I'm no fan of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. When she insisted that the impeachment of George W. Bush was "off the table," she set the historical precedent that there is no such thing as an impeachable offense. The United States paid for that mistake then, it's paying for it now, and it'll pay for it long into the future. The Bush administration and their Republican apologists have poisoned the political debate in this country, destroyed people's trust in government, and created the impression that all federal and international laws applying to the executive branch are optional. In short, the house was on fire and Pelosi didn't just refuse to put it out, she refused to even consider putting it out.That said, I have no problem believing her when she says the CIA lied to her. The agency is loaded down with Bush appointees. And, as we've seen in the past, the Bush administration valued loyalty as a job qualification over competence or ability. We know that the Bush White House was a BS factory, so any agency staffed with Bush appointees should be suspect. If Pelosi says she was misled, I see no reason to disbelieve her. I quit giving the Bush administration the benefit of the doubt a long, long time ago.
"We were told that waterboarding was not being used," Pelosi said at a press conference. "That's the only mention, that they were not using it. And we now know that earlier they were." Former Sen. Bob Graham, the only other Democrat to be briefed on detainees by the CIA at the time, tells the same story.
"I do not have any recollection of being briefed on waterboarding or other forms of extraordinary interrogation techniques, or Abu Zubaydah being subjected to them..." Graham told Greg Sargent. "Something as unexpected and dramatic as that would be the kind of thing that you would normally expect to recall even years later."... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
