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Nancy Pelosi, CIA Interrogations | 05/15/2009 10:50 am

Sen. Bob Graham: Nancy Pelosi May Be Right, CIA Records on Waterboarding Briefings Are 'Suspect'

Throwing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a lifeline, former intel chairman says waterboarding wasn’t discussed at September 2002 briefings; Dems rally.
By The staff at wowOwow.com
Nancy Pelosi © AP

Could Sen. Bob Graham help Nancy Pelosi’s case?

Pelosi has been floundering in trying to convince everyone that she didn’t know waterboarding was being used on terror detainees in September of 2002. She claimed Thursday that the CIA "misled" the Congress on the issue. But former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham, D-FL, told the Huffington Post that he also wasn’t told all the waterboarding details, and said the CIA’s records on the congressional briefings are "suspect." As recent as a month ago, Graham claims the CIA gave him false information about how many times and when he was briefed on interrogation techniques; notes he kept in his own notebook didn’t jibe with everything the CIA had on record. But the briefing he definitely did sit in on happened on September 27, 2002.

Graham said he had "no recollection that issues such as waterboarding were discussed" on that date. To back that up, the not-so-secret nature of the whole meeting leads Graham to believe "that they didn’t brief us on any of the sensitive programs such as the waterboarding or other forms of excessive interrogation."

Democrats on the House intelligence committee said Thursday that if the CIA did in fact keep information from Congress — or if they lied — then they broke the law. They said members of Congress, especially those in the minority party, have little power to change intelligence policies.

"It is ridiculous to argue that the Speaker, who was then the ranking minority member of the Intelligence Committee, could have prevented President Bush from carrying out this policy," said House Intelligence Panel Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-TX, reports The Hill.

But not all Democrats are necessarily rushing to Pelosi’s side.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-MD, said Thursday he didn’t have enough information on the briefings to draw a conclusion, but he wasn’t inclined to doubt the CIA, reports Politico. He does, however, think the whole thing is a "distraction." Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-CT, echoed that sentiment Thursday, as well.

"This is an argument over something that’s been fixed and it’s now heading toward a major partisan war here on Capitol Hill, which will only distract us," Lieberman said. This whole debate is a "waste of time," he added. 

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

nanchan u

Another thread on this?  And I’m beginning to wonder about WOW.  Do you have an agreement with Huffington Post?  Why not use another source….. (yawn)……

By nanchan u on 05/15/2009 10:54 am
Kelly In Texas

Desparation Nanchan….desparation….no other sourse. The one saving grace with narcisissist….they belive that whatever they say will be believed….

Down they go…Pelosi first. All over 3, count ‘em 3 TERRORIST that walked away UNHARMED. What idiots….especially when you conside that waterboarding has been banned anyway since 2003…..banned by the BUSH CIA director Michael Hayden. There wasn’t any reason to bring it up now…but…maybe…for Obama to get rid of Pelosi?

Shoot low Sheriff, she’s riding a Shetland………

By Kelly In Texas on 05/15/2009 11:08 am
deber B
"Obama’s action in releasing the memos, in turn, spurred House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to deny that she knew anything about use of the techniques, even though the CIA had briefed her on them in September 2002. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., then asked the CIA to pinpoint when Pelosi and other congressional leaders had been briefed. When a CIA memo showed that Pelosi had dissembled about not being told of enhanced interrogation, she issued contradictory statements in an attempt to cloud the issue.

In the meantime, despite President Obama’s claim that he did not want to provide ammunition to terrorists so they could recruit more terrorists, he said he would release photos showing abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He finally backed down on releasing the photos. But having said he saw no harm in releasing them, he undermined the legal case for keeping them secret under the Freedom of Information Act.

Now that their own actions have backfired, congressional Democrats have decided that it was all a plot by the CIA. Despite the fact that the CIA prepared a listing of the briefings in response to a request by a member of Congress, Democrats are blaming the agency for releasing the details of the briefings to the Hill.

Charging that the CIA deliberately foisted the problem on Democrats, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who was briefed on enhanced interrogation techniques five times between 2006 and 2007 as a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said, “I think there is so much embarrassment in some quarters [of the CIA] that people are going to try to shift some of the responsibility to others …”

Focusing on the timing of the release of the CIA memo listing the congressional briefings, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he finds it “interesting that a document detailing congressional briefings was released just as some of the groups that have been responsible for these interrogation techniques were taking the most criticism.”

When asked by a reporter whether she thought the CIA was seeking political cover by releasing the documents, Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the intelligence committee, said “Sure it is.”

Not quite. It was Obama who started the chain of events that is now boomeranging on Democrats. By releasing the CIA memos and pointing the finger of blame for what he has called a mistake, Obama targeted CIA officers for recrimination.

What’s more important, it is Obama along with congressional Democrats who has made the CIA risk-averse. Together, they have done that by demonstrating to CIA officers that when asked to engage in a risky venture that has been approved by the president, the Justice Department, and key members of Congress, they may suffer consequences if they trust those assurances.

As former Director of Central Intelligence Porter Goss has said, it is certainly not trust that is fostered when intelligence officers are told one day I have your back only to learn a day later that a knife is being held to it.

Thus, as detailed in the Newsmax story Obama Has Paralyzed the CIA, at a time when al-Qaida is plotting to wipe us out with a nuclear attack, Obama and the Democrats have jeopardized our safety by returning the CIA to a pre-9/11 risk-averse mentality.

Democrat’s effort to blame it all on the CIA shows they have no shame.”
By deber B on 05/15/2009 11:13 am
nanchan u

"Democrat’s effort to blame it all on the CIA shows they have no shame"

And no leg to stand on either…. throw Nancy under the bus?  I’m wondering what she did to make them go after her so forcefully……??  Or was it just that they thought that waterboarding would be this big scandal and then when her name got thrown in the ring, all the sudden backpeddle?

Either way, pretty sneaky pete as Mom would say.

By nanchan u on 05/15/2009 11:21 am
f p

there are hundreds of good nonpolitical professionals in the CIA who are trying to do their important and difficult jobs. The agency has been abused by today’s Republican party over and over again. Remember that during the run-up to the Iraq war, Cheney pressed the agency to find intelligence to fit the case the administration wanted to make against Iraq – linking it to al-Qaida, fabricating a story about nuclear weapons – and even set up their own intelligence unit to give them the intel they wanted.

And most of all, Bush and Cheney really harmed the agency by putting Porter Goss in charge of it. Goss was a Florida GOP congressman. He was, in 2002, Pelosi’s counterpart on the House intelligence committee and as such was briefed with her. He brought political people into the agency who wrecked the place. Some major operations were taken out of the CIA’s hands and placed in other intelligence agencies. His number-three man wasconvicted of bribery in a massive scandal that involved a high-ranking member of Congress and a Pentagon contractor.

This was Cheney’s man at Langley. It’s pretty hard right now not to think that some of this rightwing pushback is emanating from somewhere in the Goss universe.

By f p on 05/16/2009 7:10 am
f p

The above is quoted from:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/may/15/nancy-pelosi-cia-torture-cheney 

By f p on 05/16/2009 7:13 am
Kelly In Texas

fp…and I suppose that Cheney forced our allies to come up with the same collaborating intelligence? No…of course not.

How about we focus on the person that is 3rd in line to the Presidency…not some underling in a past adiminstration. Need you be reminded of all of the current cabinet picks that have not been seated due to tax fraud?

If you are truly concerned about bribery and payoffs….do some research into ACORN..33 MILLION contribution to Obama…charged with voter fraud…and in line for BILLIONS from Obama policies. Check out GE….who they own, (networks) what they received from the bailout….what they stand to make off of cap and trade and the health plan. BILLIONS. Do you not think it curious that Dashle is now on board there? There are scandals out there that make any before…pale in comparison.

Let go of the Bush Derangment Syndrome and put that effort and concern where it belongs….in the HERE AND NOW.

By Kelly In Texas on 05/16/2009 12:22 pm
nanchan u
funniest quote of the DAY
By nanchan u on 05/15/2009 11:18 am
deber B

I don’t know accurate I’ll be but I have predicted that by late fall 2009, Obama will need extra secret service personnel (well, at least he willl have created some jobs) because Americans are going to realize that "hoisting" an inexperienced, well spoke salesman into the White House may not have been a good idea.  

George Bush will look like a saint by 2010.

By deber B on 05/15/2009 11:24 am
DeBúrca obj
Sounds like you are encouraging the idea of threats to the president based upon your narrow view of his administration. 
By DeBúrca obj on 05/15/2009 11:41 am
deber B
You know better than that.   We are going to have some very angry Americans….and there are loons on both sides.
By deber B on 05/15/2009 12:58 pm
DeBúrca obj

Are you suggesting Napolitano was right about ‘right wing extremist groups’??

As far as loons go…. If President Bush, the most hated President in modern times made it through 8 years with only a shoe thrown at him… I would suggest that there are not nearly as many loons on the left.

By DeBúrca obj on 05/15/2009 1:33 pm
deber B
I’m not suggesting anything.   I worried about George Bush’s safety and now I’m worried about President Obama’s safety.   Nothing more….nothing less.
By deber B on 05/15/2009 1:39 pm
Kelly In Texas

Deber…of course you were not suggesting anthing…so sorry that you had to answer to that one.

What would be our choice? Biden? Pelosi? ah….no….

By Kelly In Texas on 05/16/2009 12:31 pm
starry Nite
It sounded like you were suggesting violence against President Obama by angry people.
By starry Nite on 05/17/2009 1:20 am