Nancy Pelosi

Record Suggests Pelosi Did Little In Response To Torture Briefing

Zachary Roth | May 8, 2009, 4:55PM

As we said before: Whatever the specifics of exactly what was and wasn't said during the September 2002 CIA briefing that Nancy Pelosi received about enhanced interrogation techniques, it seems clear that she was given enough information to conclude that we either had already conducted waterboarding and other harsh techniques, or that we very well might in the near future.

So the more important question, which seems to be getting less attention today, is what Pelosi did in response. And the short answer appears to be: very little.

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Nancy Pelosi

Hoekstra Spokesman: Docs Will Show Pelosi Was Briefed On Waterboarding

Zachary Roth | May 8, 2009, 3:58PM

So Nancy Pelosi has again denied that she was briefed on the fact that we had already committed waterbaording.

But now a spokesman for Pete Hoekstra, the chair of the House intelligence committee, seems to be telling Greg Sargent that as-yet-unreleased documents will prove once and for all that she was.

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Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi Points To Panetta Letter Warning Descriptions Of Briefings May Be Inaccurate

Zachary Roth | May 8, 2009, 2:31PM

Greg Sargent has noted that the cover letter sent by CIA director Leon Panetta to accompany the release of the documents on torture briefings, in which Panetta cautions that the descriptions of the briefings may be inaccurate.

And now Nancy Pelosi is pointing out the same thing.

In a blog post on the Speaker's site, she reiterates that the September 2002 briefing was the only one she received on enhanced interrogation techniques, then writes:

As reported in the press, a cover letter from CIA Director Panetta accompanying the briefings memo released this week concedes that the descriptions provided by the CIA may not be accurate.

Jay Rockefeller

Docs Show Rockefeller Was Briefed On "How The Water Board Was Used"

Zachary Roth | May 8, 2009, 12:31PM

The hot story of the morning is the release of CIA documents appearing to show that Nancy Pelosi was briefed on "enhanced interrogation techniques" in September 2002. Things have already descended into a he-said she-said debate -- literally -- over exactly what Pelosi was told, and whether the new information contradicts what she'd said in the past.

But let's set that aside for a second, because according to the documents, it was another Democratic lawmaker who received the first briefing whose summary in the newly released document specifically mentions waterboarding -- the technique that has been at the center of the controversy, especially for Pelosi lately.

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Curt Weldon

CORRECTED: Weldon Probe Winding Down Without Charges?

Zachary Roth | May 7, 2009, 2:03PM

Could the long-running FBI corruption probe into former Pennsylvania GOP congressman Curt Weldon be winding down, without charges?

That's what the Philadephia Daily News suggests, noting the fact that the Justice Department recently sent letters to people whose conversations were intercepted as part of the investigation, including the paper's own reporter, William Bender.*

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Jay Bybee

With Impeachment Talk Swirling, Bybee Reaches Out to Nevada Lawmakers

Zachary Roth | May 7, 2009, 11:18AM

Via Think Progress:

Jay Bybee may not be responding to Pat Leahy's invitation that he testify before the Senate Judiciary committee. But that doesn't mean he isn't trying to get out his side of the story behind the scenes.

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Karl Rove

Rove Lawyer: Likely Early June For US Attorneys Testimony

Zachary Roth | May 7, 2009, 9:08AM

Karl Rove's long-awaited testimony before Congress about the US Attorney firings will likely occur around early June, according to Rove's lawyer.

Robert Luskin told TPMmuckraker that the Obama White House has been painstakingly sorting through the documents related to the firings, and is providing them to Rove and to the House Judiciary committee simultaneously. It's that process, said Luskin, that's driving the scheduling of Rove's testimony. Luskin stressed that the discussions have been cordial on all sides.

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Defense Department

Lawmaker On Withdrawn IG Report: "The American People Have Been Misled"

Zachary Roth | May 6, 2009, 5:03PM

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) led the congressional charge against the Pentagon's use of retired military analysts to shill for the Iraq war on TV -- a program that was exposed in that Pulitzer-winning New York Times report.

Now the Pentagon Inspector General's office has withdrawn a report into the affair, which had largely exonerated the department, finding that it "did not meet accepted quality standards for an Inspector General work product." And DeLauro isn't mincing words about the news.

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Defense Department

UPDATED: Rumsfeld Ally Who Trashed Pulitzer-Winning Story Fires Back, Illogically, On Withdrawal Of IG Report

Zachary Roth | May 6, 2009, 3:33PM

The other day, two allies of Donald Rumsfeld spoke to US News, to trash the Pulitzer committee for awarding an investigative reporting prize to the New York Times' David Barstow, for his story on the Pentagon's use of retired military analysts to publicly cheerlead for the Iraq war.

"Does the Pulitzer give prizes for works of fiction? Perhaps they just got the wrong category," scoffed former Pentagon Assistant Secretary Dorrance Smith.

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Defense Department

Bush DOD Officials Mum On Using TV Military Analysts To Tout Admin Policies

Zachary Roth | May 6, 2009, 2:15PM

So, as the New York Times has reported, the Pentagon's Inspector General has taken the unusual step of withdrawing a report into the department's use of retired military analysts to tout Bush administration policies on network news shows.

The report, released just days before the Bushies left office in January, found that DOD didn't violate prohibitions on using public funds for propaganda, as part of a program that was exposed by David Barstow's Pulitzer-winning New York Times story.

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Jane Harman

Report: Top Gossling Pushed To Declassify Info To "Embarrass The Democrats"

Zachary Roth | May 6, 2009, 12:20PM

The other day we took a look at the modus operandi of the team of aides around Porter Goss. The Gosslings, as they were known to their many detractors, developed a reputation, both on the House intelligence committee and at the CIA, for partisan knife-fighting and a willingness to do the bidding of the Bush White House.

In recent days, there's been speculation -- though only speculation -- that the Gosslings may have been involved in the leak to CQ about Rep. Jane Harman's wiretapped conversation with a suspected Israeli agent.

But there was one interesting story we missed in that roundup. In November 2004, Newsweek reported on the clash between top Gossling Patrick Murray, and Steve Kappes, a high-ranking CIA official, which led to Kappes's resignation. We've noted that incident before, of course, but the Newsweek story had a particularly interesting passage about the way that Murray -- who was Goss's chief of staff at CIA -- operated while he was a top Goss staffer on the committee.

Reported the magazine:

"He was just impossible," says one staffer who dealt with him. "He was sarcastic, snide and had this uncanny ability to push people's buttons." One former CIA official told NEWSWEEK that Murray leaned on him more than once to declassify information so he could use it to "embarrass the Democrats." Murray was irritated when the agency declined. He regarded much of the CIA as a nest of obstructionist bureaucrats, time-servers who had schemed to undermine the administration's policies--especially in Iraq.

Again, it's worth repeating that there's no solid evidence that Murray, or any of the other Gosslings, were behind the leak. But at the very least, the Newsweek story offers additional evidence of just what kind of political hardball the Gosslings were capable of playing.

Philip Zelikow

Zelikow: I Think Cheney Tried To Destroy My Torture Memo

Zachary Roth | May 6, 2009, 12:01PM

Mother Jones has advanced the story of an alleged bid by the Bushies to destroy a memo, written by a top state department lawyer, that offered an alternative view on the legality of torture.

Last month, as we noted, Philip Zelikow, a top lawyer for Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, wrote that the Bush White House "attempted to collect and destroy all copies" of the memo. But he hadn't said who at the White House he suspected of being behind that effort.

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Torture

WaPo: Bushies Lobbying To Water Down Torture Report

Zachary Roth | May 5, 2009, 4:47PM

It looks like the Bushies are going all in to limit the damage from those torture memos.

The Washington Post reports that former Bush administration officials have launched a "behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign," designed to pressure DOJ to soften its forthcoming ethics report into the lawyers who approved torture.

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AIG

Ashcroft Made Millions As Corporate Monitor, Sees Dire Need For More Corporate Monitoring

Zachary Roth | May 5, 2009, 3:19PM

You can say one thing for John Ashcroft: he's not short on chutzpah.

In an op-ed in today's New York Times, the former attorney general points out a thorny problem that the Justice Department may face as a result of the financial crisis: if there's evidence that a company that has received significant amounts of bailout money committed fraud or other financial crimes, how do the Feds prosecute that company, while still protecting the health of the company on behalf of taxpayers?

The answer, according to Ashcroft: deferred prosecution agreements.

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AIPAC

Parsing Goss's Role In The Harman Story

Zachary Roth | May 5, 2009, 12:37PM

It's worth trying to clear up some of the confusion on a key point that came out of yesterday's post.

We wrote that, after reading the transcript of Jane Harman's wiretapped conversation with the suspected Israeli agent, then-CIA director Porter Goss signed off on the Justice Department's application for a FISA warrant to wiretap Harman herself.

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Allen Stanford

Viva Las Vegas: Stanford Spent A Quarter Million At The Bellagio -- After Asset Freeze, Say Feds

Zachary Roth | May 5, 2009, 11:09AM

It looks like Allen Stanford just couldn't quit his high-living ways -- even when the chips, so to speak, were down.

The Financial Times has a great find in the court filings made by the SEC in Stanford's case:

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AIPAC

Secrecy Expert: Harman Leakers Likely Committed Felony

Zachary Roth | May 4, 2009, 6:08PM

Did the people -- whoever they may be -- who leaked details about Rep. Jane Harman's wiretapped conversation with a suspected Israeli agent, break the law?

The law quite clearly prohibits the unauthorized disclosure of classified information "concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government." And Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy, confirmed to TPMmuckraker: "It seems crystal clear that if this was a FISA wiretap," as appears to be the case, "then whoever disclosed it committed a felony."

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Hillary Clinton

Congress Seeking Zelikow's "Alternative" Torture Memo

Zachary Roth | May 4, 2009, 2:01PM

Congress has asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for a 2005 memo written by a top State Department lawyer, which is said to have taken an alternative view on the legality of torture to that famously offered by DOJ lawyers.

In a letter to Clinton, Reps John Conyers and Howard Berman, who chair, respectively, the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees wrote that the memo "may shed important light on the process by which these interrogation practices were evaluated, approved, ad implemented by the former Administration." Reps Jerry Nadler and Bill Delahunt, who chair subcommittees of Judiciary and Foreign Affairs, respectively, also signed on.

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AIPAC

Harman To AIPAC: I'm A "Warrior On Behalf Of Our Constitution"

Zachary Roth | May 4, 2009, 9:20AM

Jane Harman isn't backing off her call to have information about her wiretapped conversation with a suspected Israeli agent released publicly.

In fact, in a speech to AIPAC's annual policy convention, Harman doubled down on that demand. "I want it all out there. I want it in public. I want everyone to understand, including me, what has happened," she said, according to the Washington Post.

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