Yesterday, I got roundly slammed for criticizing Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats for their statements regarding when they learned about the use of waterboarding. So I will put the various incarnations of Speaker Pelosi's statements below, and you can judge for yourself.
I'm an equal opportunity critic when it comes to people of any political stripe misleading to the public. The Washington Post and other MSM, not surprisingly, are actually covering this--a fact that speaks for itself. //http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-d...
Judge for yourself. Here are Pelosi's shifting accounts of what she knew and when she knew it:
December 12, 2007 statement:
On one occasion, [On September 24,] 2002, I was briefed on interrogation techniques the administration was considering using in the future. The administration advised that legal counsel for both the CIA and the Department of Justice had concluded that the techniques were legal . . .I had no further briefings on the techniques. Several months later . . . Jane Harman was briefed more extensively and advised the techniques had in fact been employed.
February 25, 2009 on the Rachel Maddow show:
The fact is, they did not brief--well, first of all, we're not allowed to talk about what happens there, but I can say they did not brief us with these enhanced interrogations that were taking place. They did not brief us. They were talking about an array of interrogations that they might have at their disposal . . . But I can say flat out, they never told us that these enhancement interrrogations were being used.
April 23, 2009 news conference:
It is not appropriate for me to talk about what happens at briefings. It is very interesting that people are talking so freely. But I can say this: They have been talking about it for a while. At that or any other briefing, and that was the only briefing that I was briefed on in that regard, we were not--I repeat--were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used.
May 14, 2009 statement:
The CIA briefed me only once on some enhanced interrogation techniques . . . The only mention of waterboarding at that briefing was that it was not being employed . . . Those briefing me in September 2002 gave me inaccurate and incomplete information . . .[O]n February [5,] 2003, a member of my staff [Michael Sheehy] informed me that [other legislators] had been briefed that these techniques were now being used.
Yesterday, I got a lot of vitriol and excuses: 1) The CIA was lying about everything back then. 2) She was bound by confidentiality and couldn't tell anybody. [This seems to contradict #1, implying that she in fact believed the worst; moreover, she ciould have registered her protest to the Bush Administration.] 3) She had no power back then. [I know she was only the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, but really??] 4) Criticizing Pelosi is playing into Republican hands, making us fight amongst ourselves [As if accountability is a one-way street. As I've said all along, I believe one of the barriers to prosecution has been possible liability of the congressional leadership, both Democrats and Republicans.]
Go ahead. Slam me for "going after Democrats." Just to be clear, I think Bush, Cheney and their ilk are guilty as sin. But it's hypocritical to go after Republicans for protecting their own. Pelosi could have saved herself this grief by coming clean earlier that she had been informed that the CIA was using waterboarding. I don't like being misled, much less lied to.
UPDATE 1: Commenters seem to think I'm talking about some sort of contradiction between 2002 and 2003. I'm talking about the discrepancy between what she said yesterday and what she's been saying for the past 18 months.
UPDATE 2: Yesterday I was on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show, later excerpted by Keith Olbermann, in which former Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), who was chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said for the first time
I have no recollection during the briefing that I did receive on September 27th of '02 that the issue of waterboarding Zubaydah or other extreme techniques were discussed. I think I have a pretty good memory.
I will be on shortly at 11:45am discussing yesterday's statements by Pelosi and Graham (as well as this being a distration from the real torture engineers who need to be prosecuted.) Former CIA officer of Bob Baer is on with me.