Interesting and disappointing news came out a little while ago regarding Speaker Pelosi's previous statements about her knowledge of torture being used on "enemy combatants":
ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" on terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah in September 2002, according to a report prepared by the Director of National Intelligence’s office and obtained by ABC News.
Now what is disturbing about this is that this new information goes against what Pelosi has been saying all along:
The report, submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee and other Capitol Hill officials Wednesday, appears to contradict Pelosi’s statement last month that she was never told about the use of waterboarding or other special interrogation tactics. Instead, she has said, she was told only that the Bush administration had legal opinions that would have supported the use of such techniques.
So which is it, Nancy? We'd better get a new statement from you soon, because the one already released through your spokesman does absolutely nothing to ease my discomfort with your handling of this:
Brendan Daly, a Pelosi spokesman, said Pelosi’s recollection of the meeting is different than the way it is described in the report from the DNI’s office.
"The briefers described these techniques, said they were legal, but said that waterboarding had not yet been used," Daly said.
Are you sticking by your original statement? Is your memory too fuzzy to remember the timetable (we've heard that defense before...)? Will you come clean that you knew that torture was being used, as the report states:
The meeting is described as a "Briefing on EITs including use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah, background on authorities, and a description of particular EITs that had been employed."
EITs stand for "enhanced interrogation techniques," a classification of special interrogation tactics that includes waterboarding.
So what can we do about this? If we don't get a special prosecutor appointed by AG Holder, are we really expecting the House and Senate to investigate themselves? The report is saying that dozens of meetings were held with members of both parties telling them about the "enhanced interrogations", which means there are lots of people with lots to lose. I personally don't trust any congressional inquiry into torture, because they'll be first and foremost looking to protect their own asses, especially when the top dog is smack dab in the middle of this controversy.
We need a special prosecutor now. We need him/her to investigate the torturers themselves, those who gave them the go-ahead in the Bush administration, and those who enabled them in Congress. Anything less and we're barely better than the terrorists we fight against.