[bumped - BarbinMD]
Greg Sargent:
None of the notes and memos that the CIA is aware of about the briefing Nancy Pelosi got on torture specified that she’d been briefed on the use of waterboarding, a CIA spokesperson confirms to me.
In the newly-released documents detailing the torture briefings given to members of Congress, the portion describing Pelosi’s single briefing says she was told about the use of enhanced interrogation techniques in general, but doesn’t specify whether she was told about the use of waterboarding. That was specified about some briefings given to others.
I asked CIA spokesperson Paul Gimigliano why. His answer: Because the notes and memos on the Pelosi meeting that form the basis for the docs didn’t allow them to go that far, meaning that they didn’t specify that she’d been briefed on waterboarding in particular.
...
To be clear, this doesn’t prove conclusively that Pelosi, who says she was only told of the legality of techniques, wasn’t briefed on the use of waterboarding. But if she was, no one made a specific note of it in any of the records the CIA is aware of. GOP Rep Pete Hoekstra is claiming that he’s seen documents that prove she was told. But the CIA doesn’t seem to have a record specifying this.
The most important point to remember is that whether or not Pelosi knew about waterboarding has no bearing on the legality of torture. This isn't about Democrats vs. Republicans -- it's about truth vs. fiction, and the rule of law vs. vigilante justice.
The fact that conservatives are so focused on what Pelosi knew and when she knew it is a tacit admission on their part that our torture program should be investigated, and it suggests that even they believe it was probably illegal.
But even if Nancy Pelosi was as intimately involved in the torture program as Dick Cheney -- which obviously is far from the truth -- torture is still wrong, and the justice system should be allowed to work.