Robert Scheer: Pelosi The Enabler

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



Pelosi The Enabler
Posted on May 12, 2009

By Robert Scheer


Nancy Pelosi is no Dick Cheney, nor a George W. Bush. She was neither the author of a systematic policy of torture nor has she been, like Cheney and most top Republicans in Congress, an enduring apologist for its practice. It is a nonsensical distraction to place her failure to speak out courageously as a critic of the Bush policies on the same level as those who engineered one of the most shameful debacles in U.S. history.

But what she, and anyone else who went along with this evil, as lackadaisically as she now claims, should be confronted with are the serious implications of their passive acquiescence. Why did she not speak up, or if it were a matter of a lack of reliable information, demand an accounting from the executive branch, as befits a leader of the loyal opposition in Congress?

If the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and later House Democratic leader, lacked the authority to publicly question a policy of torture, then how can we condemn, indeed imprison, ordinary soldiers who thought it their duty to follow orders?

Even though Abu Zubaydah had been waterboarded 83 times before the September 2002 briefing of Pelosi, she now claims she was told only that the practice might be used and that it had been approved by the Bush Justice Department as legal. Wasn’t that approval in itself sufficiently alarming to justify a strong and public dissent? Certainly that would have been the appropriate response when Pelosi aide Michael Sheehy, along with Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., were informed by the CIA in no uncertain terms five months later that Zubaydah had been subjected to specific “enhanced” methods including waterboarding. Pelosi admits to possessing that information, but according to one of her aides quoted in Politico, after Harman’s letter questioning the practice received “no response” from the CIA, “there was nothing more that could be done.” .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090513_pelosi_the_enabler/

[ixion]

Nancy, much like the MSM, ignore war crimes and instead

talk about "moving forward."

The truth is that we're moving backward at a spectacular speed. And it wouldn't have been possible without a compliant media and "opposition."

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Ah, the Triumph of Psychobabble!

Enablers require a co-dependent.

Since none of us know all about what is going on, I'm going to assume that at least half of the crap is the fault of the GOP.

Nancy isn't off the hook by any means, but I'm going to go out on a limb and blame the Republicans for the bulk of it.

--d!

[bertman]

2. "Why did she not speak up, or if it were a matter of a lack of reliable information, demand

an accounting from the executive branch, as befits a leader of the loyal opposition in Congress?"

This is the obvious question that never gets asked by the corporate media. The obvious answer to that question being that Pelosi, just like most of the other Congressional Democrats, has been bought by the corporations who control our government. Anyone remember the picture of her and Harry Reid smiling like Cheshire cats with Hank Paulson after the first installment of the Financial Failure Reward was given to Wall Street? That was the bailout that 90% of Americans were opposed to.

Representatives of Big Business, not the American people.

[Baby Snooks]

4. The Empress...

She sat there listening to the Emperor play the fiddle. Entranced. While Rome burned.

[frylock]

3. k & r

kickeroo