on a range of related national security issues — a fact she specifically mentioned elsewhere in the statement.
But could it also be that Pelosi is trying to tie the push for evidence that Saddam had WMD with the CIA’s torture program? That is, suggesting — as several other people are beginning to do — that the program was designed in part to dig up evidence to justify the invasion of Iraq.
We’ll have more for you on that subject later today…