Who Knew, When did they Know and Let's Move ON!

by Maxwell Smart⁽³⁾

Nancy Pelosi was briefed on torture (known by Bush/Cheney types as “enhanced interrogation techniques.” On Sept. 4, 2002 , less than a year after 9/11, the CIA briefed Rep. Porter Goss, then House Intelligence Committee chairman, and Mrs. Pelosi, then the committee's ranking Democrat, on EITs including waterboarding. They were the first members of Congress to be informed, but there were other members of Congress that received CIA briefings.

Bob Graham on 9/27/02 (he can’t remember being briefed)

Richard Shelby on 9/27/02

Pat Roberts on 2/4/03

John Rockefeller on 2/4/03

Jane Haman on 2/5/03

Ted Stevens on 10/18/05

And the list goes on to include: Bill Fist, Duncan Hunter, Peter Hoekstra, Harry Reid, John Murtha, Bill Young Mike Dewine, Even Bayh, Christopher Bond, Saxby Chambiss, Russ Feingold, Dianne Feinstein, Trent Lott Barbara Mikulski, and John Warner, and on and on goes the list. See the document at: TMP Muckraker

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/documents/2009/05/member-briefings-on-enhanced-interrogation-techniques-eits.php?page=1

I find it odd that there were two people in that first CIA briefing and only one of them is being blasted by Republicans and the media. It is perplexing that Nancy Pelosi is singled out for not pushing back when the CIA revealed whatever it was they revealed, and yet Porter Goss was also present. Nearly a dozen members of Congress were privy to CIA briefing information and none of them “pushed back.”

I, for one wish Pelosi had pushed back, and made a stink and exposed the tortures being planned and implemented by the Bush/Cheney Administration. I actually don’t care what party anyone is a member of if they condoned and permitted torture. If Nancy Pelosi is guilty of allowing criminals to be tortured then she should have a cell right next Cheney and Bush. But what is to be gained by all this prior knowledge blame game? What we are bound to discover is that when the sh#t hits the fan it is not evenly distributed. The crap goes everywhere an no politician or staffer involved is going to escape being crap coated.

Pelosi claims the CIA mislead her, and I am pretty sure this will never be proven or refuted to the satisfaction of the electorate. In 1984 Barry Goldwater, A REPUBLICAN, who at the time was head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, testified that the CIA LIED TO HIM about mining the harbors of Nicaragua. Pelosi would not be the first politician the CIA lied to, nor will she be the last. No one should be surprised that an agency that exists to spy, to work in secret, and lies daily and consistently in order to faithfully carry out their governmental assignment would continue to lie when briefing Congress in closed door meetings?

Why are we spending so much time debating the issue of effectiveness? Cheney is demanding that CIA documents be released to prove that the torture worked. Is that really a topic that we should debate? If we are ready to allow torture to get information out of our enemies are we going to return to the days when detained suspects of criminal activities are beaten until they “confess” to the crimes the cops want them to fess up to? If law enforcement detains you, beats you with a rubber hose, and continues to torture you until you confess to a crime, currently, we arrest the torturing cops. Working over a suspect with a rubber hose may be effective, but it is still not right. Torture, even if it is effective, is not right.

It is time to have a special prosecutor, to have evidence gathered (sans the torture) and to indicted and prosecute anyone who is guilty of committing a crime, and let the chips fall where they may. This Pelosi stuff is vengeful and distracting. The Republican critics, piously attack Pelosi, because they need to change the subject from a discussion of the immorality and illegality of the Bush administration to an irrelevant sideshow. Nobody with a logical mind is saying that Nancy Pelosi thought up waterboarding, and ordered puppet lawyers to write memos that justify it, and then demanded that the CIA go forth an torture. The torture was never ordered by Pelosi nor was it within her authority to order it. The Republicans, lead by Minority Leader Boehner seem enamored by their pointless arguments, forgetting that even if Pelosi was told what the Bush/Cheney thugs were doing, the torture was authorized and justified by the Party in Power at that time, the Republican Party. The torture rests securely on the shoulders of the Republican President the head of the Republican Party. Under President Obama the practice of torture has been ordered to stop. There are no enhanced interrogation techniques allowed under the present administration.

Article submitted Saturday, May 16, 2009 & read 782 times.

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