Posted on 05/13/2009 10:17:02 AM PDT by jazusamo
Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), an influential Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has threatened to call House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) before the Senate investigation of abusive interrogation techniques used during the Bush administration.
“I don’t want to retry Nancy Pelosi, that’s not my goal but if you’re going to accuse these people in the Bush administration of being evil and committing a crime, then if she was told about [interrogation tactics] I want to know what she was told,” Graham said during a break in a hearing on Bush-era interrogation practices.
Graham spoke to reporters during a Judiciary subcommittee hearing entitled “What Went Wrong: Torture and the Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush Administration.” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts, convened the hearing.
Liberals have pressed for Democrats to move forward on an inquiry on whether Bush officials violated domestic and international law by torturing terrorist suspects.
Democratic leaders have resisted the rush to investigate, however, amidst questions of whether Democratic leaders such as Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) were briefed and acquiesced to such techniques.
Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), another leading Republican on the issue of torture, has said that Pelosi should have objected to interrogation practices when briefed on them when she served as member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence.
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a former member of the Intelligence Committee who sits on Judiciary, appeared briefly to remind colleagues that lawmakers have few options to discuss or oppose policies they learn of during classified intelligence briefings.
Durbin said that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the former chairman and vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, believed he had little recourse to oppose the Bush administration practice of conducting warrantless surveillance. Rockefeller authored a hand-written memo stating his opposition to the practice, but the note did not become public until much later.
Pelosi received a briefing on interrogation by CIA officials when she served as ranking Democrat on the Intelligence panel in 2002 but she has asserted that she was never told that waterboarding and other harsh practices were used, only that intelligence officials thought them legal.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, however, has since released information calling Pelosi’s assertion into question. A DNI chart released earlier this month asserting that Pelosi received a briefing in September of 2002 where she was given a description of interrogation methods used on a suspected terrorist prisoner.
Pelosi has claimed a different recollection of the briefing.
“Trying to understand what she was told is almost impossible, her story changes almost every day,” said Graham.
Whitehouse said Wednesday’s session was the first of what he hoped would be several Judiciary hearings on torture. Those other sessions have yet to be scheduled.
Not until he actually does call her instead of blustering for the camera’s. Talk is cheap.
Pelosi's gone from saying (1) she was never briefed about waterboarding, to saying (2) she was briefed about it’s possible use as a future technique, to saying now, (3) she knew it was happening but chose not to protest....
So Nancy, when you and the stupid Dems gonna start the lawsuits? We all can't wait to hear the testimony.
Watta figging liar......lying and lying, figuring national security briefings could not be released.
Thank God the rug was pulled out from under her lying carcass. I would imagine that's also why Obama reluctantly released pics from the flyover stunt AFTER the WH coverup (when he asserted he would not).
Has it been stated ever that he is gay? Just curious...
This morning she lept to the microphone to praise and praise and praise Obama.. clearly she is trying to save her skin right now — and not that successfully, all the press statements released the last couple of days are from Hoyers office instead of Pelosi.
It’s TIME TO FIGHT!
We want an investigation. Not a threat or compromise.
JUST DO IT! If Graham wants to be a hero, he can do it.
We paid for some nads...now show them!
I heard her. Rush likened her performance to a hard sucking of the microphone.
LOL He was right, she was caressing it for all it was worth. Drooling over it. Just sickening but not surprising.
He should ask her if being aborted would be a form of torture and see what she says.
Great thought, I’d pay money to be there and see the look on her face.
did you see the Jon Stewart roast of Pelosi and all her different positions on waterboarding? Diane Feinstein came out to support Pelosi and pretty much gave good reasons why no one should have to answer for it.
Diane Feinstein always has reasons and none good.
And I wouldn’t watch Jon Stewart if they paid me.
IF you area democrat and Stewart is trashing you I think there is a pretty good case to be made she is in big trouble in her own party. I don’t watch his show, the video is on HotAir.
I guess it didn’t occur to anyone the Obama people are behind this attack on Pelosi. A little more heat and she will have to knuckle under, lower her head and kiss his ring. It shouldn’t be long now. Straight out of the dictatorship manual.
You can just see the focus meeting. Rahm Emmanuel reminding everyone the “knuckle draggers” will be more than happy to jump Pelosi for them. After all, she was too powerful for Obama to be comfortable with.
Could THIS be the real reason why alleged president Marxist Obama will not be showing interrogation images?
.
(yawn) All talk, no action.
“They went along because it was getting results and saving lives.”
My arse, could it have had anything to do with GWB’s and his administration’s sky high approval ratings? They had polls (including Rummy, Cheney, Rice) in the 70% to 80% range in 2002? That female rat and her gang knew the only way to take the administration down, thus the Republicans, was to lay low, create innudeno and lie.
“Enough with the threats.....JUST DO IT!”
Exactly! Sen. Graham, shut up about it, stop with threats, grab the bi#ch by the neck and drag her in.
“Could THIS be the real reason why alleged president Marxist Obama will not be showing interrogation images?”
I also suspected as much. It couldn’t be because of a pro-American motive.
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