Holding Pelosi Accountable For Torture

[Beacool]

22 Apr 2009 07:59 am

The speaker was briefed on waterboarding and other torture techniques used by the White House. She was part of the select group of congressmen and women told of the program. She did nothing to stop it and now claims she was never told it was going to be used. Porter Goss has a different recollection:


“We were briefed, and we certainly understood what C.I.A. was doing,” Mr. Goss said in an interview. “Not only was there no objection, there was actually concern about whether the agency was doing enough.”

For what it's worth, I believe Goss. Getting to the bottom of how the US became a torturing nation is not about one party or another. It's about getting accountability from all those who made it happen.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/04/holding-pelosi-accountable-for-torture.html

[Captain Hilts]

1. It's not for her to decide. She was told something in confidence. nt

[Beacool]

2. I'm no fan of Pelosi, but I think that Sullivan is being too harsh on her.

I just posted it to see what others think, although it seems rash at this point to accuse her of colluding with the previous administration.

[Captain Hilts]

3. Same here. I'd sure like to see Pelosi more carbonated about a lot of things...

but intelligence info is its own category with its own protocols.

I would like to read that she discussed it with Prez Bush.

[paulk]

4. it's important to remember that Sullivan is still a Republican

his opinions should always be viewed through that lens, imo.

[lunatica]

5. Her defense will be ignorance of the legality of it

But that might actually be true. She was probably briefed by someone who reassured everyone it was perfectly legal and who may have even showed them documentation to prove it. Then as the years went by her consent was used to threaten her into keeping impeachment off the table. Lots of people are pulled into being enablers this way.

[Demeter]

6. Like that's going to happen...

[Hutzpa]

7. You believed Porter Goss????????

Do you know who Porter Goss is????? Do you????

You need to read up on this SOB.

You believed Porter Goss...:rofl:

[shraby]

8. The way the admins lied to everybody all the time,

I wonder what they actually told Pelosi about what was going on.

[SeaLyons]

9. I hate it, but I think some ugly stuff will be exposed

on both sides. Remember, Pelosi said "impeachment off the table", and literally said she didn't know what laws had been broken. I'm afraid we're headed for a bumpy ride, but I intend to back Obama all the way to the end, no matter who get's exposed for wrong doing.

As for Andrew Sullivan - he makes me sick. I can't watch him. A drunk repuke!

[ShortnFiery]

10. Andrew Sullivan is spot on ... This is tied to "Impeachment is off of the table" Pelosi is dirty.

They have SOMETHING on Pelosi or she would not have FOLDED on so many topics.

And while we're at it, Senator Harry "I will not filibuster Alito" Reed needs to have a look-see into his connections as well. :evilgrin:

IF for no other reason, I hope Pelosi gets unseated so we don't have to tolerate another third rate "documentary" that her nepotistic daughter produces for whatever political connected organization she's tied with. IMO, those films are as GAWD awful as right wing drivel flicks. :shrug:

[Coffee and Cake]

11. Pelosi was also briefed back in 2002

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.

"The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough," said a U.S. official who witnessed the exchange.

Congressional leaders from both parties would later seize on waterboarding as a symbol of the worst excesses of the Bush administration's counterterrorism effort. The CIA last week admitted that videotape of an interrogation of one of the waterboarded detainees was destroyed in 2005 against the advice of Justice Department and White House officials, provoking allegations that its actions were illegal and the destruction was a coverup.

Yet long before "waterboarding" entered the public discourse, the CIA gave key legislative overseers about 30 private briefings, some of which included descriptions of that technique and other harsh interrogation methods, according to interviews with multiple U.S. officials with firsthand knowledge.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/08/AR2007120801664_pf.html

[ProSense]

12. Oh please, this is more bogus Dems are complicit crap.

All they can do is regurgitate speculation. Until there is a full investigation revealing this as true, this is the same Dem's are complicit crap they tried to pull in 2006.

The torture or the memos are not speculation.

[DevonRex]

13. Goss went too far when he said some wondered if the agency was doing enough.

It's always the overstepping that does them in.

[ClarkUSA]

14. Yes, let's believe BushCo shill Porter Goss & indict the first female Speaker w/o credible evidence.