Remember this from May of last year:
Since the release of his new book, Courting Disaster, Marc Thiessen has been on fire, making his rounds to promote the book (which is a GREAT thing), while also writing articles to set the record straight on the issue of the CIA and enhanced interrogations. It is critical that the American public understands that we did not compromise our core values, that our CIA did not torture, that media leaks and President Obama’s release of the OLC memos damages our national security and benefits al Qaeda; and that the CIA program is the reason why another 9/11 attack has not been successfully carried out (yet).
Yesterday, in the Washington Post, Thiessen writes a devastating article on Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi:
In mid-2004, then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi learned something from a CIA briefing that made her blood boil. Pelosi reportedly “came unglued” at the revelation and had “strong words” with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, demanding that the CIA abandon its plans. As a result, a top-secret finding that President George W. Bush signed to authorize the CIA’s activities was revised. Pelosi succeeded in stopping the agency from moving forward with the controversial operation.
What drove Pelosi to action? Not the CIA’s waterboarding of suspected al-Qaeda terrorists
In a 2009 interview, a former senior Bush administration official directed me to a little-noticed item from Time magazine. According to this 2004 report, Pelosi objected to a CIA plan to provide money to moderate political parties in Iraq ahead of scheduled elections, in an effort to counter Iran, which was funneling millions to extremist elements. “House minority leader Nancy Pelosi ‘came unglued’ when she learned about what a source described as a plan for ‘the CIA to put an operation in place to affect the outcome of the elections,’ ” Time reported. “Pelosi had strong words with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in a phone call about the issue. . . . A senior U.S. official hinted that, under pressure from the Hill, the Administration scaled back its original plans.” (Her role was also reported on this page by David Ignatius in 2007.)
Why is this important? Because on May 14, 2009, Pelosi, now speaker of the House, declared in a Capitol Hill news conference that she had opposed CIA waterboarding but was powerless to stop it. A former senior intelligence official told me in 2009 that he was shocked by Pelosi’s claim because, he said, “Speaker Pelosi herself has stopped covert action programs that she has been briefed on by going to the White House. In that very same time frame [after she learned about waterboarding] Pelosi had gone back to the White House [over] a separate covert action program, expressed strong opposition to it. And the remarkable part to me, the White House backed off the program, changed one aspect of the program . . . she was particularly opposed to. And literally, the finding was pulled back and revised.” If Pelosi had truly opposed waterboarding, he said, she had numerous ways to stop it — but she didn’t try.
At the time of her press briefing, Pelosi had been forced to acknowledge that she had learned in February 2003 that waterboarding was being used. Why, reporters asked, did she not object? Flustered, Pelosi claimed that it was not her place to complain because she was no longer the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee. “A letter raising concerns was sent to CIA general counsel Scott Muller by the new Democratic ranking member of [the] committee [Jane Harman], the appropriate person to register a protest.” She made this claim five times during the briefing.
In fact, Harman’s letter, since declassified, did not “register a protest”; it asked “what kind of policy review took place” and urged the agency not to destroy interrogation tapes. Moreover, when Pelosi made this claim, she knew that in 2004, when she was no longer the committee’s ranking member, she had personally intervened with the White House to stop different covert action. She did not defer to Harman; she herself took action. Why was it “appropriate” for her to intervene then but not in the case of waterboarding?
Pelosi was asked by a reporter, “Do you wish now that you had done more? Do you wish it had been your own letter?” Pelosi replied, “No, no, no, no, no, no . . . No letter or anything else is going to stop them from doing what they’re going to do.” She made this claim three times during the briefing. All the while knowing that her phone call to Rice in 2004 had stopped the CIA from “doing what they were going to do” in a different covert operation.
As one of the top four leaders on Capitol Hill, Pelosi had numerous tools at her disposal if she had truly wanted to block waterboarding. She could have threatened to put a hold on funding for the CIA interrogation program, or held up funding for other administration priorities, or worked with her Senate counterparts to hold up nominees for senior CIA positions, or simply called the national security adviser — as she reportedly did in the case of the Iraq program. Pelosi did none of those things when she learned about waterboarding. By her silence, Pelosi gave her consent — and then misled the media by claiming she was powerless to act.
Journalists did not question Pelosi’s claims — and then they stopped questioning her. Pelosi announced that she would not take more questions on the topic, and the media complied. Reporters who relentlessly chased the Valerie Plame leak let the story drop. Pelosi’s role in stopping another covert operation gives lie to her claims that she was powerless to stop waterboarding — but the Washington press corps failed to “connect the dots.” Now that the truth is out, will they continue to let her get away with not answering questions? We’ll learn the answer at her next press briefing.
The press had her on the ropes, then gave her breathing room when she bared her fangs the following week. She told them to drop the topic, and they did.
It’s time to light her up, again.
Some previous posts:
Nancy Pelosi Admits Knowledge Of Waterboarding….BUT Didn’t Think The CIA Would Use It
Republican Asks Dept of Justice to Investigate Pelosoi and Others Over Torture Briefings
Nancy Pelosi was an accomplice to ‘torture.’
ABC, CBS and NBC Ignore Pelosi’s Torture Hypocrisy
Krauthammer – Pelosi At War With CIA & Will Lose The Fight
Sputtering, “Spooked” Speaker Spins Shaky Story on Torture AGAIN!
VIDEO: Pelosi Says Interrogations OK in 2006
Newt Gingrich Dumps on Nancy Pelsoi
Nancy Pelosi Running Scared…Blames Bush For Her Lies
There Once Was a Speaker Named Nancy
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
Anyone related to Polishi should be forced into a mental facility before they start foaming at the mouth. Oh, forgot. That’s the tactic that will be used by O’Dumbo to brainwash the population.
Who do you think lies more, Obama or Pelosi?
Both lie equally well and often. Pelosi should be tried for treason, found guilty and sentence carried out.
Sooooooooooo…………what else is new?
Everytime she lies about what our country does to keep it safe, the noose tightens around our necks. Check out the video Old Trooper posted in the open thread, we can’t allow this fool to play games with the people or methods they need to use to defend us.
She’s used her power and lies to damage our defenses, this administration and this Congress have intentionally weakened the CIA, have done everything they can to embarrass the agency. We can’t have this evil woman or the idiots working with her thwarting the safety of this country.
Pelosi has been elected and re-elected time after time by the “useful idiots” . It’s time to go after the “useful idiots”, then with luck we will be rid of her. She is another good example of the need for term limits.
@ Rides a Pale Horse,
You took the words right out of my mouth, LOL.
I’d love to get her on a polygraph for an hour or so. Just a few Yes or No questions, nothing really elaborate or complicated. What does she know and when did she know it would be the start point. A small dose of sodium pentathol or a few slugs of her favorite booze that she stocks her Air Force Jet Taxi with would loosen her tongue.
She has the very same problem that most habitual liars encounter. They must remember the last lie they told and who they told it to. I’ts even better yet if captured on tape or film. She does not lead the “most ethical Congress ever”, not even close. The Founding Fathers never envisioned an Elite Class of Career Politicians over two centuries ago or term limits would be in the Constitution.
She is the Daughter of a crooked Mayor of Baltimore and the product of the inbred “class system” that career politicians become infected with if they spend too much time in office. They become elitists by virtue of “tenure” and have a seniority system not unlike the Pennsylvania Railroad and pensions like royalty. The average Congress person or Senator that serves a few terms enters office with a few bucks in their pockets and leave office with wealth that “just got created” by some mystery of fate.
I don’t expect to see term limits for worthless pogues like her in my lifetime but I’d like a straight answer or two from her mouth. The taxpayers are entitled to a little honesty but they won’t get it from her. I’d like to know why her offshore, Samoan Tuna cannery does not pay its employees US minimum wage for one thing. Or why her Husbands Real Estate/Construction outfit gets DOD Projects that get outsourced for huge piles of taxpayer loot.
I know, keep dreaming…
Nancy Pelosi, dedicated to serving the people, …a few of the people, …specifically, HER PEOPLE.