Posted on 05/15/2009 1:33:52 AM PDT by Schnucki
If there is an independent truth commission into the use of alleged torture, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, could find herself in the dock.
After a series of incomplete, belated and apparently contradictory Pelosi accounts of CIA briefings to her and her staff, the big question in Washington today is: What did she know about waterboarding and when did she know it? Former Bush consigliere Karl Rove lays out the charges against her here.
Fighting fire with fire today, Pelosi accused the CIA of lying to Congress as a diversionary tactic to cover up lies about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. The CIA deliberately misleading Congress? That's a federal crime, raising the spectre of another Iran-Contra type affair.
According to the CIA, she was briefed about the Enhanced Interrogation Technique (EIT) on September 4th 2002 along with Porter Goss, then Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. At the time, she was the senior Democrat on the committee.
But the Speaker vehemently denied this at today's tense press conference, accusing the spy agency of 1. lying to her then by saying that water-boarding was not been used and 2. lying now by saying that she was told that detainees were being water-boarded.
She then went for broke by linking the CIA's alleged lie to her in 2002 to a broader cover-up about WMD. "This is exactly the same time, September of 2002...the Bush administration was misleading the American people about the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," she said.
Her most incendiary words were these:
Q: Did you protest that directly to them [the CIA], Madame Speaker?
PELOSI: "They mislead us all the time. I was fighting the war in Iraq at that point too, you know, saying to my members, the intelligence does
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
I’m just whistling in the wind here, but I don’t think it impossible that Pelosi will end up having to step down as Speaker by year’s end.
All partisanship aside, I don’t think she’s particularly smart or clever, and I also think the CIA has got their I’s dotted and T’s crossed when it comes to documentation. Bill Clinton might be able to wiggle out of the snare, but I don’t see Pelosi coming out of this anyway but with major political damage. Enough damage that her rivals in the party might openly challenge her (Speaker Steny Hoyer, perhaps?).
Anyway, just some early morning speculation while I’m waiting for my oatmeal to finish cooking.
She is certainly pushing the envelope of the near total Democrap immunity to anything. I thought maybe she would slime her way out of this but now I doubt it
B-b-but, I thought Nancy’s handlers told her that if she just got away for awhile - - to Iraq, say - - the whole “caught in a lie” thing would go away by the time she got back?
She needs to step down. Pronto. She is simply unfit for the position and the responsibility as she has openly demonstrated she is capable of bearing none.
Also, it's kind of interesting that she's put Obama into this situation. Who does he side with? Nancy and her "legion" of commie-loving, tree-hugging left-wing extremist moonbats or the CIA?
You just know he's struggling with this one.
My guess is that the big ol' bus is headed for Pelosi...
Entirely possible. Pelosi was riding the euphoria of Democrat control of both houses and the executive (branch). As Grampa Tony would have said, "She got a little big for her britches."
I don't think the D party appreciates her shouting matches with the Senate Majority Leader, or trying to push the 0 on her agenda.
Losing her seat would be nice -- it would be too much to hope for to think that her "progressive" constituency might give her the boot next year as well.
Wow, there were several grammar, spelling errors. That is unusual for the Telegraph. Doesn’t mean it isn’t a great article, just unusual to see it.
This is my favorite quote from her little debacle:
PELOSI: “They mislead us all the time. I was fighting the war in Iraq at that point too, you know, saying to my members, the intelligence does....”
This part right here,
“I was fighting the war in Iraq at that point too,”
What an interesting choice of words.
We all know what Nancy knew and when she knew it. Getting her to admit it is another thing entirely.
She is caught in this lie and it’s her own people who caused her this problem.
What an interesting choice of words.
Shades of "I have a bracelet too."
Mr. niteowl77
I wonder if it would be immoral to waterboard Pelosi...
“She then went for broke by linking the CIA’s alleged lie to her in 2002 to a broader cover-up about WMD.”
So is she now saying that Bush didn’t lie abouit WMDs and that it was all the CIA or is she now saying that both Bush and the CIA lied?
She is an absolute dope.
“I have absolutely no regret about my vote against this war. The same questions remain. The cost in human lives, the cost to our budget, probably 100 billion. We could have probably brought down that statue for a lot less. “-Nancy Pelosi
This is so typical for a lefty. “The cost in human lives,”. Funny, but, I'm not clear on whose ‘human lives’ she's referring to. “Probably 100 billion.” Back then she made it sound like so much but, isn't that pocket change for ‘the one’ and his minions, such as herself? “We could have probably brought down that statue for a lot less”. Yes, and how much does photo shop cost?
Here's another Pelosi quote about the war.
“The president led us into the Iraq war on the basis of unproven assertions without evidence; he embraced a radical doctrine of pre-emptive war unprecedented in our history; and he failed to build a true international coalition.”-Nancy Pelosi
It's so hard to be a private citizen, that is fairly up on things as far as what's going on now and what it took to get this country, of which I'm proud, to the point it is today and listen to bile like this. (Extreme run-on sentence. Sorry.) The way I remember things, Saddam, his sons and his regime were pretty brutal on 80% of the population. That, in itself, was enough for me to take him out.
“failed to build a true international coalition”
Now, that really is a joke. How are you going to build a coalition, to do the right thing, with people that are in bed with Saddam under the table?
George J. Tenet 19972004 director of CIA.
Tenet was appointed by President Clinton and approved by Congress. Tenet became the CIA director in August of 1997.
So, Pelosi is now saying that George Tenet lied to her and ordered his congressional briefers to lie to Nancy.
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