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.
Secularists at work folks.
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