Pelosi and CIA Clash Over Contents of Key Briefing
Speaker Claims Intelligence Officials Failed to Reveal Waterboarding Was Used; Spy Agency Denies Misleading CongressArticle Video Comments (348) -
check out these comments! I'm enjoying this!http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124231488742119859.html#mod%3Darticle-outset-box%26articleTabs%3DarticleBy NAFTALI BENDAVID and SIOBHAN GORMAN
WASHINGTON -- The top congressional Democrat on Thursday accused the Central Intelligence Agency of deceiving her about the use of harsh interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists.
The accusation pits House Speaker Nancy Pelosi against the CIA in a war of words over whether she was specifically told in September 2002 that waterboarding was being used on detainees. Republicans accuse her of being hypocritical for criticizing Bush-era interrogation techniques, and say she should have spoken out against them when she was first briefed if she opposed their use.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is making an explosive charge against the Central Intelligence Agency. She's responding to accusations that she was fully briefed on harsh interrogation technniques like waterboarding. Video courtesy of Fox News.
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Pelosi Says She Was Misled about Waterboarding At a contentious news conference Thursday, Mrs. Pelosi said that during the 2002 briefing, "we were told that waterboarding was not being used." Mrs. Pelosi acknowledged that as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, she was briefed on Sept. 4, 2002, about waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning that critics, including President Barack Obama, call torture. But she said CIA officials told her and other lawmakers only that the Justice Department had concluded the procedure was legal.
A CIA report released last week said that at the briefing, officials described the use of interrogation techniques on terrorism suspect Abu Zubaydah, who had been waterboarded 83 times the month before.
Mrs. Pelosi's accusations Thursday drew a curt reply from the CIA and more attacks from Republicans, who have become increasingly vocal in attacking Mrs. Pelosi on the issue in recent days.
"It is not the policy of this Agency to mislead the United States Congress," CIA spokesman George Little said. CIA officials on Thursday stood by their description of the briefing. CIA Director Leon Panetta has said it would be up to Congress to determine whether notes made by agency personnel at the time they briefed lawmakers were accurate.
Both Mrs. Pelosi and Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the intelligence committee, have asked for the summary of the 2002 briefing to be declassified.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) told reporters, "When you look at the number of briefings that the Speaker was in, and other Democrat members of the House and Senate, it's pretty clear that they were well aware of what these enhanced interrogation techniques were. They were well aware that they had been used. And it seems to me that they want to have it both ways."
She is a liar and incompetent like the rest of them!