Pelosi: Liar, Stupid or Both
Posted by johnhouk on May 14, 2009John R. Houk
© May 14, 2009
There is ONE WORD for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi – LIAR.
Contrary to a whole host of contradicting reports that Pelosi was indeed privy to “waterboarding” as enhanced interrogation techniques – EIT - (Most Republicans). Now that the Obama Administration and most Leftist Democrats have labeled waterboarding as torture, there has been a huge Leftist push to investigate the Bush Administration and the Intelligence Community concerning EIT.
I am willing to bet this Leftist push to fry the Bush Administration for keeping America safe will suddenly cool off. Why? The reason is an actual investigation will prove that Pelosi is a liar. That would mean one of the most powerful persons in America could be subject to a scandal that would do huge damage to the Democratic Party as the so-called Party of change.
As long as Pelosi is adamant that she was too stupid to understand what the of EIT is, I am fairly certain there will be no push from the House leadership in some kind of tawdry investigation of the Bush Administration keeping America safe.
Read the AP article (BELOW) that comes across as sympathetic toward liar – I mean
This has all the appearance that Speaker Pelosi is going to take on the CIA. So somebody is lying – either the CIA or Pelosi. Since I never trust a Democrat, I suspect Pelosi is lying. If Pelosi is lying she can say publicly “I want those documents made public” and hope the CIA will not release classified data to protect their position.
If the CIA is lying (which I doubt in this case), then the CIA or Pelosi. Since I never trust a Democrat, I suspect Pelosi is lying. If Pelosi is lying she can say publicly “I want those documents made public” and hope the CIA will not release classified data to protect their position.
If the CIA is lying (which I doubt in this case), then the release of classified document would show Pelosi is not as stupid as she appears.
I am guessing the CIA is doing some research and may pick & choose documents that make the CIA look good and infer that Pelosi is incompetent (or we could say a stupid liar).
She chastised reporters for falling for the Republicans’ political machinations and deflecting attention from their misdeeds. To clear the air, Pelosi said, “I’d be very happy if they released the briefings.”
And that is the only way this matter can be cleared up. A lot of documents should be declassified, including the briefing Pelosi cites. Either the CIA withheld information from Pelosi et al., or Pelosi is now lying. Either way, the briefing should be released.
While they are at it, all of the memos that deal with this topic should be released. Let’s see the intelligence on what al Qaeda was up to and what intelligence, precisely, came out of the interrogations of senior al Qaeda terrorists.
Something tells me that we will hear a response from the CIA shortly. (John McCormick)
Yeah baby, it is doubtful America’s chief spooks is going to allow Pelosi to malign them since there is an appearance the CIA tried to malign President Bush’s effort to invade Iraq.
Keep in mind that if Pelosi is leaning toward stupid rather than liar (I believe she is both), you have to know as Speaker of the House Pelosi is third in line if something horrible happens to the President and Vice President. This makes Pelosi one of the power elite in America. Does America want a stupid and/or liar to have such power?
JRH 5/14/09
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Pelosi says Bush team misled her on waterboarding
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer
May 14, 2009 12:42 PM CT
Yahoo News
WASHINGTON – Under strong attack from Republicans, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the CIA and Bush administration of misleading her about waterboarding detainees in the war on terror and sharply rebutted claims she was complicit in the method's use.
"To the contrary ... we were told explicitly that waterboarding was not being used," she told reporters, referring to a formal CIA briefing she received in the fall of 2002.
Pelosi said she subsequently learned that other lawmakers were told several months later by the CIA about the use of waterboarding.
"I wasn't briefed, I was informed that somebody else had been briefed about it," she said.
The House's top Democrat made her comments at a news conference where she was peppered with questions about her knowledge of a technique she and others have called torture. Republicans have insisted in recent weeks that Pelosi and other Democrats knew waterboarding was in use but made no attempt to protest.
Pelosi's comments Thursday were her most pointed yet on the topic of what she learned about waterboarding.
In a written response issued moments after Pelosi spoke, an official at the CIA neither disputed nor accepted the California Democrat's statements.
Instead, George Little, head of the CIA office of public affairs, said it would be up to Congress to determine whether notes made by agency personnel at the time they briefed lawmakers were accurate. He said the notes could be made available at the CIA "for staff review."
House Republican Leader John Boehner dismissed Pelosi's account.
"When you look at the number of briefings that the Speaker was in and other Democrat members of the House and Senate, it's pretty clear that they were well aware of what these enhanced interrogation techniques were," said the Ohio lawmaker. "They were well aware that they had been used, and it seems to me that they want to have it both ways. You can't have it both ways."
Despite Boehner's comments, CIA records show Pelosi attended only one briefing — the one in the fall of 2002 where she says she was told that waterboarding had not been used. A chart released by the CIA detailing its briefings for lawmakers is vague on what transpired at that session. It says Pelosi and the top Intelligence Committee Republican, then-Rep. Porter J. Goss of Florida, were given a "description of the particular (enhanced interrogation techniques) that had been employed," without further details.
The chart specifically notes a discussion of waterboarding in 13 briefings between February 2003 and March 2009, most attended by Democrats as well as Republicans.
Pelosi renewed her call for a so-called truth commission to investigate the events in the Bush administration that led to the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques. While President Barack Obama has banned waterboarding, calling it torture, he has been notably cool toward an independent inquiry that might distract attention from his domestic agenda.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also has expressed opposition, as have congressional Republicans.
Pelosi was particularly harsh in describing the CIA.
"They mislead us all the time," she said. And when a reporter asked whether the agency had lied, Pelosi said yes.
She also suggested that the current Republican criticism marked an attempt to divert attention from the Bush administration's actions.
"They misrepresented every step of the way, and they don't want that focus on them, so they try to turn the attention on us," she said.
Pelosi contended that Democrats did what they could to stop the use of waterboarding. The senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, who received the 2003 briefing on the practice, sent the CIA a formal letter of protest, she said.
But Pelosi defended her own lack of action on the issue, saying her focus at the time was on wresting congressional control from Republicans so her party could change course.
"No letter could change the policy. It was clear we had to change the leadership in Congress and in the White House. That was my job — the Congress part," Pelosi said.
When Pelosi first addressed the question in late April, she said only that those present at her 2002 briefing were not told that the practice had been employed.
"We were not — I repeat, were not — told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used," she said at the time.
Later, her spokesman elaborated, saying Pelosi had been told the methods were legal but that they had not yet been used.
On Thursday, Pelosi accused the CIA of having lied during that session by explicitly telling her that waterboarding was not used.
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Pelosi: Liar, Stupid or Both
John R. Houk
© May 14, 2009
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Pelosi says Bush team misled her on waterboarding
Associated Press Writers David Espo and Ann Sanner contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
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