PolitiFact: Nancy Pelosi's I Know Nossing Claims are "False"

Stating the obvious. Something we conservatives aren't used to seeing.

[Pelosi's] comments are directly contradicted by a CIA timeline prepared by the Director of National Intelligence that indicates Pelosi and Porter Goss, R-Florida, then-Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, were briefed on enhanced interrogation techniques.

Specifically, the CIA timeline states that on Sept. 4, 2002, Pelosi and Goss received a "Briefing on EITs (enhanced interrogation techniques) including use of EITs on (alleged al-Qaeda operative) Abu Zubaydah, background on authorities, and a description of the particular EITs that had been employed."

That briefing came a month after the CIA began using Justice Department-approved enhanced interrogation techniques - including the drowning simulation technique known as waterboarding - on Abu Zubaydah, according to a Justice Department memo released last month.

...

In a May 5, 2009, memo submitted with the timeline, CIA director Leon Panetta acknowledged the differing accounts of the meeting that Pelosi and Goss attended. But he said the CIA's version is based in part on records created at the time of the meeting.

...

At PolitiFact, we normally would be reluctant to make a Truth-O-Meter ruling in a he-said, she-said situation, but in this case, the evidence goes beyond the competing accounts from Pelosi and Goss. We are persuaded by the CIA timeline, which the agency says is based on "an extensive review of (the CIA's) electronic and hardcopy files."

It's also important to note that the timeline that contradicts Pelosi was put together at the behest of an administration controlled by her own party. That document provides compelling -- albeit sparsely worded -- evidence that Pelosi's recollection is incorrect.

Add in the fact her aide was, apparently indisputably, briefed about this in February 2003.

Again, the press used to be interested when a Speaker of the House provably lied about national security in an effort to play politics.

In fairness, the media is generating some outrage. David Shuster, for example, says he's disgusted and may vomit.

Over Carrie Prejean. Shuster's focused laser-like on the big stories.

Meanwhile, liberal columnist Richard Cohen allows himself to ponder the possibility that Cheney might be right about torture, which is a dangerous thing to do, doing that whole "question your own deeply-held assumptions" thing that liberals are always urging on conservatives but rarely seem interested in themselves.

Amidst the snark, he asks:

Cheney says he once had the memos in his files and has since asked that they be released. He's got a point. After all, this is not merely some political catfight conducted by bloggers, although it is a bit of that, too. Inescapably, it is about life and death -- not ideology, but people hurling themselves from the burning World Trade Center. If Cheney is right, then let the debate begin: What to do about enhanced interrogation methods? Should they be banned across the board, always and forever? Can we talk about what is and not just what ought to be?

This is terrific, but it should be noted that non-liberals have been seriously considering this question since 11 September 2001. Still, nice for Cohen to finally acknowledge it.

And back to Granny Rictus McBotoxImplants, just because it's sort of fun:

In a similar vein, can we also find out what Nancy Pelosi knew and when she knew it? If she did indeed know about waterboarding back in 2003, that would hardly make her a war criminal. But if she knew and insists otherwise, that would make her one of those people who will not acknowledge that the immediate post-Sept. 11 atmosphere allowed for methods that now seem abhorrent. Certain Democratic politicians remind me of what Oscar Levant supposedly said of Doris Day: "I knew [her] before she was a virgin." They have no memory of who they used to be.

Heh.

It occurs to me that David Shuster's venom for Carrie Prejean -- dumb, disgusting, superficial, a winner of a "beauty pageant" -- applies more to Granny Rictus McBotoxImplants, who's sporting more molded plastic on her than a '73 Corvette Stingray.*

* An old Letterman gag, back when he was funny.

Whoa! DrewM points out this headline item: Steny Hoyer, the Dem's Number Two and the man who would, presumably, become Speaker of the House should Granny Rictus McBotoxImplants be removed from her post, wants any investigation into torture to include what Pelosi knew:

Interrogation Probe Should Include What Pelosi Knew, Hoyer Says

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Tuesday that investigations into the Bush administration’s use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects should look into what congressional leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, knew about the methods that have been criticized as torture....

“Frankly, information about what was said, when it was said, who said it, that ought to be on the record so the American public knows,” Hoyer said.

Hmmm... check out Steny Hoyer's bus! It doesn't have monster-truck wheels like Obma's, but I'm pretty sure it could roll over Nan-Nan without breaking an axle.

posted by Ace at 04:31 PM

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