Sign in to wowOwow

Enter the email address that you used when registering at wowOwow.
The password field is case sensitive. Click here if you have forgotten your password.

Please register for wowOwow

Newsletter subscriptions
Sign up to receive wowOwow's weekly newsletter and get our best picks delivered right to your inbox. Our newsletter content is hand-picked by the wowOwow editorial team and provides the top features, news, and commentary from our site. Subscribing to our newsletter is free and safe. We will never share your email or other information with a third-party without your direct consent.
By registering, you indicate that you have read and agree
with our privacy policy and terms of service.

Nancy Pelosi | 05/12/2009 8:45 am

Pelosi Knew About Waterboarding, but Didn't Think It 'Appropriate' to Object

By The Staff at wowOwow.com
© Getty Images

Nancy Pelosi has known since February of 2003 that the CIA was using waterboarding, yet did nothing about it.

There’s been speculation that the House Speaker knew of the methods since 2002, but she denied knowing the specifics of the harsh interrogations. New records show, however, that CIA officials briefed Pelosi staffer Michael Sheehy on the waterboarding of suspect Abu Zubaydah. Sheehy later told Pelosi, a Democrat from California. He also informed her that Jane Harman, who was also at the briefing, had penned a letter of objection for the CIA. Pelosi did not add her name to that letter, a move that Republicans claim proves Pelosi’s acquiescence.

A Pelosi friend, though, says the lawmaker didn’t speak up "out of respect for the ‘appropriate’ legislative channels," according to Politico. Since Pelosi herself wasn’t at the 2003 briefing, said the source, she felt Harman’s letter was the best route.

78 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

S G
Anyone who signed off on this should be prosecuted. It is illegal. Check out http://www.huffingtonpost/2009/05/11/ig-report-waterboarding-W_N_201733….
By S G on 05/12/2009 8:51 am
HA BIBI
Yeah right Pelosi, And when you get run over by a mack truck…..I too won’t think it "Appropriate" to object! 
By HA BIBI on 05/12/2009 8:51 am
deber B

If she did, indeed, know about waterboarding back in 2003, that would hardly make her a war criminal.   But if she knew and insists otherwise that would make her one of those people who will not acknowledge that the immediate post Sept 11 atmosphere allowed for methods that now seem abhorrent. 

I’m sitting on the edge of my seat on this one because "where there’s smoke there’s fire" and the memos, hopefully, will bring the others who knew center stage. 

Could Dick Cheney have been right?    We will finally get an answer to this question.

By deber B on 05/12/2009 8:57 am
f p
The day Cheney is right about anything Deber is the day the universe ends.
By f p on 05/12/2009 9:02 am
deber B
f p, your response doesn’t surprise me.   I know how you feel about Dick Cheney.   However, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.   He is not all bad and he is raising a very good point with regard to the memos which, hopefully, will prove that this type of interrogation actually produced valuable results and saved lives.
By deber B on 05/12/2009 9:59 am
f p
He’s right up there with Hitler, and Stalin IMO and is doing nothing lately but self-justification for breaking the law and trampling on the constitution. As for providing info—no much apparently was produced that wasn’t previously known or was minor.  Read the CIA IG report.
By f p on 05/12/2009 10:03 am
deber B

In no way can he be compared to Hitler and Stalin.

Here’s what Hitler and Stalin had in common: ruthless violence. Both used ferocious internal repression. The edge here goes to Stalin. Even Hitler’s armies of snoopers, his 95 Germans a day convicted of political crimes in 1933-39, his political murders, concentration camps and killings of Jews and left-wingers in that period, cannot match Stalin’s record. Russia had traditions of secrecy and violence; but the isolation, paranoia and terror that kept the Soviet people in thrall for so long exceeded anything comparable, anywhere, ever.

And, you are comparing Cheney to these two horrible men?   Dick Cheney and millions of Americans feel that this administration is putting our country at great risk.  

Cheney  has praised the Bush administration’s terrorism efforts. "I think those programs were absolutely essential to the success we enjoy, of being able to collect the intelligence that let us defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11," he said.

Cheney, Bush, the White House attornies and so far, Pelosi all knew about the waterboarding technique….and this cannot in any way be compared to the destruction Hitler and Stalin brought to innocent people.    The terrorist who was waterboarded was not innocent….he had knowledge of the terrorist group of 9/11.

 

By deber B on 05/12/2009 10:42 am
f p
Wanna bet? And yes I’m comparing him to them—on a smaller scale he is no different whatsoever. You can defend him all you want but I’ll be damned if anything is going to convince me he had the best interests of this country in mind.  All that man was interested in was power for the sake of power. And in the process he damaged our constitution and our tri-part government by side-stepping it, encouraging executive power, and damaged our reputation in the world with rendition, water-boarding and torture. I have nothing but contempt for the SOB>
By f p on 05/12/2009 10:56 am
deber B

Here’s what Dick Cheney said recently:

"It was a time of great concern, and we put in place some very good policies, and they worked, for eight years. Now we have an administration that’s come to power that has been critical of the programs, but not only that, there’s been talk about prosecuting the lawyers in the Justice Department who gave us the opinions that we operated in accordance with, or referring them to the Bar Association for disbarment or sanctions of some kind, or possibly cooperating with foreign governments that are interested in trying to prosecute American officials, those same officials who were responsible for defending this nation for the last eight years.

That whole complex of things is what I find deeply disturbing, and I think to the extent that those policies were responsible for saving lives, that the administration is now trying to cancel those policies or end them, terminate them, then I think it’s fair to argue — and I do argue — that that means in the future we’re not going to have the same safeguards we’ve had for the last eight years."

Dick Cheney doesn’t sound like he doesn’t have the best interests of this country in mind.   In contrast, we now have an administration on a "witch hunt" laced with revenge.   Also, I believe it takes a "powerful and far reaching" man in his position to react swiftly and firmly when America was attacked by a terrorist group hell bent on destroying American lives.  The attack by them was directly related to their religious beliefs and had nothing to do with the war in Iraq.     The waterboarding technique brought valuable information.    You may not like Dick Cheney but how you can agree with this administration’s "dog and pony show" as it relates to our security is beyond my ability to process.

Fortunately, I am not alone in my opinion.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/

By deber B on 05/12/2009 11:10 am
nanchan u

I will not respond to Frank’s post , but will to his (as well as yours again) here.

Evoking Hitler and Stalin is ineffectual, juvenile and ignorant debate tactic.  First of all, if we were indeed living under a similar type of government, Frank would not have the ability to write what he did.  I have said this a million times, I do not agree with some of what these people say, but will always defend their right to say their opinions.

Freedom of speech… interesting concept.  Often, most especially on these message boards lately, it seems to only go the way of the liberal.  You want to talk about censorship?  Let’s talk about our Darling Community Manager/Site Monitor who deliberately deletes post from "right" leaning posters on a daily basis.  Hitler/Stalin behaviour anyone?

Second of all, even freedom of speech has limitations.  Ever taken a college law class Frank?  Obviously not.  Because if you did, you’d know that even freedom of speech has limitation.  Ever heard about yelling "Fire" in a movie theater?  Here’s the legal case so you can study up on it…. maybe you missed it…..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenck_v._United_States

Calling people Hitler and Stalin is inflamatory speech.  To equate Cheney to Stalin and Hitler does a grave disservice to the people who survived the Holocaust… or don’t you believe in that either, Frank?

Deber, keep up the good fight.  And remember, it’s not too much longer that they can blame everything on Bush, FOX, or conservatives… pretty soon now they will have to start taking responsibility for themselves.

Frank.  Shame on you.

 

By nanchan u on 05/12/2009 11:34 am
f p
Shame for what—calling the criminal what hw is/  I don’t think so>
By f p on 05/12/2009 11:38 am
f p
Whatever delusion gave you the idea i cared about anything you republicans say? AS for inflammatory speech all one has to do is listen to Beck, Rush hog and the rest for inflammatoriness.  That’s all they know. I know all about fire in a classroom—old story. AS for ineffective you should read you drivel sometime. 
By f p on 05/12/2009 1:27 pm
f p

YOu want inflammatory well here goes:

"This war [between liberals and conservatives] has to be fought with the scale 

and duration and savagery that is only true of civil wars." – Newt Gingrich 

“We’ll defeat them [the democrats] and crush their institutions… a cornered 

rat fights. The left is playing for its life and will fight harder than anyone on 

the right sees”. – Grover Norquist 

“We will not try to reform existing institutions. We only intend to weaken 

them and eventually destroy them” – The manifesto of the Paul Weyrich— 

inspired New Traditionalist Movement 

“There is a cultural war going on for the soul of this country… the issue is 

making this God’s country again” Ralph Reed 

“Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty; we are called by God 

to conquer this country.” Randall Terry 

Will you join me in a Declaration of War?” “There is no middle ground… the 

church is marshalling its forces.” – Fund Raising letter from Jerry Falwell 

” We are involved in a “cultural war” for the very soul of America… [We are] 

recruiting “soldiers in the army of Christ… [There are] “five key fronts in the 

modern-day culture war”– Rev. D. James Kennedy, Coral Ridge Ministries 

It is dominion we are after, not just a voice. It is dominion we are after, not 

just influence. It is dominion we are after, not just equal time. World

conquest. That is what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish.” – George 

Grant, former executive director of D. James Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Ministries. 

“Man your battle stations. Ready your weapons. They say this rhetoric is so 

inciting. I came to incite a riot.…Man your battle stations. Ready your 

weapons. Lock and Load.” – Rev. Rod Parsley 

“ We ’ re on the beaches of Normandy and we can see the pillbox entre n c h m e n t s 

of academic and media liberalism. We’ll take back our country for Christ.” 

– Rev. Russell Johnson, head of the Ohio Restoration Pro j e c t . 

Rush Limbaugh: “I tell people don’t kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we

can have two on every campus—living fossils—so we we’ll never forget what 

these people stood for.” 

Ann Coulter: “My only regret with Tim McVeigh is that he did not go to the 

New York Timesbuilding”

Bill O’Reilly: “Americans who work against our military once the [Iraq] war is 

underway will be considered Enemies of the State by me. Just fair warning to 

you, Barbara Streisand, and others who see the world as you do. I don’t want 

to demonize anyone, but anyone who hurts this country in a time like this, 

well, let’s just say you will be spotlighted.” 

Glen Beck: “Hang on, let me just tell you what I’m thinking. I’m thinking 

about killing Michael Moore, and I’m wondering if I could kill him myself, or 

if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could.” 

Eric Erickson (Redstate.com): “At what point do [people] get off the couch, 

march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside and beat him 

to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?” 

Michael Savage: “I say round liberals up and hang em’ high. When I hear 

someone’s in the civil rights business, I oil up my AR-25.” 

Dick Morris: “Those crazies in Montana who say ‘we’re going to kill ATF 

agents because the UN’s going to take over.’ Well, they’re beginning to have 

a case.” 

G . G orden Liddy (broadcasting advice on how to kill law enforc e m e n t 

officers): “…head-shots, they are wearing body armor, head shots… or shoot 

for the groin.” 

Now go right ahead  and talk to me about inflammatoriness.

 

 

By f p on 05/12/2009 1:38 pm
Libra Lady
Nanchan and Deber….great post and you said it very well….thank you.
By Libra Lady on 05/12/2009 1:31 pm
nanchan u
You are welcome.  I won’t respond to the above posts…. just proves our points, don’t they!
By nanchan u on 05/12/2009 1:45 pm