Intelligence Report: Pelosi Briefed on Use of Interrogation Tactics in Sept. ’02

[babylonsister]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/05/intelligence-re.html

Intelligence Report: Pelosi Briefed on Use of Interrogation Tactics in Sept. ’02
May 07, 2009 6:02 PM


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.

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.

The report details a Sept. 4, 2002 meeting between intelligence officials and Pelosi, then-House intelligence committee chairman Porter Goss, and two aides. At the time, Pelosi was the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee.

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.

snip//

UPDATE: The report also details dozens of other meetings with members of Congress -- though not with Pelosi present -- where the use of waterboarding and other interrogation techniques was described.

more...

[pleah]

1. K&R Well, well, well.

I knew all along that she had to have know what was going on. Now we know why impeachment was off the table.

[Sequoia]

7. Yes, didn't we all know it here at DU before everyone else?!

Remember when she got off Air Force One and exclaimed gleefullly how Bush wasn't such a bad guy. We knew then she'd been bought off hook, line and sinker. You see, Nancy, you can't fool us one bit.

[LakeSamish706]

2. And somehow I suspect this is why President Obama is not pushing like hell...

to charge the Bush Administration with war crimes (not his job I know, but he is not pushing for it either). My thoughts are that if charges are persued then some Dems. are going to get caught up in having had knowledge of the Interrogation techniques.

[bertman]

3. No doubt about it, LakeSamish706. But that's too bad for Pelosi, who should have

stood against torture. She was so caught up in the rhetoric from BushCo and the post-911 fever that she couldn't bring herself to stand for what was right and legal.

[Fuzz]

4. Disappointing. We need honest leadership. That's not too much to ask for, is it?

[gratuitous]

5. I'll happily throw Pelosi under the bus

If (and it's a big fat fucking IF) she was fully briefed on every last particular, every why, every wherefore, and every last scintilla of the Bush administration's internal workings on the matter.

Anyone want to bet me that that was the case? Ten will get you a hundred.

[emilyg]

8. I'll help you.

[ThomWV]

6. as we collectively sit here scratching our asses wondering why Impeachment was 'off the table'

[L. Coyote]

9. Consider the source!

[babylonsister]

10. Will Reuters work?

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N07389457.htm

snip//

Meanwhile, questions arose about how much House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew about the techniques.

A report to congressional leaders from CIA Director Leon Panetta disclosed that Pelosi, then the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, was briefed about the use of interrogation techniques in 2002.

She has said she was never told about the use of waterboarding -- simulated drowning -- or other techniques, saying only that the Bush administration had told her about legal opinions justifying their use.

But the report said Pelosi was briefed on Sept. 4, 2002, about enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs) on terrorism suspect Abu Zubaydah "and a description of the particular EITs that had been employed."

[L. Coyote]

14. Not really.

[gratuitous]

15. This is from 2002, remember

Pelosi wasn't Speaker; she was the then-equivalent of John Boehner today, and the Republicans were running roughshod over practically everything. The locution that Pelosi was "briefed" with "a desciption" of the techniques being used doesn't tell us anything, really. Pelosi was also in no position to register an objection, demand more information, or do anything else to affect what was going on. That is, if she even got enough information to form an opinion about what she was being "briefed" on that day in September 2002.

I'm a great deal more interested in holding responsible the people who actually dreamed up these "enhanced interrogation techniques," put them into practice, and wrote after-the-fact rationalizations for the torture they had inflicted on an insane person. This is really not much more than a feeble attempt to portray this Bush administration program as some kind of "bipartisan" effort.

[babylonsister]

16. Thank you for that reality check. You're right, it was a whole

different situation for Pelosi then. But she's getting a lot of flak for this, and will.

I want to know who is really responsible, too. I think we need to know and deserve it.

[pleah]

11. It is on the front page of ABC news/politics website. Link below.

http://abcnews.go.com/politics

[babylonsister]

12. There's a link in the OP, too. nt

[stillcool]

13. Not that I don't trust ABC news..

but where's the report?

[ProSense]

17. The media needs to focus on the real story: Bush war crimes. Here:

Scott Horton: The Bush Era Torture-Homicides

Note Gen. McCaffery's statement.

[spanone]

18. nothing 'pelosi knew' in any way absolves bu$h*/cheney of war crimes

[babylonsister]

19. That's true. But really, think about 'off the table'. nt