CIA Says Pelosi Was Briefed on torture

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
CIA Says Pelosi Was Briefed on torture
17
Fri, 05-08-2009 - 12:26am

It looks to me like a number of prominent Democrats starting with Ms. Pelosi will have to go on trial for torture. I wonder, dare we ask, "What did Barack know, and when did he know it?"

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2009/05/cia_says_pelosi_was_briefed_on.html

CIA Says Pelosi Was Briefed on Use of 'Enhanced Interrogations'

Intelligence officials released documents this evening saying that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was briefed in September 2002 about the use of harsh interrogation tactics against al-Qaeda prisoners, seemingly contradicting her repeated statements over the past 18 months that she was never told that these techniques were actually being used.

In a 10-page memo outlining an almost seven-year history of classified briefings, intelligence officials said that Pelosi and then-Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.) were the first two members of Congress ever briefed on the interrogation tactics. Then the ranking member and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, respectively, Pelosi and Goss were briefed Sept. 4, 2002, one week before the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The memo, issued by the Director of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency to Capitol Hill, notes the Pelosi-Goss briefing covered "EITs including the use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah." EIT is an acronym for enhanced interrogation technique. Zubaydah was one of the earliest valuable al-Qaeda members captured and the first to have the controversial tactic known as water boarding used against him.

The issue of what Pelosi knew and when she knew it has become a matter of heated debate on Capitol Hill. Republicans have accused her of knowing for many years precisely the techniques CIA agents were using in interrogations, and only protesting the tactics when they became public and liberal antiwar activists protested.

In a carefully worded statement, Pelosi's office said today that she had never been briefed about the use of waterboarding, only that it had been approved by Bush administration lawyers as a legal technique to use in interrogations.

"As this document shows, the Speaker was briefed only once, in September 2002. The briefers described these techniques, said they were legal, but said that waterboarding had not yet been used," said Brendan Daly, Pelosi's spokesman.

Pelosi's statement did not address whether she was informed that other harsh techniques were already in use during the Zubaydah interrogations.

In December 2007 the Washington Post reported that leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees had been briefed in the fall of 2002 about waterboarding -- which simulates drowning -- and other techniques, and that no congressional leaders protested its use. At the time Pelosi said she was not told that waterboarding was being used, a position she stood by repeatedly last month when the Bush-era Justice Department legal documents justifying the interrogation tactics were released by Attorney General Eric Holder.

The new memo shows that intelligence officials were willing to share the information about waterboarding with only a sharply closed group of people. Three years after the initial Pelosi-Goss briefing, Bush officials still limited interrogation technique briefings to just the chairman and ranking member of the House and Senate intelligence committees, the so-called Gang of Four in the intelligence world.

In October 2005, CIA officials began briefing other congressional leaders with oversight of the intelligence community, including top appropriators who provided the agency its annual funding. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam and an opponent of torture techniques, was also read into the program at that time even though he did not hold a special committee position overseeing the intelligence community.

A bipartisan collection of lawmakers have criticized the practice of limiting information to just the "Gang of Four", who were expressly forbidden from talking about the information from other colleagues, including fellow members of the intelligence committees. Pelosi and others are considering reforms that would assure a more open process for all committee members.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-11-2009
Fri, 05-08-2009 - 1:20am

I

 

Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Fri, 05-08-2009 - 6:50am
Torture? How did Pelosi know of torture when according to the Bush regime, there was no torture, only legal acts?





Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Fri, 05-08-2009 - 7:47am
I agree. If she knew about it (and everyone in Congress regardless of party), there needs to be repercussion, feigned outrage aside. It's one reason I couldn't jump on the Hilary Clinton bandwagon when she ran for president--she voted for the Iraq war and could never explain it.










iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
Fri, 05-08-2009 - 8:29am

Democrats seem to think enhanced interrogation is torture. Of course the immolation of women and children at Waco is somehow omitted from the Democratic concerns about torture. If we apply the same standard then Clinton, Reno and others should be tried for torture.

As Democrats consider enhanced interrogation torture, it only makes sense that they are investigated for enabling torture when they knew about it.

Republicans don't think enhanced interrogation is torture. It would probably be a good idea to put those who won't raise any question about enhanced interrogation being torture, before we try those who don't believe it is torture. This would help set a precedent.

Once we get the Democratic leadership locked up, we can take a look at the Republican leadership. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a bunch of them out of office one way or another.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 05-08-2009 - 10:14am

Let me get this right Pelosi guilty as he!! but Cheney, Bush & lawyers advising them innocent. Is that correct?


CIA docs unclear on Pelosi interrogation briefings


Complete article at link......
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5joaYLF9U3fVnq2__seV04UfefEUAD981QBEG0


CIA records show House 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 one prisoner by then.



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


Pelosi is only mentioned in the first briefing, on Sept. 4, 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.


But the CIA chart does not specifically mention the use of waterboarding at that briefing.

bird-1.jpg New picture by 1944misty

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-20-2009
Fri, 05-08-2009 - 10:50am
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Fri, 05-08-2009 - 12:14pm
Torture was intentional. Waco was not.





iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
Fri, 05-08-2009 - 12:42pm

Pelosi says she knew it is torture, Bush and Cheney believe it is enhanced interrogation.

We should let a court decide. However, Pelosi (maybe Obama too) at least won't bring up the 'it wasn't torture" defense. Prosecution of Democrats who claim to knowingly support crimes against humanity should be easy. Shouldn't it?

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
Fri, 05-08-2009 - 12:45pm

You make my point, thanks! Republicans claim torture was not their intent. Democrats claim it was their intent, the CIA says both Republicans and Democrats knew about it.

The first to go should be those who knowingly allowed torture or who passively supported or enabled it. This would be Democrats. Later, we can try Republicans and see if the "torture wasn't out intent" defense works. At least with Democrats we have them knowingly supporting torture. It should be a slam dunk of a trial. Then we can look at Republicans. :)

Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Fri, 05-08-2009 - 12:56pm
Oh, thanks, it's the stupidity defense!





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