The Caucus
The Politics and Government blog of the New York Times
May 19, 2009, 11:56 am
Pelosi Allies Show Support in Interrogation Dispute
By Carl Hulse
In light of the dispute between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Central Intelligence Agency, allies of Ms. Pelosi are trying to poke holes where they can in the C.I.A.’s account of the secret briefings that agency officials gave congressional members on interrogation techniques.
Representative David R. Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who chairs the Appropriations Committee, on Tuesday released a letter he sent to Leon E. Panetta, the director of the C.I.A., taking issue with the agency’s account of a briefing conducted on Sept. 19, 2006.
As part of a document outlining the subject matter and attendees at the various briefings, the agency lists an Appropriations Committee staffer, Paul Juola, as attending the session with two senior members of the committee.
But Mr. Obey said that the staff aide recalls that he accompanied two lawmakers to the briefing room and was then told by intelligence officials that he could not attend.
“We request that you immediately correct this record,” Mr. Obey wrote.
Such details are important in the C.I.A. dispute since the speaker says she was never told in her 2002 session that terror detainees were being subjected to waterboarding. But the C.I.A. notes on the briefing suggest she was informed of the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques “that had been employed.”
Ms. Pelosi, who is under fierce criticism from Republicans over the episode, has also gotten some backing from Senator Bob Graham of Florida, who was the Democratic chairman of the intelligence committee at the time. He said the C.I.A. initially told him he had attended four briefings but his own personal diaries showed he only attended one. He does not recollect any mention of waterboarding at all.
Mr. Obey’s discovery did not cause Republicans to back off in any way.
“Chairman Obey’s complaint is beside the point,” said Mike Steel, a spokesman for Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader. “The speaker accused our intelligence professionals of lying to her. Where’s her evidence to back up this charge? If she doesn’t have any, she should apologize to these men and women who spend their lives protecting this country.”
Source:
The New York Times
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/pelosi-allies-show-support-in-interrogation-dispute/
Monday, July 13, 2009
Pelosi Acknowledges She Was Told of Waterboarding in 2003
The Caucus
The Politics and Government blog of the New York Times
Monday, July 13, 2009
May 14, 2009, 12:33 pm
Pelosi Acknowledges She Was Told of Waterboarding in 2003
By Carl Hulse AND Brian Knowlton
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi discussed what she knew about harsh questioning of terror detainees during a news conference on Thursday.
Update 3:21 p.m.
Under fire from Republicans for what she knew about harsh questioning of terror detainees, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday acknowledged that she had learned in 2003 that the C.I.A. had subjected suspects to waterboarding, but she asserted that the agency had misled Congress about its techniques.
At a tense press conference, Ms. Pelosi said for the first time that a staff member alerted her in February 2003 that top lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee had been briefed on the use of tough interrogation methods on terror suspects.
But she said the fact that she did not speak out at the time due to secrecy rules did not make her complicit in any abuse of detainees. She accused the C.I.A. and Bush administration of lying to Congress about what was actually transpiring with the detainees.
“I am saying that the C.I.A. was misleading the Congress and at the same time the administration was misleading the Congress on weapons of mass destruction,” Ms. Pelosi said.
Ms. Pelosi said she was told at that briefing that waterboarding, one of the most controversial of the harsh techniques employed, was not being used.
The C.I.A., reacting to Ms. Pelosi’s remarks, said that agency records declassified last week and cited by congressional Republicans show that Ms. Pelosi had taken part in a September 2002 briefing on interrogation techniques was “true to the language in the Agency’s records.”
An agency spokesman, George Little, added that the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, had pointed out in a recent letter to Congress that the information “is drawn from the past files of the C.I.A.” and represented contemporaneous memoranda “and notes that summarized the best recollections of those individuals.”
According to the C.I.A. records, Ms. Pelosi attended the Sept. 4 briefing about the agency’s interrogation techniques with her Republican counterpart, Representative Porter J. Goss of Florida. Based on agency notes from the briefing, the two lawmakers were told the specific techniques “that had been employed” on Abu Zubaydah.
By then, that C.I.A. already used a number of harsh methods on Mr. Zubaydah, including waterboarding.
The C.I.A. records do not list the individual techniques that lawmakers were told about. However, in an op-ed last month, Mr. Goss said he remembers being told specifically about waterboarding during the September 2002 briefing.
“I am slack jawed to read that members claim to have not understood that the techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed; or that specific techniques such as “waterboarding” were never mentioned,” Mr. Goss wrote in The Wall Street Journal.
Other Republicans took sharp issue with the speaker’s remarks.
“The speaker’s comments continue to raise more questions than provide answers,” said Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican minority leader. “It’s pretty clear that they were well aware of what these enhanced interrogation techniques were; they were well aware that they’d been used; and it seems to me that they want to have it both ways. You can’t have it both ways.”
Senator Kit Bond of Missouri, vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, issued a more scathing response.
“It’s outrageous that a member of Congress would call our terror-fighters liars,” he said in a statement released by his office. “Instead of prosecuting or persecuting, our country should be supporting our intelligence professionals who work to keep us safe.”
The Republican-driven furor over what Ms. Pelosi knew about waterboarding and other techniques has put the speaker on the defensive. She repeatedly referred to a carefully prepared statement to respond to multiple questions at the session with reporters.
Ms. Pelosi blamed the dispute on Republicans and others, saying they are trying to shift attention from those who authorized the interrogations and other tactics now found to be questionable.
Republicans have said the speaker was now criticizing the Bush administration for abusing terror suspects when she herself was aware of it at the time.
“This is a diversionary tactic to take the spotlight off of those who conceived, developed and implemented these policies, which all of us long opposed,” Ms. Pelosi said.
Ms. Pelosi said that at the sole briefing she attended as the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee in September 2002, the only mention of waterboarding by C.I.A. officials was that while it was deemed to be legal, the technique was not being used.
On Friday, Congressional Republicans, citing a new accounting that showed some top Democrats taking part in briefings on harsh methods in 2002, had accused Democrats of full complicity in approving the Bush administration’s brutal interrogations.
The chart said that in a briefing on Sept. 4, 2002, attended by Ms. Pelosi, the interrogation methods that ”had been employed” against a prisoner, Abu Zubaydah, were described. But according to the legal memorandums released last month, Abu Zubaydah had been waterboarded 83 times the month before the briefing, so any objection from Democrats at the Sept. 4 briefing would have come too late.
Indeed, Ms. Pelosi said Thursday that she had learned only after the Sept. 4 briefing that waterboarding had already been used and that some administration experts had questioned its legality.
“We later find out that it had been taking place before they even briefed us about the legal opinions and told us that they were not being used,” she said, referring to the interrogation techniques.
Ms. Pelosi said she had supported a letter opposing the tactics sent in 2003 by Representative Jane Harman of California, who replaced Ms. Pelosi as the top Democrat on the intelligence panel when Ms. Pelosi took over as Democratic leader. But she said that she realized a letter would not change administration policy and said she instead set about to win Democratic control of Congress, then held by Republicans.
“It was clear we had to change the leadership in Congress and in the White House,” she said. “That was my job — the Congress part.”
Ms. Pelosi urged the C.I.A. to disclose the contents of the briefing she attended and said she did not believe there was more she could have done when she learned of the waterboarding.
Mark Mazzetti contributed reporting.
Source:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/pelosi-cia-misled-congress-over-waterboarding/
The Politics and Government blog of the New York Times
Monday, July 13, 2009
May 14, 2009, 12:33 pm
Pelosi Acknowledges She Was Told of Waterboarding in 2003
By Carl Hulse AND Brian Knowlton
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi discussed what she knew about harsh questioning of terror detainees during a news conference on Thursday.
Update 3:21 p.m.
Under fire from Republicans for what she knew about harsh questioning of terror detainees, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday acknowledged that she had learned in 2003 that the C.I.A. had subjected suspects to waterboarding, but she asserted that the agency had misled Congress about its techniques.
At a tense press conference, Ms. Pelosi said for the first time that a staff member alerted her in February 2003 that top lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee had been briefed on the use of tough interrogation methods on terror suspects.
But she said the fact that she did not speak out at the time due to secrecy rules did not make her complicit in any abuse of detainees. She accused the C.I.A. and Bush administration of lying to Congress about what was actually transpiring with the detainees.
“I am saying that the C.I.A. was misleading the Congress and at the same time the administration was misleading the Congress on weapons of mass destruction,” Ms. Pelosi said.
Ms. Pelosi said she was told at that briefing that waterboarding, one of the most controversial of the harsh techniques employed, was not being used.
The C.I.A., reacting to Ms. Pelosi’s remarks, said that agency records declassified last week and cited by congressional Republicans show that Ms. Pelosi had taken part in a September 2002 briefing on interrogation techniques was “true to the language in the Agency’s records.”
An agency spokesman, George Little, added that the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, had pointed out in a recent letter to Congress that the information “is drawn from the past files of the C.I.A.” and represented contemporaneous memoranda “and notes that summarized the best recollections of those individuals.”
According to the C.I.A. records, Ms. Pelosi attended the Sept. 4 briefing about the agency’s interrogation techniques with her Republican counterpart, Representative Porter J. Goss of Florida. Based on agency notes from the briefing, the two lawmakers were told the specific techniques “that had been employed” on Abu Zubaydah.
By then, that C.I.A. already used a number of harsh methods on Mr. Zubaydah, including waterboarding.
The C.I.A. records do not list the individual techniques that lawmakers were told about. However, in an op-ed last month, Mr. Goss said he remembers being told specifically about waterboarding during the September 2002 briefing.
“I am slack jawed to read that members claim to have not understood that the techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed; or that specific techniques such as “waterboarding” were never mentioned,” Mr. Goss wrote in The Wall Street Journal.
Other Republicans took sharp issue with the speaker’s remarks.
“The speaker’s comments continue to raise more questions than provide answers,” said Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican minority leader. “It’s pretty clear that they were well aware of what these enhanced interrogation techniques were; they were well aware that they’d been used; and it seems to me that they want to have it both ways. You can’t have it both ways.”
Senator Kit Bond of Missouri, vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, issued a more scathing response.
“It’s outrageous that a member of Congress would call our terror-fighters liars,” he said in a statement released by his office. “Instead of prosecuting or persecuting, our country should be supporting our intelligence professionals who work to keep us safe.”
The Republican-driven furor over what Ms. Pelosi knew about waterboarding and other techniques has put the speaker on the defensive. She repeatedly referred to a carefully prepared statement to respond to multiple questions at the session with reporters.
Ms. Pelosi blamed the dispute on Republicans and others, saying they are trying to shift attention from those who authorized the interrogations and other tactics now found to be questionable.
Republicans have said the speaker was now criticizing the Bush administration for abusing terror suspects when she herself was aware of it at the time.
“This is a diversionary tactic to take the spotlight off of those who conceived, developed and implemented these policies, which all of us long opposed,” Ms. Pelosi said.
Ms. Pelosi said that at the sole briefing she attended as the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee in September 2002, the only mention of waterboarding by C.I.A. officials was that while it was deemed to be legal, the technique was not being used.
On Friday, Congressional Republicans, citing a new accounting that showed some top Democrats taking part in briefings on harsh methods in 2002, had accused Democrats of full complicity in approving the Bush administration’s brutal interrogations.
The chart said that in a briefing on Sept. 4, 2002, attended by Ms. Pelosi, the interrogation methods that ”had been employed” against a prisoner, Abu Zubaydah, were described. But according to the legal memorandums released last month, Abu Zubaydah had been waterboarded 83 times the month before the briefing, so any objection from Democrats at the Sept. 4 briefing would have come too late.
Indeed, Ms. Pelosi said Thursday that she had learned only after the Sept. 4 briefing that waterboarding had already been used and that some administration experts had questioned its legality.
“We later find out that it had been taking place before they even briefed us about the legal opinions and told us that they were not being used,” she said, referring to the interrogation techniques.
Ms. Pelosi said she had supported a letter opposing the tactics sent in 2003 by Representative Jane Harman of California, who replaced Ms. Pelosi as the top Democrat on the intelligence panel when Ms. Pelosi took over as Democratic leader. But she said that she realized a letter would not change administration policy and said she instead set about to win Democratic control of Congress, then held by Republicans.
“It was clear we had to change the leadership in Congress and in the White House,” she said. “That was my job — the Congress part.”
Ms. Pelosi urged the C.I.A. to disclose the contents of the briefing she attended and said she did not believe there was more she could have done when she learned of the waterboarding.
Mark Mazzetti contributed reporting.
Source:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/pelosi-cia-misled-congress-over-waterboarding/
House Democrats: CIA Misled Congress
WASHINGTON, July 9, 2009
House Democrats: CIA Misled Congress
Representatives Blast Agency on Eve of Key Intelligence Bill Debate
(CBS/ AP) As lawmakers prepare to debate intelligence legislation, Democrats are accusing senior CIA officials of repeatedly misleading Congress.
Republicans charge the timing of the allegations and a threat from President Barack Obama to veto the intelligence bill are just political maneuvering to protect House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Letters by the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and other members of the panel say CIA Director Leon Panetta told Congress last month that senior CIA officials have concealed significant actions and misled lawmakers repeatedly since 2001.
Intelligence officials told CBS News the error Panetta briefed Congress about was an error of omission and not deliberate. These members seem to believe there's more to it than that. The timing of all this is no accident.
Exactly what actions Panetta disclosed to the House Intelligence Committee on June 24 is unclear, but committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democrat, said the CIA outright lied in one case.
"These notifications have led me to conclude that this committee has been misled, has not been provided full and complete notifications, and (in at least one case) was affirmatively lied to," Reyes wrote to Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the committee's senior Republican. A copy of his letter was obtained by The Associated Press.
Reyes said in the letter that he is considering opening a full investigation.
The ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., said the flap between Democrats and Panetta is "bizarre" and shows the Democrats lack leadership.
Panetta brought the matters to the committee's attention, CIA spokesman George Little said Wednesday.
"It is not the policy or practice of the CIA to mislead Congress. This agency and this director believe it is vital to keep the Congress fully and currently informed. Director Panetta's actions back that up," Little said. "It was the CIA itself that took the initiative to notify the oversight committees."
Reyes, in a later statement, said: "I believe that CIA has, in the vast majority of matters, told the truth. But in rare instances, certain officers have not adhered to the high standards. ... Both Director Panetta and I are determined to make sure this does not happen again."
Seven Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee sent a letter to Panetta on June 26 asking that in light of his disclosure he revise a statement he made in May to CIA employees that it was not CIA policy or practice to mislead Congress.
The cryptic letter and CIA statement came on the eve of a House debate on an intelligence bill. The debate is expected to revive a partisan argument that has raged on and off for months about whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew in the fall of 2002 about the CIA's use of waterboarding weeks earlier.
Waterboarding, which simulates drowning, is an interrogation technique the CIA used on three prisoners in 2002 and 2003. Mr. Obama has called waterboarding torture.
Much of the debate on the House intelligence bill is expected to be diverted into a discussion of what Pelosi knew about the CIA's harsh interrogation program and why, if she was briefed on it, she didn't formally object to it.
Republicans on the Intelligence Committee say the letters and Mr. Obama's threat to veto the legislation are cover-up attempts on behalf of Pelosi and what she knew and didn't do about "enhanced interrogation."
"The blatantly political nature of the Democrats' letters is revealed by their handling," said Jamal Ware, spokesman for Republicans on the committee, in a statement late Wednesday.
"One was slipped under a staffer's office door late at night, the other was deliberately hidden from Republican members for two weeks and had to be obtained from the press. It is unfortunate that the president's veto threat and the continued attacks by partisans against the CIA are a direct result of congressional Democrats' continued heavy-handed attempts to cover up for Speaker Pelosi."
Pelosi told reporters in May she had not been informed that waterboarding had been used against terrorism suspects, even though it had been. When asked whether she was accusing the CIA of lying to her, she said, "Yes."
The CIA sent lawmakers a chart in May describing the 40 congressional briefings it gave on the interrogation techniques. But that document was found to include several errors, leaving in question exactly what Pelosi was told.
The Republican Party seized on her accusation that the CIA misled Congress, contending that the California Democrat's remarks have demoralized the intelligence community. House Republicans have repeatedly demanded that a bipartisan panel investigate her allegations.
House Republicans oppose at least one provision in the intelligence authorization bill, and they have an unusual ally: the White House.
Mr. Obama's aides have said they will recommend he veto the bill if it includes a Democratic-written provision requiring the president to notify the intelligence committees in their entirety about covert CIA activities.
Under current law, the president is only obligated to notify the top Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate and the senior Democratic and Republican members on each chamber's Intelligence Committee.
Democrats want to open the briefings to all members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees unless committee leaders agreed otherwise. That would be about 40 lawmakers, depending on shifting membership rosters, instead of the eight required by law.
They claim the Bush administration sought to undermine congressional oversight. However, the White House is concerned that briefing more lawmakers might compromise the most sensitive U.S. intelligence operations.
Source: CBSNEWS
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/09/politics/main5146252.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody
House Democrats: CIA Misled Congress
Representatives Blast Agency on Eve of Key Intelligence Bill Debate
(CBS/ AP) As lawmakers prepare to debate intelligence legislation, Democrats are accusing senior CIA officials of repeatedly misleading Congress.
Republicans charge the timing of the allegations and a threat from President Barack Obama to veto the intelligence bill are just political maneuvering to protect House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Letters by the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and other members of the panel say CIA Director Leon Panetta told Congress last month that senior CIA officials have concealed significant actions and misled lawmakers repeatedly since 2001.
Intelligence officials told CBS News the error Panetta briefed Congress about was an error of omission and not deliberate. These members seem to believe there's more to it than that. The timing of all this is no accident.
Exactly what actions Panetta disclosed to the House Intelligence Committee on June 24 is unclear, but committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democrat, said the CIA outright lied in one case.
"These notifications have led me to conclude that this committee has been misled, has not been provided full and complete notifications, and (in at least one case) was affirmatively lied to," Reyes wrote to Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the committee's senior Republican. A copy of his letter was obtained by The Associated Press.
Reyes said in the letter that he is considering opening a full investigation.
The ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., said the flap between Democrats and Panetta is "bizarre" and shows the Democrats lack leadership.
Panetta brought the matters to the committee's attention, CIA spokesman George Little said Wednesday.
"It is not the policy or practice of the CIA to mislead Congress. This agency and this director believe it is vital to keep the Congress fully and currently informed. Director Panetta's actions back that up," Little said. "It was the CIA itself that took the initiative to notify the oversight committees."
Reyes, in a later statement, said: "I believe that CIA has, in the vast majority of matters, told the truth. But in rare instances, certain officers have not adhered to the high standards. ... Both Director Panetta and I are determined to make sure this does not happen again."
Seven Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee sent a letter to Panetta on June 26 asking that in light of his disclosure he revise a statement he made in May to CIA employees that it was not CIA policy or practice to mislead Congress.
The cryptic letter and CIA statement came on the eve of a House debate on an intelligence bill. The debate is expected to revive a partisan argument that has raged on and off for months about whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew in the fall of 2002 about the CIA's use of waterboarding weeks earlier.
Waterboarding, which simulates drowning, is an interrogation technique the CIA used on three prisoners in 2002 and 2003. Mr. Obama has called waterboarding torture.
Much of the debate on the House intelligence bill is expected to be diverted into a discussion of what Pelosi knew about the CIA's harsh interrogation program and why, if she was briefed on it, she didn't formally object to it.
Republicans on the Intelligence Committee say the letters and Mr. Obama's threat to veto the legislation are cover-up attempts on behalf of Pelosi and what she knew and didn't do about "enhanced interrogation."
"The blatantly political nature of the Democrats' letters is revealed by their handling," said Jamal Ware, spokesman for Republicans on the committee, in a statement late Wednesday.
"One was slipped under a staffer's office door late at night, the other was deliberately hidden from Republican members for two weeks and had to be obtained from the press. It is unfortunate that the president's veto threat and the continued attacks by partisans against the CIA are a direct result of congressional Democrats' continued heavy-handed attempts to cover up for Speaker Pelosi."
Pelosi told reporters in May she had not been informed that waterboarding had been used against terrorism suspects, even though it had been. When asked whether she was accusing the CIA of lying to her, she said, "Yes."
The CIA sent lawmakers a chart in May describing the 40 congressional briefings it gave on the interrogation techniques. But that document was found to include several errors, leaving in question exactly what Pelosi was told.
The Republican Party seized on her accusation that the CIA misled Congress, contending that the California Democrat's remarks have demoralized the intelligence community. House Republicans have repeatedly demanded that a bipartisan panel investigate her allegations.
House Republicans oppose at least one provision in the intelligence authorization bill, and they have an unusual ally: the White House.
Mr. Obama's aides have said they will recommend he veto the bill if it includes a Democratic-written provision requiring the president to notify the intelligence committees in their entirety about covert CIA activities.
Under current law, the president is only obligated to notify the top Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate and the senior Democratic and Republican members on each chamber's Intelligence Committee.
Democrats want to open the briefings to all members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees unless committee leaders agreed otherwise. That would be about 40 lawmakers, depending on shifting membership rosters, instead of the eight required by law.
They claim the Bush administration sought to undermine congressional oversight. However, the White House is concerned that briefing more lawmakers might compromise the most sensitive U.S. intelligence operations.
Source: CBSNEWS
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/09/politics/main5146252.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody
Pelosi Deflects Questions About CIA Briefings
July 9, 2009 2:31 PM
Pelosi Deflects Questions About CIA Briefings
Posted by Jill Jackson
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was back on the who-knew-what-when hot seat today. Seven Democratic colleagues released a letter yesterday requesting that CIA Director Leon Panetta correct his May 15th statement that the CIA does not mislead Congress.
(You have got to be kidding me. It is amazing what is being done to protect Nancy Pelosi from this lie.)
The members urged Panetta to make the change in light of a recent Intelligence briefing by Panetta where he told members that top CIA official had, in fact, concealed significant information from Congress from 2001 to last month.
It's been almost two months since Pelosi claimed the CIA lied to her about what interrogation methods they'd used on detainees. That accusation prompted Panetta's statement defending the agency.
Since then, the speaker has refused to take any more questions on the subject. While Pelosi took numerous questions today, she deflected most and left matters in the hands of the House Intelligence Committee.
"There is a briefing that is of serious concern to members of the committee," Pelosi said, "and they have their course of action to deal with it."
Pelosi said she expects the committee will pursue the issue.
Pelosi also responded to Republican criticism of her claim saying "our success is driving the Republicans to distraction. Any excuse will do."
House Minority Leader John Boehner wasn't buying that Panetta's statement had anything to do with interrogation briefings. He said that some people are trying to mix apples and oranges.
Boehner renewed his call today for Pelosi to either "put up the facts or retract her statement and apologize" to the intelligence committee.
Jill Jackson is a CBS News Capitol Hill producer.
Source:
CBSNEWS
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/07/09/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5147269.shtml
Pelosi Deflects Questions About CIA Briefings
Posted by Jill Jackson
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was back on the who-knew-what-when hot seat today. Seven Democratic colleagues released a letter yesterday requesting that CIA Director Leon Panetta correct his May 15th statement that the CIA does not mislead Congress.
(You have got to be kidding me. It is amazing what is being done to protect Nancy Pelosi from this lie.)
The members urged Panetta to make the change in light of a recent Intelligence briefing by Panetta where he told members that top CIA official had, in fact, concealed significant information from Congress from 2001 to last month.
It's been almost two months since Pelosi claimed the CIA lied to her about what interrogation methods they'd used on detainees. That accusation prompted Panetta's statement defending the agency.
Since then, the speaker has refused to take any more questions on the subject. While Pelosi took numerous questions today, she deflected most and left matters in the hands of the House Intelligence Committee.
"There is a briefing that is of serious concern to members of the committee," Pelosi said, "and they have their course of action to deal with it."
Pelosi said she expects the committee will pursue the issue.
Pelosi also responded to Republican criticism of her claim saying "our success is driving the Republicans to distraction. Any excuse will do."
House Minority Leader John Boehner wasn't buying that Panetta's statement had anything to do with interrogation briefings. He said that some people are trying to mix apples and oranges.
Boehner renewed his call today for Pelosi to either "put up the facts or retract her statement and apologize" to the intelligence committee.
Jill Jackson is a CBS News Capitol Hill producer.
Source:
CBSNEWS
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/07/09/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5147269.shtml
Pelosi draws CIA response, GOP criticism
Pelosi draws CIA response, GOP criticism
House speaker says agency, Bush team misled her on waterboarding
updated 5:18 p.m. CT, Fri., May 15, 2009
WASHINGTON - The head of the CIA defended the agency Friday against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's charge that she was misled in 2002 about the use of waterboarding but said it ultimately is up to Congress to decide where the truth lies.
"Let me be clear. It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress," CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in a message to agency employees that was released to the public. "That is against our laws and our values."
Referring to Pelosi's remarks, he said, "The political debate over interrogation reached a new decibel level yesterday."
WASHINGTON - The head of the CIA defended the agency Friday against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's charge that she was misled in 2002 about the use of waterboarding but said it ultimately is up to Congress to decide where the truth lies.
"Let me be clear. It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress," CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in a message to agency employees that was released to the public. "That is against our laws and our values."
Referring to Pelosi's remarks, he said, "The political debate over interrogation reached a new decibel level yesterday."
Panetta's rebuttal was far more muted that a counterattack the Republicans unleashed against Pelosi.
"I think her accusations against our terror-fighters are irresponsible and, according to the CIA's record, Speaker Pelosi was briefed on what had been done," said Sen. Kit Bond, the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "It's outrageous that a member of Congress would call our terror-fighters liars."
Criticism for the speaker
Pelosi drew the criticism a day after opening her weekly news conference with a prepared statement accusing agency briefers of misleading her in 2002 in connection with the use of waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning.
In the statement, she repeated that she was not told that waterboarding had been used, even though it had been, and said an aide informed her of its use after other lawmakers had been briefed in 2003.
Several hours after Panetta circulated his message, Pelosi issued a response that blamed the Bush administration rather than the CIA by name for any errors in connection with the briefings.
"My criticism of the manner in which the Bush administration did not appropriately inform Congress is separate from my respect for those in the intelligence community who work to keep our country safe," it said.
Pelosi has been the target of a campaign orchestrated in recent days by the House Republican leadership, which is eager to undercut her statements as well as stick Democrats with partial responsibility for the use of waterboarding in the Bush administration.
Some Democrats have expressed surprise that she chose to inject herself more deeply into the controversy, especially at a time when President Barack Obama enjoys widespread public support and Republicans are suffering extremely low approval ratings. Associates of the California Democrat say she decided it was an error to allow Republican attacks to go unanswered any longer.
At the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs decided to stay out of the controversy. "I appreciate the invitation to get involved but I'll decline to R.S.V.P.." He said the president wanted to look forward, not back.
Panetta, a former Democratic lawmaker from Pelosi's home state of California, said records from the period "indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of (terrorist suspect) Abu Zubaydah, describing `the enhanced techniques that had been employed.'"
He cited a "long tradition in Washington of making hay out of our business. ... But the political debates about interrogation reached a new decibel level yesterday when the CIA was accused of misleading Congress."
'Tell it like it is'
He added, "We are an agency of high integrity, professionalism and dedication. Our task is to tell it like it is — even if that's not what people always want to hear."
An unclassified chart released last month by the CIA describes a total of 40 briefings for lawmakers over a period of several years on enhanced interrogation techniques. Pelosi's name appears once, as having attended a session on Sept. 4, 2002, when she was the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Former Rep. Porter Goss, a Republican who at the time was the chairman of the committee and later became CIA director, also was present.
While Goss has scoffed at Pelosi's description of the briefing, other lawmakers have challenged the accuracy of the CIA's overall reconstruction of events.
Blogger’s comment:
Do you really think that after the CIA briefing on water-boarding that Nancy Pelosi was in attendance at, that she did not talk with any one concerning the water-boarding. Another point, isn’t there even one person with enough guts to stand up and tell the truth that they were in the water-boarding briefing with Nancy Pelosi?
Source: MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30745095/
House speaker says agency, Bush team misled her on waterboarding
updated 5:18 p.m. CT, Fri., May 15, 2009
WASHINGTON - The head of the CIA defended the agency Friday against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's charge that she was misled in 2002 about the use of waterboarding but said it ultimately is up to Congress to decide where the truth lies.
"Let me be clear. It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress," CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in a message to agency employees that was released to the public. "That is against our laws and our values."
Referring to Pelosi's remarks, he said, "The political debate over interrogation reached a new decibel level yesterday."
WASHINGTON - The head of the CIA defended the agency Friday against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's charge that she was misled in 2002 about the use of waterboarding but said it ultimately is up to Congress to decide where the truth lies.
"Let me be clear. It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress," CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in a message to agency employees that was released to the public. "That is against our laws and our values."
Referring to Pelosi's remarks, he said, "The political debate over interrogation reached a new decibel level yesterday."
Panetta's rebuttal was far more muted that a counterattack the Republicans unleashed against Pelosi.
"I think her accusations against our terror-fighters are irresponsible and, according to the CIA's record, Speaker Pelosi was briefed on what had been done," said Sen. Kit Bond, the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "It's outrageous that a member of Congress would call our terror-fighters liars."
Criticism for the speaker
Pelosi drew the criticism a day after opening her weekly news conference with a prepared statement accusing agency briefers of misleading her in 2002 in connection with the use of waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning.
In the statement, she repeated that she was not told that waterboarding had been used, even though it had been, and said an aide informed her of its use after other lawmakers had been briefed in 2003.
Several hours after Panetta circulated his message, Pelosi issued a response that blamed the Bush administration rather than the CIA by name for any errors in connection with the briefings.
"My criticism of the manner in which the Bush administration did not appropriately inform Congress is separate from my respect for those in the intelligence community who work to keep our country safe," it said.
Pelosi has been the target of a campaign orchestrated in recent days by the House Republican leadership, which is eager to undercut her statements as well as stick Democrats with partial responsibility for the use of waterboarding in the Bush administration.
Some Democrats have expressed surprise that she chose to inject herself more deeply into the controversy, especially at a time when President Barack Obama enjoys widespread public support and Republicans are suffering extremely low approval ratings. Associates of the California Democrat say she decided it was an error to allow Republican attacks to go unanswered any longer.
At the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs decided to stay out of the controversy. "I appreciate the invitation to get involved but I'll decline to R.S.V.P.." He said the president wanted to look forward, not back.
Panetta, a former Democratic lawmaker from Pelosi's home state of California, said records from the period "indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of (terrorist suspect) Abu Zubaydah, describing `the enhanced techniques that had been employed.'"
He cited a "long tradition in Washington of making hay out of our business. ... But the political debates about interrogation reached a new decibel level yesterday when the CIA was accused of misleading Congress."
'Tell it like it is'
He added, "We are an agency of high integrity, professionalism and dedication. Our task is to tell it like it is — even if that's not what people always want to hear."
An unclassified chart released last month by the CIA describes a total of 40 briefings for lawmakers over a period of several years on enhanced interrogation techniques. Pelosi's name appears once, as having attended a session on Sept. 4, 2002, when she was the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Former Rep. Porter Goss, a Republican who at the time was the chairman of the committee and later became CIA director, also was present.
While Goss has scoffed at Pelosi's description of the briefing, other lawmakers have challenged the accuracy of the CIA's overall reconstruction of events.
Blogger’s comment:
Do you really think that after the CIA briefing on water-boarding that Nancy Pelosi was in attendance at, that she did not talk with any one concerning the water-boarding. Another point, isn’t there even one person with enough guts to stand up and tell the truth that they were in the water-boarding briefing with Nancy Pelosi?
Source: MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30745095/
Nancy Pelosi: CIA Lied To Me
Nancy Pelosi: CIA Lied To Me
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bluntly accused the CIA on Thursday of misleading her and other lawmakers about its use of waterboarding during the Bush administration, escalating a controversy grown to include both political parties, the spy agency and the White House.
"It is not the policy of this agency to mislead the United States Congress," responded CIA spokesman George Little, although he refused to answer directly when asked whether Pelosi's accusation was accurate.
But the House's top Democrat, speaking at a news conference in the Capitol, was unequivocal about a CIA briefing she received in the fall of 2002.
"We were told that waterboarding was not being used," the speaker said. "That's the only mention, that they were not using it. And we now know that earlier they were." She suggested the CIA release the briefing material.
Pelosi also vehemently disputed Republican charges that she was complicit in the use of waterboarding, and she suggested the GOP was trying to shift the focus of public attention away from the Bush administration's use of techniques that she and President Barack Obama have described as torture.
Coincidentally, Pelosi spoke as the CIA rejected former Vice President Dick Cheney's request to release secret memos judging whether waterboarding and other harsh techniques had succeeded in securing valuable intelligence information.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said the request was turned down because the documents are the subject of pending litigation, which makes them not subject to declassification.
Pelosi has been the target of a campaign orchestrated in recent days by the House Republican leadership, which is eager to undercut her statements as well as stick Democrats with partial responsibility for the use of waterboarding _ a kind of simulated drowning _ in the Bush administration.
Blogger's comments:
What a circus, what a show, and the lies and liars go on and on and on.
Source:
DAVID ESPO May 14, 2009 11:50 PM EST Hufffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/14/nancy-pelosi-cia-lied-to_n_203507.html
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bluntly accused the CIA on Thursday of misleading her and other lawmakers about its use of waterboarding during the Bush administration, escalating a controversy grown to include both political parties, the spy agency and the White House.
"It is not the policy of this agency to mislead the United States Congress," responded CIA spokesman George Little, although he refused to answer directly when asked whether Pelosi's accusation was accurate.
But the House's top Democrat, speaking at a news conference in the Capitol, was unequivocal about a CIA briefing she received in the fall of 2002.
"We were told that waterboarding was not being used," the speaker said. "That's the only mention, that they were not using it. And we now know that earlier they were." She suggested the CIA release the briefing material.
Pelosi also vehemently disputed Republican charges that she was complicit in the use of waterboarding, and she suggested the GOP was trying to shift the focus of public attention away from the Bush administration's use of techniques that she and President Barack Obama have described as torture.
Coincidentally, Pelosi spoke as the CIA rejected former Vice President Dick Cheney's request to release secret memos judging whether waterboarding and other harsh techniques had succeeded in securing valuable intelligence information.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said the request was turned down because the documents are the subject of pending litigation, which makes them not subject to declassification.
Pelosi has been the target of a campaign orchestrated in recent days by the House Republican leadership, which is eager to undercut her statements as well as stick Democrats with partial responsibility for the use of waterboarding _ a kind of simulated drowning _ in the Bush administration.
Blogger's comments:
What a circus, what a show, and the lies and liars go on and on and on.
Source:
DAVID ESPO May 14, 2009 11:50 PM EST Hufffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/14/nancy-pelosi-cia-lied-to_n_203507.html
Pelosi, Panetta in new duel over CIA misleading Congress
Pelosi, Panetta in new duel over CIA misleading Congress
By Gail Russell Chaddock Staff writer/ July 9, 2009 edition
Central Intelligence Agency director Leon Panetta is not blinking in a new face-off with House Democrats over whether the CIA misled the Congress in the Bush years.
It’s a charge famously raised by Speaker Nancy Pelosi on May 14 but quickly denied by Director Panetta, then just three months into his new job. Ms. Pelosi was disputing charges that she had been briefed by the CIA about torture of detainees but did nothing about it.
Blogger's comments:
This is just another lie to cover up Nancy Pelosi's lie, when she stated that she had not been briefed on' "Waterboarding" by the CIA. No doubt some of you still doubt this so I will have to look up the youtube.com video of when she told that lie. In the next issue of Information Wars, ooooh gaaah, oooooh gaaaaah, ooooooh gaaaaaah.
Source:
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/07/09/pelosi-panetta-in-new-duel-over-cia-misleading-congress/
By Gail Russell Chaddock Staff writer/ July 9, 2009 edition
Central Intelligence Agency director Leon Panetta is not blinking in a new face-off with House Democrats over whether the CIA misled the Congress in the Bush years.
It’s a charge famously raised by Speaker Nancy Pelosi on May 14 but quickly denied by Director Panetta, then just three months into his new job. Ms. Pelosi was disputing charges that she had been briefed by the CIA about torture of detainees but did nothing about it.
Blogger's comments:
This is just another lie to cover up Nancy Pelosi's lie, when she stated that she had not been briefed on' "Waterboarding" by the CIA. No doubt some of you still doubt this so I will have to look up the youtube.com video of when she told that lie. In the next issue of Information Wars, ooooh gaaah, oooooh gaaaaah, ooooooh gaaaaaah.
Source:
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/07/09/pelosi-panetta-in-new-duel-over-cia-misleading-congress/
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