Democrites: Nancy Pelosi and Torture

Congressional Democrats and President Obama ran on the platform of significantly changing the direction of this country, from domestic policy to national security. But lately, Democrats have been taking a number of actions on national security that are alarming at best and hypocritical at worst. This post is the first of the blog series "Democrites," coming from the perspective of a member of loyal opposition, to call Democrats out on their questionable actions when they occur.

For years, the House Speaker has condemned the use of torture, or what the Republican spin machine calls "enhanced interrogation techniques." But newly released memos last week showed that Pelosi was briefed by the CIA as early as 2002 about the use of these specific techniques, and specifically water-boarding. Despite these revelations, even Representative Pelosi didn't claim to have spoken up against torture.

These events promoted her to eventually hold a press conference with the intent of clearing doubt. But instead, she created more concern by giving a poor performance, desperately going back to her notes and a written statement in response to every question and accusing the CIA of lying. This is an extraordinary charge on the part of Representative Pelosi that warrants either actual evidence to counter the CIA memos or a full-hearted apology to the men and women of our intelligence community. We have seen a member of intelligence community becoming the victim of politics; her name was Valerie Plame. And we have already had a politician who accused an American government agency of deceit and disloyalty; his name was Joseph McCarthy.

Representative Pelosi could not have publicly criticized the CIA in 2003 for the use of torture because of the confidentiality of those actions. But she could have strongly objected to their use behind closed doors or threatened the Bush administration to come out with this internationally illegal interrogations technique, but she did neither. She could have also refrained from criticizing water-boarding after the public outrage leveled up in the ensuing years in order to remain consistent, but she did the opposite and became a vocal opponent of torture as if she had opposed it all along. And when the CIA memos came out and Representative Pelosi accused the CIA of lying, Leon Panetta -- the current CIA Director, and, until recently, Nancy Pelosi's former Congressional colleague and fellow Democrat from California -- came out with a statement that left a way for her to get out of her own predicament. Panetta's statement read as follows: "our contemporaneous records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing 'the enhanced techniques that had been employed.'" Referring to "contemporaneous" memos is far from any kind of sharp attack on Rep. Pelosi. She could have easily contested the accuracy of those contemporaneous memos instead of extraordinarily accuse the CIA of lying.

It is hard to predict what Nancy Pelosi is going to do to change (or stop) the debate on what she knew and when she knew it. But by taking many wrong steps on water-boarding -- starting with her silence in 2003 -- she has effectively made the possibility of a Truth Commission and prosecution of those who ordered them during the Bush years more remote because Democrats are now going to be much less inclined to support a process that can get themselves into hot water.

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Comments

[FullChat]

WTF?? Nancy is to blame for torture because she may have heard something about it in 2002. There were about 40 briefings on torture according to the recollections of the CIA; did anyone protest besides Harmon?

Nancy is in trouble - how about the entire Bush administration? Aren't they in just a little more trouble?

[jmpurser]

Frankly if the GOP can do us a favor and get rid of Ms "Impeachment is off the table" then I say it's about time the GOP was good for something!

When you take a hostage make sure it's somebody that someone else values. You can have Pelosi. Now where's my war crimes trial?

[Gidster]

Ms Pelosi was not Speaker in 2002, she was minority leader. The way the minority was treated in 2002, it would not surprise me that she was told the bare minimum to be compliant.

[jmpurser]

Three things I don't understand about this:
1) What exactly was Nancy Pelosi supposed to have been told in 2002? "Good morning Ms Pelosi, we've begun torturing people in clear violation of United States and international law. Have a nice day." Does anyone think the CIA really told her that?

2) If they did tell her that in a classified intelligence briefing what exactly could she have done about it aside from writing President Bush a nasty note?

3) What possible difference does any answer to 1 and 2 make in deciding whether or not we appoint an independent prosecutor for war crimes and have a truth commission to investigate the other abuses of power?

Seriously, how is this a problem for Speaker Pelosi and even if it is a problem for her how does that lessen the duty to pursue justice? This is a straw man argument and we need to torch it and move on.

[BKearney]

Yes, yes, yes get to the bottom of this horrid chapter in our nations history. If the torture of anyone can be attributed to a person or group of people let it happen. Punish those guilty and learn the lesson that torture is wrong. If Nancy Pelosi is guilty of torturing or ordering the torture of detainees she should hang with the rest. Any thinking person knew we tortured people, it's not left wing conspericy it's fact and it was done in our name. Those guilty of these crimes must be punished, let that to be done in our name.

[ThesagaciousOne]

I think that Pres. Obama wants to put this to bed, because he is afraid that it will come out that he is prepared to do the exact same thing. Only, instead of calling it "Enhanced Interrogation" he will call it "Guided Interrogation."

[BadgersBite]

Even the CIA admits that they can't say for certain what was said during those breifings. She claims she was not told about the "Enhanced Tecniques", hard to beleive the CIA would lie -right?

[sharonh]

I'm afraid you've got that backasswards. The bigger an issue these PelosiLeeches make this, the more chance it will see the light of day--as it should. All loyal Dems want this to be brought out in the open. Why is it that Graham of sen intel, with the exact same allegations as Pelosi, is never questioned? The GOPers are simply trying to deflect their crimesAndSins onto Pelosi, and it is going to backfire. Good.

[AngelaQuattrano]

It's just part of a game to trick the Republicans into calling for a Truth Commission. They will take the bait, and it will seriously backfire on them. Truth be told, Nancy Pelosi is far down the list of those who were culpable for what the Bush administration wrought.

[dare i hope]

Congress should worry more about upholding the ideals of this nation than getting Nancy Pelosi out of hot water. Start a bipartisan commission and throw the book at anyone who had anything to do with implementing torture.

[wdw505]

bye bye nancy

laughing

[gloriousbeing]

SORE LOSER COMMENT. Hopefully, there WILL be a truth commission and we will find out exactly who was and continues to be complicit, no matter what party affiliation. Is that what you are hoping for as well?

[escorpion]

Pelosi is a much more skillful and intelligent Speaker than Newt Gingrich ever was or could be, and she'll still be in that post long after his quest for the 2012 nomination fizzles out. Sorry.

[libslayerguy]

Though I have some questions about Pelosi's leadership during the W years, she puts the ethically-­challenege­d Tom DeLay to shame as well.