This morning, House Speaker and Democrat Nancy Pelosi held a press conference offering the umpteenth version of whether or not she knew of enhanced interrogation techniques being used on Al Queda terror suspects. This latest account of the events, Bush and the CIA lied to her.
Let’s review her story so far.
Pelosi said last month that she was never told that the controversial interrogation methods were being used. But a national intelligence report later showed that she was briefed seven years ago on the tactics while she was on the House Intelligence Committee.
Her spokesman then said the speaker thought the techniques were legal and that waterboarding was not used.
Pelosi has insisted that she was not directly briefed by Bush administration officials that the practice was being actively employed.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly was told in February 2003 by her intelligence aide, Michael Sheehy, that waterboarding was used on CIA terror detainee Abu Zubaydah, directly contradicting Pelosi’s account that she had never been informed of the technique’s use.
According to a report, Sheehy attended a briefing with Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., in February 2003 and discussed the CIA’s use of waterboarding.
When the aide told Pelosi waterboarding had actually been used on the Al Qaeda terrorist, she didn’t object because she was not personally briefed on the matter, an unnamed source confirmed to CNN.
This goes on and on. Now, Pelosi says that the CIA was lying to her and the rest of Congress about the use of waterboarding.
From today’s press conference.
“Yes I am saying the CIA was misleading the Congress, and at the same time the (Bush) administration was misleading the Congress on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, to which I said that this intelligence doesn’t support the imminent threat,” Pelosi said at her weekly news conference.
“I am telling you they told me they approved these and said they wanted to use them but said they were not using waterboarding,” she said.
Ok, so let me get this straight… the CIA was lying to Nancy Pelosi, and said these techniques were not in fact being used. Of course, that doesn’t make any sense, as evidence released by the CIA, and testimony from Pelosi’s own aide and others who were at these briefings specifically contradicts her statement. But, then again, they all might be part of the same conspiracy to lie to Pelosi, right?
The CIA has responded, refuting Pelosi’s claims.
The CIA immediately disputed Pelosi’s accusation, saying the documents describing the particular enhanced interrogation techniques that had been employed are accurate. CIA spokesman George Little noted that CIA Director Leon Panetta made available to the House Intelligence Committee memos from individuals who led the briefings with House members.
“The language in the chart-A description of the particular EITs that had been employed is true to the language in the agency’s records,” Little said. “The chart I’m referring to is, of course, the list of member briefings on enhanced interrogation techniques.”
Republicans are also coming to the defense of the CIA.
“It’s hard for me to imagine anyone in our intelligence area would ever mislead a member of Congress,” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said at his weekly news conference. “They come to the Hill to brief us because they’re required to under the law. I don’t know what motivation they would have to mislead anyone.”
The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., told FOX News that Pelosi’s accusation against the CIA is “not credible.”
“I am afraid she has disremembered what she went through,” he said. “We have had not only the records from the CIA but the contemporaries who were there with her had other views on it, so I am afraid that this is not a credible explanation.”
So, Pelosi’s story continues to evolve, changing yet again and now moving to the Democrats favorite excuse – it’s the Bush Administration’s fault. The CIA can’t be happy that the third person in line to be President and Commander in Chief, their boss, is calling them out as being liars. Pelosi, of course, now want’s a “Truth Commission” to root out the evil of the Bush Administration in this case and others. She best be careful, because the deeper people dig on this story, the more it looks like Pelosi and other Democrats were accomplices to the very “torture” they promised to end in last year’s election.
TNL