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Pelosi denies being informed about waterboarding
Los Angeles Times ^ | 10:14 AM PDT, May 14, 2009 | Michael Muskal

Posted on 05/14/2009 11:29:30 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach

The House speaker says the Bush administration deliberately misled Congress. GOP says Democrats were told.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has become a lightning rod for GOP criticism on the issue of enhanced interrogation of terror suspects, denied today that she was told waterboarding was used on detainees and insisted that the Bush administration had deliberately misled lawmakers.

In a televised news conference, Pelosi accused the CIA of misrepresenting what was going on with the questioning of terrorism suspects when intelligence officials briefed legislators on the Intelligence Committee in 2002. At the time, Pelosi was the ranking Democrat.


"We were told that they had legal opinions that it was legal and were not told about other legal opinions to the contrary," Pelosi said of the briefings. "We were told specifically that waterboarding was not being used."

Pelosi said she learned later from other members of Congress about the CIA use of waterboarding. "I wasn't briefed. I was informed that somebody else had been briefed about it," she said.

The issue of who knew what about the use of enhanced interrogation techniques has become a political firestorm. Republicans, led in recent days by former Vice President Dick Cheney, have generally backed the use of "enhanced" interrogation methods on terrorist suspects.

When Democrats complained and called for investigations that could lead to criminal charges against top Bush administration officials, Republicans have countered that the techniques were approved by Democrats like Pelosi. In effect, Republicans have threatened to turn the issue into an attack on leading Democrats, implying that they too could face charges.


(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: cia; ciainterrogation; ciainterrogationmemo; pelosi; waterboarding
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
...[Squeaker] Pelosi accused the CIA of misrepresenting what was going on with the questioning of terrorism suspects ...

Does Squeaker Pelosi really expect to gain anything by potty-mouthing the Company?

.

21 posted on 05/14/2009 11:44:51 AM PDT by Seaplaner (Never give in. Never give in. Never...except to convictions of honour and good sense. W. Churchill)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

..and if you disagree or criticize her, then you sir hate Women and minorities....and that makes you worse than Hitler.


22 posted on 05/14/2009 11:45:11 AM PDT by lormand ("Janet Napolitano should resign or be fired." - Congressman John Carter - My Congresscritter)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Pelosi just keeps digging and the hole is already more than deep enough for her grave.


23 posted on 05/14/2009 11:46:01 AM PDT by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: RooRoobird20

“I hope this is a political hit job.”

If it’s a hit from Obama, I wonder who he has in mind to replace Nancy? It won’t be a capitalist, a centrist, a reasonable person, or someone an inch to the right of Obama, that’s for sure.

If she’s not “doing the job” I must wonder what exactly that job is?


24 posted on 05/14/2009 11:46:53 AM PDT by DBrow
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To: All
From the guardian (UK):

CIA documents spark row over what US politicians knew about waterboarding

*****************************EXCERPT*********************************

Friday 8 May 2009 12.52 BST

CIA records show Democratic House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed in September 2002 on harsh interrogation techniques being used on terrorist suspects, but the records do little to settle a dispute over whether she knew waterboarding had already been used against a prisoner by then.

The release in April of once-classified details about harsh Bush-era interrogation techniques, which President Barack Obama last week called "torture", has caused recriminations among congressional and Bush administration leaders who knew about the programme.

Pelosi waded into that debate when she told reporters in April this year that in 2002 she had been briefed on the authorised techniques but was not told that waterboarding had already been used on a prisoner. Waterboarding, which simulates drowning, is the most severe of the 10 techniques approved by the Bush White House. There is no record that Pelosi objected to the use of the techniques.

The CIA on Wednesday sent the House and Senate intelligence committees a chart describing the 40 congressional briefings at which the interrogation programme was discussed, describing who was briefed, on what date and on what subjects.

Pelosi is mentioned only in the first briefing, on 4 September 2002. The chart, drawn from the CIA briefers' memories and meeting notes, says the meeting described the interrogation techniques that had been used on alleged terrorist Abu Zubaydah.

25 posted on 05/14/2009 11:47:44 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
"Pelosi said she learned later from other members of Congress about the CIA use of waterboarding. "I wasn't briefed. I was informed that somebody else had been briefed about it," she said."

No doubt this onset of dementia is the first signs Dear Speaker is suffering from A.B.B. (Advanced Botox Brain)

26 posted on 05/14/2009 11:48:02 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg (will work for bailout bonus.... Twitter: maddawggmorgan)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

I wonder if Bathtub Boy is going to call on her to “RESIGN”!


27 posted on 05/14/2009 11:48:28 AM PDT by cartervt2k
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

I wonder if it is possible she was fully briefed on the “enhanced interrogation techniques”, but that they never actually used the term “waterboarding” in the part of the briefing where she was told that the EITs were being used, even though water boarding is one of the EITs we used.

Waterboarding wasn’t the worst of the offenses the Democrats have charged, so it seems odd that she specifically says “well, I wasn’t told that WATER BOARDING was used”.

Of course, since she already has been caught dead-to-rights in two lies (first saying she didn’t know we had approved any EITs, then after that was proven false she said she thought it was theoretical and she was never told we had USED any EITs, and then we found that she had been briefed on use of EITs), I don’t know that sticking to a contorted version of the truth is a concern of hers.

I think she knows that if she keeps changing her story, eventually the press will be able to say her story holds up, and that will be that. The press certainly won’t hold her to any standard of factualness. And in fact if she eventually says the opposite of everything she previously said, the press will congratulate her for the new openness and criticize those who attack her for lying.


28 posted on 05/14/2009 11:51:02 AM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

How much longer will Republicans stand by and let this lying sack of crap get away with this.

Sick of lies , sick of that lying Obama and Pelosi and rahm Emmanuel. Sick of the whole stinking lot.


29 posted on 05/14/2009 11:51:23 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Also denies being told water is wet and the sun rises in the east ....


30 posted on 05/14/2009 11:52:21 AM PDT by SkyDancer ('Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not..' ~ Thomas Jefferson)
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To: Burkean
I thought she said yesterday that she WAS told but that she didn’t feel it was her place to interfere at that time.

That is accurate but today her "truth-full statement of yesterday" is no longer operative and a "new truth-full statement" is operational until revised for a greater truth in the near future if necessary. However, the non-operational truth may also become a revised and new new operational truth if circumstances warrant a change in the facts.

We have always been at war with Oceania. Old history, New History, Old Truth, New truth, New Speak, Double speak.

George Orwell must be laughing his ass off from the grave.

31 posted on 05/14/2009 11:53:29 AM PDT by cpdiii (roughneck, oilfield trash and proud of it, geologist, pilot, pharmacist, iconoclast.)
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To: Grampa Dave
Maybe so....Hoyer is not standing in the way of the freight train coming down on her....although she is still calling for a Truth commission....Harry Reid opposes it...according to the detail.

And Obama started this with the (selective release of info )...

32 posted on 05/14/2009 11:53:52 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Keep talking, Nancy. Be sure to hand out copies of your “statement.”
33 posted on 05/14/2009 11:58:45 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
It wasn't Pelosi's fault!

When she asked if the techniques were going far enough, she thought they were talking about a demonstration for the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco. (She attends EVERY year.)

For samples of what she (or anyone else) sees there click below. Makes waterboarding seem like clean fun. (For adult viewing only.)

Folsom-1

Folsom-2

34 posted on 05/14/2009 12:01:21 PM PDT by drpix
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To: wrrock; All
Related :

Pelosi Video: In her own 2002 words, she exposes her waterboarding lie

35 posted on 05/14/2009 12:03:11 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Squirming on her belly like a reptile, the lying Pelosi is the very essence of malignancy.


36 posted on 05/14/2009 12:03:29 PM PDT by luvbach1 (Worse than we could have imagined.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Squirming on her belly like a reptile, the lying Pelosi is the very essence of malignancy.


37 posted on 05/14/2009 12:04:31 PM PDT by luvbach1 (Worse than we could have imagined.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

This is the story of Pelosi and the tar bsby.


38 posted on 05/14/2009 12:06:20 PM PDT by luvbach1 (Worse than we could have imagined.)
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To: All; kellynla
Looking thru the Pelosi keyword list....came across this:

EDITORIAL: Pelosi's Amnesia ( Either that or she slept through CIA briefings )

***************************************EXCERPT INTRO*******************************

Las Vegas Review-Journal ^ | May. 09, 2009 | staff

Posted on Sun 10 May 2009 05:58:39 AM PDT by kellynla

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been a leading critic of the Bush administration for authorizing the "torture" (waterboarding) of three captured al-Qaida leaders, despite the fact that former Vice President Dick Cheney says the interrogation methods yielded valuable information from men who had not previously been forthcoming, leading the terrorists to spill the beans on planned attacks that could have killed thousands more Americans.

Now it appears Ms. Pelosi knew all about the methods being used, and raised not a peep of objection. Unless she wants to argue she was dozing during CIA briefings.

Congressional leaders were briefed dozens of times on the CIA's use of severe interrogation methods on al-Qaida suspects, according to new information released by the Obama administration Thursday.

A chart compiled by the CIA shows that Ms. Pelosi, D-Calif., was briefed on Sept. 4, 2002, on the agency's interrogation of alleged al-Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah, and that the session covered "the particular (enhanced interrogation techniques) that had been employed."

As recently as a week ago, Ms. Pelosi contended, "We were not -- I repeat were not -- told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used."

Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Ms. Pelosi, said Thursday that "the briefers described these techniques, said they were legal, but said that waterboarding had not been used."

39 posted on 05/14/2009 12:10:22 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
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To: luvbach1

hahahaha please...Please....PLEASE continue to make enemies at the CIA Nancy!!!!!!!!! Since the sodomites in your district are too ignorant to remove you from office, the CIA most assuredly will. Enjoy that plane ride into the side of a mountain your shriveled up old prune!!


40 posted on 05/14/2009 12:11:33 PM PDT by XD45
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