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Pelosi: I didn't know about waterboarding
The Politico ^

Posted on 04/23/2009 1:50:30 PM PDT by Sub-Driver

Pelosi: I didn't know about waterboarding

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing back on GOP charges that she knew about waterboarding for years and did nothing.

Pelosi says she was briefed by Bush administration officials on the legal justification for using waterboarding — but that they never followed through on promises to inform her when they actually began using "enhanced" interrogation techniques

"In that or any other briefing…we were not, and I repeat, we're not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used. What they did tell us is that they had some legislative counsel ... opinions that they could be used," she told reporters today.

Earlier, House Minority Leader John Boehner (D-Ohio) criticized Pelosi and other Democratic leaders for backing probes into the use of waterboarding — after failing to raise objections during briefings on its potential use.

"Well, yesterday I saw a partial list of the number of members of the House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans, who were briefed on these interrogation methods and not a word was raised at the time, not one word," Boehner told reporters at his weekly news availability.

"And I think you're going to hear more and more about the bigger picture here, that what — the war on terror after 9/11 was done in a bipartisan basis on lots of fronts. And that bigger story will be coming out," he added.

Pelosi says members who receive classified intelligence briefings are powerless to act on them — or even discuss them with staff.

As a consequence, some members simply skip the meetings, so they aren't "hamstrung" by confidentiality requirements.


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: cia; democrats; pelosi; pelosiknew; pelosiwaterboarding; torture; wot
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To: pierrem15
So she knew beforehand, but now tries to obfuscate by claiming she wasn't told when they started using them?

Pelosi is certifiably a soul-less creature. The totality of her substance is megalomania and an unrelenting thirst for power and control. Father Malachi Martin spoke of "perfectly possessed" individuals. I think she qualifies.

141 posted on 04/23/2009 4:12:49 PM PDT by NoPrisoners ("When in the course of human events...")
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To: Sub-Driver

that’s ganna come back to bite her


142 posted on 04/23/2009 4:21:11 PM PDT by txroadkill (Tax Day Tea Parties 4/15/09 - - The day we won one for the Gipper.)
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To: magslinger

I suspect a microscope will be somehow involved on the procedure.


143 posted on 04/23/2009 4:26:22 PM PDT by Moose Burger
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To: Shady

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0409/Pelosi_briefed_on_waterboarding_in_02_.html

Pelosi briefed on waterboarding in ‘02


144 posted on 04/23/2009 4:28:05 PM PDT by Crawdad (If you're in a fair fight, your tactics suck.)
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To: Sub-Driver

Someone is missing something here. She admitted to knowing that waterboarding had been “approved”. She just said she had not been briefed in WHEN it actually happened. WHY AREN’T PEOPLE JUMPING ON THIS??


145 posted on 04/23/2009 4:36:21 PM PDT by DrewsMum (www.williamsfortexas.com)
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To: Moose Burger
Despite being able to use a computer, I'm basically a low tech kinda guy.

Hand me the pliers, wouldya?

146 posted on 04/23/2009 4:39:40 PM PDT by magslinger (The first dog has papers but the President doesn't. How interesting!-cubsfanconswoman)
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To: Sub-Driver

Well, it would seem she was briefed on it. It is still possible that she didn’t know anything about it, in which case, this is proof positive that she’s dumb as a post and should resign from the Speakership for the good of the nation, the House, and even her own party.


147 posted on 04/23/2009 4:40:10 PM PDT by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
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To: SeafoodGumbo
Posting a condensed version of much on here...from the Blogosphere:

2007: Torture update: What did Nancy Pelosi know and when did she know it?

148 posted on 04/23/2009 4:40:40 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
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To: Sub-Driver

Let’s add it to the list of things she doesn’t know anything about...

• honesty
• integrity
• consistency
• the catechism
• humility
• confession
• repentance


149 posted on 04/23/2009 4:43:12 PM PDT by Albion Wilde ("Shouldn't there be equal time for our Bill of Responsibilities?" -- Justice Clarence Thomas)
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To: Sub-Driver

Confession Nancy Confession .


150 posted on 04/23/2009 4:44:16 PM PDT by fatima (Free Hugs Today :))
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To: TonyInOhio

I have far more respect for John Banner. He was a Viennese Jew who fled after the Anschluss and served in the US Army Air Corps. When he took up acting in the US- he didn’t speak English. He learned his lines phonetically, then learned English.

Overall a pretty decent human being. And, the president of the Schatze Toy Company, Gmbh. :-)


151 posted on 04/23/2009 4:46:08 PM PDT by Riley (The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.)
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To: Sub-Driver
See the spin? If she DID know, it's okay because that was closer to 9/11 than we are now. However, Bush administration officials should all go to jail - no matter what. Makes me want to puke!
152 posted on 04/23/2009 4:46:36 PM PDT by adlucem (NObama)
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Comment #153 Removed by Moderator

To: Bitsy

Pelosi sleep with her eyes open because they will not close because of all the BOTOX she has used.


154 posted on 04/23/2009 4:54:13 PM PDT by ducks1944 (GOD Bless the USA .)
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To: Sub-Driver
article from 2007. I think they believed because of this oath of secrecy, that their non objections would never be revealed. But then the CIA never dreamed classified memos would be released. Harman in the news this week in her own little debacle. Nice House Intel thugs. I believe Pelosi was the head of this little gang too.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/08/AR2007120801664.html?hpid=topnews

Hill Briefed on Waterboarding in 2002 In Meetings, Spy Panels' Chiefs Did Not Protest, Officials Say

Sunday, December 9, 2007

With one known exception, no formal objections were raised by the lawmakers briefed about the harsh methods during the two years in which waterboarding was employed, from 2002 to 2003, said Democrats and Republicans with direct knowledge of the matter. The lawmakers who held oversight roles during the period included Pelosi and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and Sens. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), as well as Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan).

Graham said he has no memory of ever being told about waterboarding or other harsh tactics. Graham left the Senate intelligence committee in January 2003, and was replaced by Rockefeller. "Personally, I was unaware of it, so I couldn't object," Graham said in an interview. He said he now believes the techniques constituted torture and were illegal.

Pelosi declined to comment directly on her reaction to the classified briefings. But a congressional source familiar with Pelosi's position on the matter said the California lawmaker did recall discussions about enhanced interrogation. The source said Pelosi recalls that techniques described by the CIA were still in the planning stage -- they had been designed and cleared with agency lawyers but not yet put in practice -- and acknowledged that Pelosi did not raise objections at the time.

Harman, who replaced Pelosi as the committee's top Democrat in January 2003, disclosed Friday that she filed a classified letter to the CIA in February of that year as an official protest about the interrogation program. Harman said she had been prevented from publicly discussing the letter or the CIA's program because of strict rules of secrecy.

"When you serve on intelligence committee you sign a second oath -- one of secrecy," she said. "I was briefed, but the information was closely held to just the Gang of Four. I was not free to disclose anything."

155 posted on 04/23/2009 4:54:33 PM PDT by OafOfOffice (Did You Ever Get The Feeling That The GOP Went Out For A Cigarette & Never Came Back?)
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To: sf4dubya

She’s lying through her botox!


156 posted on 04/23/2009 4:55:22 PM PDT by OafOfOffice (Did You Ever Get The Feeling That The GOP Went Out For A Cigarette & Never Came Back?)
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To: Sub-Driver

Booooosh**!


157 posted on 04/23/2009 4:58:57 PM PDT by headstamp 2 ("Government is a disease masquerading as it's own cure")
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To: Domandred

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/nancy-pelosi-on-waterboarding-in-october

video and transcript in 2007

WALLACE: It’s been disclosed this week that the Justice Department, after publicly declaring torture abhorrent in 2004, secretly, a few months later, approved the — in combination — the use of head slapping, water boarding and exposure to extreme temperatures.

The president now says that the leadership, the Congress, was fully informed, and that this is not torture.

First question: Were you ever briefed about this policy or the secret Justice Department memos?

PELOSI: Well, in order to know if I’m briefed about it, I’d have to be briefed about it now. What exactly is the president talking about? Yes, let me get my credentials right out there. I’m the longest-serving member of Congress on the intelligence committee, both on the committee and ex officio as a leader. So we have been briefed on some tactics used by the administration.

But I’d have to see what we’re talking about here, because this is — all I know is what I’ve read in the New York Times.

WALLACE: You were never briefed about these secret memos in 2005?

PELOSI: No, not about the secret memos.


158 posted on 04/23/2009 5:02:47 PM PDT by OafOfOffice (Did You Ever Get The Feeling That The GOP Went Out For A Cigarette & Never Came Back?)
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To: Shady

Rule of Thumb: If a democrat’s lips are moving, you know they’re lyin’.


159 posted on 04/23/2009 5:03:18 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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To: Sub-Driver

“I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout waterboardin’ no terr’rist.”


160 posted on 04/23/2009 5:04:26 PM PDT by behzinlea
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