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Pelosi: CIA Lied To Congress About Torture
Nancy Pelosi has accused the CIA of lying to Congress about torture.
In a press conference given amid questions on what she knew and when about the Bush administration's torture program, Pelosi said that she was explicitly told in her September 2002 briefing that waterboarding was not used. We've since learned that Abu Zubaydah had been waterboarded 83 times by then.
She accused the agency of "misleading the Congress of the United States."
Referring to the CIA, Pelosi said: "Now they're trying to say: 'don't put the spotlight on us, we told the Congress.' Well, they didn't tell us everything."
She continued, referring to the release of the briefings document last week:
This is a diversionary tactic, to take the spotlight off of those who conceived, developed, and implemented these policies, which all of us [Democratic leaders] opposed ... Understand -- this is their policy, all of them.
Pelosi called on the CIA to release the briefings, so that people can see the evidence for themselves.
And she accused the Bush administration of misleading Congress every step of the way.
Yesterday we told you about a bevy of Democratic senators leveling the charge that the CIA released the document on torture briefings in order to deflect attention from the agency's own role in carrying out the torture program. But Pelosi certainly took that a step further just now.

















It's simple: The CIA/GOP are trying to blackmail and spread the blame with selective leaks with rumor and innuendo.
Rather than cherry pick a single pol who was "told", release the name of everyone, including GOP.
Don't take your eye off the ball, folks.
May 14, 2009 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm with you...Time to put the Occam Razor to all this BS
May 14, 2009 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Its easy. If Pelosi is telling the truth and wants the truth out, she should use her power as Speaker to demand a House investigation of all the issues surrounding this. She should have the votes. No waiting for Obama or the Senate. Put Waxman in charge.
Not interested Nancy? Then you are lying and gaming the people.
May 14, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Think about it:
The leak last week about Harman was a warning shot: Shut up about our torture or we will smear you with stuff we've found spying on you.
This is a deliberate campaign of intimidation and blackmail, to protect the GOP and CIA over torture.
Anyone who wants to investigate will have leaks, smears, innuendo, etc. mysteriously appear.
May 14, 2009 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just a little behind the curve on this IC.
Miss Steny Hoyer's statement did you?
Missing a great deal.
I can understand. So much time attending to those jerking knees
May 14, 2009 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
What part of the Speaker's statement are you having trouble with???
May 14, 2009 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about the words"encourage" and appropriate committees" and "vigorous oversight" instead of "I will ask the House to create a Special Committee to investigate these matters." That is my problem. What is yours?
May 15, 2009 1:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Its a he said, she said, but Speaker Pelosi has one very strong point supporting her credibility: unlike the CIA, she wants an investigation.
May 14, 2009 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't see a "he said" anywhere. Did I miss the CIA directly contradicting Pelosi? And I mean directly not just some erroneous memo list which says she was at some briefing.
May 14, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
You might be correct. I'm having trouble figuring out exactly what the CIA is saying. Regardless, the fact that Speaker Pelosi is calling for an investigation strongly supports her credibility.
May 15, 2009 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Speaker Pelosi believes she was lied to, she should notify the appropriate authorities. Lying to Congress is a crime.
Otherwise, she should just shut up.
May 14, 2009 12:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
But what do you do when it's the "appropriate authorities" that have lied to you?
May 14, 2009 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. Couldn't have stated it better. We must remember to take into account that then...minority leader Pelosi would have likely been branded a "traitor" for revealing classified info...remember this was 2002-2003 timeframe...after the 9/11 hysteria. She was in a no win situation. Keep it simple...waterboarding is torture....those who approved of these methods should be prosecuted if we are to be "a nation of laws." The world is watching....and so are our children.
May 14, 2009 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Nancy Pelosi was lied to then the integrity of Congressional oversight of the CIA is at issue.
As Speaker she has the power to as for an investigation BY THE HOUSE of this, and should have the votes is she is serious.
It is easy to say you are for a Truth Investigation if you know the Senate will not pass on its creation. It is also what you would say if you are trying to cover something up.
May 14, 2009 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Should have said Truth Commission, not Truth Investigation. I should get Nancy's dodge of choice by its correct name.
May 14, 2009 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
According to a lot of reports, including from quite independent sources in the FBI, the use of torture was initiated after the capture and interrogation of Al Qaeda operatives Abu Z. and KSM failed to reveal any links between Saddam and 9/11.
This is corroborated by FBI agent Ali Soufan, in part:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/05/14/torture/
"Soufan made one of the most significant intelligence breakthroughs of the so-called war on terror. He learned from Zubaydah that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the mastermind behind the attacks on 9/11.
Then, however, a CIA interrogation team from Washington led by a contractor arrived at the secret location. Zubaydah was stripped naked and the contractor began a series of coercive, abusive interrogations, based on Cold War-era communist techniques designed to elicit false confessions."
If you want to pick a point where the torture regime was initiated, that seems to be it - and I seriously doubt that Pelosi was told that Cheney and Rumsfeld were pushing for torture in order to draw a link between Saddam and 9/11.
I think that's a key fact that the Cheney PR tour is designed to cover up.
May 14, 2009 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I lost all faith in her patriotism and honest when she decided to spit on our ancestors who died defending our nation and values by taking impeachment off the table.
At first, I could not fathom why, but more and more I believe it was to take the spotlight off her.
These people are nothing more than mobsters... albeit mobsters who find torture perfectly acceptable.
Look for more of it now that BOTH parties have decided to protect each other during our decline from what once made this nation great...
May 14, 2009 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Look for more of it now that BOTH parties have decided to protect each other during our decline from what once made this nation great..."
I think you've forgotten the most important axiom in politics: that it is always the choice of the lesser of evils. I'll take Pelosi over Denny Hastert or Steny Hoyer every day.
Anyway, the CIA lied? Who would ever have believed...
May 14, 2009 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's right Nancy!!! Unbelievable that this whole thing has been turned on her - she must be spitting nails.
May 14, 2009 12:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
So she will ask her House colleagues to investigate this, right?
May 14, 2009 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Watch the Daily Show montage of Pelosi and you'll realize who is really lying here.
May 14, 2009 12:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's not an either-or proposition. Plenty of lying to go round on this subject. Does anyone really believe the Bush administration ever told the Congress the whole truth about anything? I certainly don't. But that doesn't indicated that anyone in congress was honest, including the Speaker.
May 14, 2009 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
True, but Pelosi has been in CYA mode from the beginning. She's spewing nothing BUT lies about this.
May 14, 2009 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Funny I think the CIA memo was CYA
Either way, the issue is Bush torture! Let the investigations roll and the chips fall where they fall
May 14, 2009 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I disagree. Pelosi, as other congressional dems noted yesterday, was completely caught off guard by the legs on this issue while she was off in Iraq. She has suffered from underestimating this issue while it blew up while she was overseas. The push back has finally begun, Pelosi style.
She has stated from the start that she was only told of coercive interrogation techniques that had yet to be used but that the CIA claimed had legal justification to use. The CIA lied since at the time of her briefing Zabaydah had been waterboarded 83 times already. When Harman later learned specifically that the 'coercive' techniques involved waterboarding she wrote a letter raising strong objections. She also notified Pelosi of what she had learned, and Pelosi agreed with Jane's objections, though only Jane Harman's signature was on the letter. The GOP is pointing to the fact that only Harman's (who was conveniently smeared again last week) signature was on the letter as proof of Pelosi's complicity.
The GOP is being absurdly disingenuous with their explicit objections that the Democrats could have objected and used their powers to try and call a hearing on the issue. In 2002?!?! Right! This was before Iraq!!! They would have been crucified. Look at the dixie chicks, and that was AFTER Iraq was invaded.
May 14, 2009 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
This line of attack started LAST YEAR.
Pelosi wasn't caught off guard. You were
May 14, 2009 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Happens with the 15 second blogosphere attention spans.
Happened many times to me
May 14, 2009 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
which show was that?
I have not yet caught Pelosi in a single lie, so I think you're exaggerating.
May 14, 2009 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Pelosi's telling the truth and that an investigation will back that up
All along it has been the GOP squirming to avoid this issue (go back to the Panetta hearings and Blair) and the deeper they dig the deeper they find themselves
Attacking Pelosi on the basis that she knew of Bush/Cheney's torture crimes makes no sense at all.
What do they expect? That the Dems will say "OK our bad, we'll let you off the hook?"
Please Louise
May 14, 2009 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Pelosi wants the truth to come out she will ask her House colleagues to auuthorize an investigation of this by the House. If she does not she will hide behind her support for creation of a Truth Commission. She may even get the Commission authorized by the House knowing Reid et al will let it die in the Senate.
May 14, 2009 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Congressional investigations have just begun
Where have you been?
May 14, 2009 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
HELLO FROM PLANET EARTH
Try reading Pelosi's statement
May 14, 2009 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Encourage"..."appropriate." How about "I will ask the House to create a special investigatory committee." Hers are weasel words and yours are apologetic.
May 15, 2009 1:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Time to use your head, not your ass... THINK, DAMMIT:
In 2002, what power did Nancy Pelosi... make that HOUSE MINORITY LEADER Pelosi... have? What power did any Democrats have? The second party in this country was treated with rude contempt like a persecuted nationality in some God-forsaken third world country, and made to have their "meetings" in the friggin' basement of the Capitol!
Is it a stretch for you to picture WHY, in an atmosphere like that, they would suddenly decide to "brief" Nancy Pelosi, in the first damn place? Here is your I.Q. test: what would be their motivation to "brief" someone with allegedly critical information, from a party they treated with such disdain? At what point did they decide that these much-derided Democratic pariaihs should suddenly be privy to highly-classified intelligence?
It's called setting up a patsy, for exactly this moment in history, when all light is being shed on the Bush administration and the CIA. Which they knew could likely come.
They've even been threatening they were going to nail Dems if this nonsense continued... and here we are. The conversation has now, conveniently, turned to what Nancy Pelosi knew and when she knew it.
Oh really? Did she break the law by ordering torture? Then why are we lighting the torches and brandishing the pitchforks against her???
I'll tell you why. Because this is what they always do. They create a distraction, and the Beltway media, wired for the R's, is all too fucking happy to play along.
Now if you'll excuse us, we'd like to put our eyes back on the ball.
May 14, 2009 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
What power does she have now? Is she using it?
May 14, 2009 3:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
She is. Much to Obama's displeasure, I'm sure, she has just called for the Truth Commission nobody seems to want (for some reason).
Must be working. Huckleberry Graham was immediately dispatched to Nora O'Donnell, and as I write this, he is on TV, sweatin' to the propaganda. He is sparing no insult to her, and parroting Cheney about not investigating those who wanted to keep the country "safe".
He is a shameless, closeted dick. I expect they'll shove this filthy little son of a bitch in front of 10 more cameras, before the day is out.
It just astounds me how people can get worked like this, and not realize how thorough and pernicious the hidden perssuaders are.
May 14, 2009 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Watch the Daily Show montage of Pelosi and you'll realize who is really lying here."
You don't need a weatherman (or a comedian) to know which way the wind blows. It's the f*cking CIA. If they're talking, they're lying.
May 14, 2009 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice cop out. Pelosi has been lying through her teeth about this from the beginning. Watch the video, unless you're afraid to.
May 14, 2009 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it's the usual ostentatious liberal display of "evenhandedness". The GOP are masters of goading liberals into beating up their own to "prove" how they aren't biased or hypocrites.
May 14, 2009 1:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I watched it last night. Pelosi says she was never briefed on an active torture program and nothing but CIA written and leaked documents says otherwise so far. You can judge for yourself whether Stewart's more legitimate point - that, considering her claimed stance on that matter, she should have done more to object to using the techniques she was briefed on - has merit but no lie on Pelosi's part has been shown by Stewart or anyone else. I'm no Pelosi acolyte and no trouble believing she's lying (except she keeps reiterating a point that will be proved one way or another eventually) but those are the facts we have to go on so far.
May 14, 2009 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pelosi is such a tool....the opposite of dysfunctional is still dysfunctional, people.
Doesn't shock me at all that most people just don't care anymore...the whole mess of them are a disgusting bunch...
May 14, 2009 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
One can only hope this leads to getting a full investigation. Piss off Dem Leadership enough that they grow some balls.
John
May 14, 2009 1:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
A few thoughts:
1) Witch hunt logic: "We know you did it. Confess and we'll go easy on you" (Trashing someone's rep based on what the CIA says is unwise at best.)
2) Complicity with blackmail: Imagine there's a town where a thug is robbing and killing people. Just when it looks like he is about to get caught, photos of the accuser is released, showing her involved in an affair. Would you be the person in the town square, holding up the photos, saying "Did she cheat?"
3) The Harman smear was the warning shot to ALL members of congress: Who knows who the NSA was wiretapping. We can probably find dirt on you too. Who wants to be next to have their reputation sullied with innuendo? I view that as the more serious case of blackmail/retaliation.
Anyone else notice that then-minority leaders who actually opposed much of what Bush/Cheney were doing are now "under fire"? Minority leaders who couldn't stop much while the GOP had a lock on all branches of government.
CIA dirty tricks, smears, intimidation.
May 14, 2009 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Poor Pelosi, someone else lied to you....... maybe the lies about WMD in Iraq that were circulating at that time should have given you a clue.
May 14, 2009 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Apparently she did have a clue since she opposed the war.
May 14, 2009 9:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't entirely agree with Josh
I think that Obama's strategy all along has been a play from the center to bait the Republican defenders and Democratic torture opponents to fight this out.
If they didn't go for the bait when he made the no-prosecute announcement followed by the memo release, he'd have put an issue to rest that by virtue of the fact that nobody wanted to scrap over it was never an issue to begin with.
He knew all along that a series of damning reports were due to come out and that the Hill would not stand idly by and not conduct hearings
I think Cheney's going public might have been a surprise but not Pelosi's combativeness against a predictable CIA/Bush counterattack.
May 14, 2009 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Shorter version, Obama all along figured that the torture dispute would take on a life of its own and has acted accordingly
May 14, 2009 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I still don't think the Torture issue is a WIN for Republicans. "Can you please tell us when the CIA and the Bush Administration told you we were torturing prisoners? And since you can't share this with other Congressmen or the media, and we hold a majority in the Senate, have a nice day."
May 14, 2009 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
My point exactly!
Just shows how very frightened they are.
Consider their alternatives when Obama opened this issue up
1. Attack pelosi, unleash cheney, OR
2. STFU "Our President's got it right. Let's move on and not play politics with this"
As Boner said today, "you can't have it both ways"
He should have taken it
May 14, 2009 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Good advice. He should have..."
May 14, 2009 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
John:
Their argument is "we lied to you and tortured prisoners violating American law. Why didn't you object more to our crimes?"
May 14, 2009 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah
Don't make a whole lotta sense do it!
May 14, 2009 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
All this talk about the eeeeevil CIA being the ones who are lying. You do realize that the current head of the CIA, Leon Panetta (appointed by President Obama), is the one providing the information that Pelosi now disputes?
In report to Congress on May 5th, Panetta told them that in 2002, Pelosi and other members of congress had recieved a briefing "on EITs including use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah, background on legal authorities, and a description of the particular EITs that had been employed".
She initially insisted she was told nothing, then told that EITs weren't being employed, and now is saying that someone else on her staff was told.
Come on now. Let's employ a bit of intellectual honesty instead of knee-jerk partisan hatred.
It isn't like this is the Bush admin vs. Pelosi. The head of the CIA is an Obama appointee and hardly a shill for the Bush administration. Pelosi is nothing but a lying hypocrite and there is ample evidence of it.
May 14, 2009 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Robby Boy,
You do realize that Panetta also included the caveat that he can't guarantee that everything in those briefs is accurate right?
Also, Panetta, never having been involved in the intelligence world or the CIA before has a lot of ingratiating to do to earn the respect of the rest of the CIA which is one reason he's stood so vociferously with them and protested the release of the memos. In this sense, Panetta might have been a mistake to appoint. He has to earn the loyalty of the rank and file, and they have to know he's not going to hang them out to dry. Unfortunately, this dynamic puts him in a very tough spot when you consider the crimes the CIA has obviously perpetrated. He's going to be torn between trying to earn the respect of his boys and his loyalty to Obama and the administration.
It's ultimately a lose lose situation. Either obstruct justice to earn the respect of the CIA and leave himself AND the Obama administration vulnerable to scandal, or go along with an ethical inquiry into the CIA and lose the respect of the CIA which would undermine any changes you hope to make to improve the agency, as you'll have your underlings actively undermining you.
That would suck to be Panetta.
May 14, 2009 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Robby:
How much was she told? We're torturing once or twice? Was she told it was used on one prisoner 83 times? Was she informed it was widespread or was it used sparingly? Yes, she could have complained but to whom? The NYT held off on the domestic spying story for a full year to protect the Bush administration and ensure he wouldn't be embarrassed during the 2004 election.
May 14, 2009 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
She initially said was told nothing. Then when she was caught in that lie, she said she wasn't told EITs were being employed. Now that information has come forward that in fact she WAS told, she's flip-flopping between the assertion that only a staffer was told and/or the CIA is flat out lying.
Whether she complained about it at the time is irrelevant to the fact that the person 3rd in line to the Presidency is lying to our face about her complicity in the program.
May 14, 2009 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
RobbyLove neglects to inform us that CIA Director Panetta will not vouch for the accuracy of the CIA "recollections" document on which he relies to smear Pelosi. Republican Pat Roberts also will not vouch for the document.
Let's take a nice long look at the provenance, the misleading information and the omissions in that document before we use it to crucify Pelosi.
May 14, 2009 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
RobbyLove, if you're going to charge someone with mendacity, you need to bring more to the table in support of your claim than your own increasingly shrill repetitions of your initial accusation. You really must learn to differentiate documented fact from self-enamored personal opinion, lest you be mistaken for a Bush Republican.
May 15, 2009 12:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Poor Nancy, all she wanted was the spoils of her official position, without all that nasty oversight. What's a girl to do? Methinks she put her hands over her ears and went 'LALALALALA' while the CIA was giving her a watered-down briefing.
Sins of omission, baby, sins of omission.
May 14, 2009 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dave, I think she wants a lot more than the spoils of her official position, you are the first person I can remember claiming she doesn't want "nasty oversight." She's been accused of wanting a LOT of oversight on many issues.
May 14, 2009 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll say it 183 times if necessary. The issue is lying to Congress. As head of the House, Pelosi should demand the House investigate this. She has the power and should have the votes. If she hides behind support for creation of a Truth Commission, which requires Senate action, she is doing exactly that, hiding.
May 14, 2009 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
This whole thing is strange, as is how it is being covered.
Not only is there CIA blackmail and intimidation going on here -- intended to scare off Harman and Pelosi from investigating torture -- but there's a strange synergy between the rightwing pro-torture faction seeking to muddy the waters and change the subject, and the lefty bloggers who are eager as always to show that even the most liberal pols are not up to their 'high standards' and also to prove that they are 'fair and balanced'.
It's an ostentatious display of evenhandness, to the point of gullability. Gullable, as in, Dick Cheney is smugly defending TORTURE, and we're talking about some San Fran liberal who opposed the f---ign war? John Yoo advocates crushing children's testicals -- and gets hired as a columnist --, but let's spend two weeks impugning anti-war Dems because the CIA says so??
Sick and wrong, my friends. Keep your eye on the ball.
May 14, 2009 4:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
The cia displays the same lack of integrity, honesty, honor and fairness so profoundly displayed by the dipshits bush, cheney and all who tortured. These are right wingers patriot imposters even as they are traitors to this once proud country. They are only so much garbage, trash who belong in prison, or in the docks for war crimes. Stop the bullshit, and do what is necessary to sterilize this infection.
May 14, 2009 9:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Connecting the dots:
Today on Chris Matthews a Republican Rep suggested that any action taken against Pelosi would not be under a criminal light because immunity would be granted, so they "could learn from this and prevent it in the future" rather than just seeking punishment.
Wouldn't it be convenient for the Republicans to have immunity set as the standard prerequisite before any torture commission take place?
May 15, 2009 12:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I do believe her.
It is important to keep in mind that she is one of the most liberal Congresspeople and there is really NOTHING she could have done to stop the violence of the Bush administration.
This entire fiasco seems more of a charade to evade discussion of the immense success the liberal wing of the party has had in the recent months.
I do not see what the big issue is. It was not her choice to implement waterboarding and of course she was mislead and stonewalled.
Now later she is to blame for it -- I don't think so! She was not commander in chief. Blame Bush.
May 15, 2009 6:43 AM | Reply | Permalink