House Speaker Pelosi
In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA’s overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk. Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said. “The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough,” said a U.S. official who witnessed the exchange.
Congressional leaders from both parties would later seize on waterboarding as a symbol of the worst excesses of the Bush administration’s counterterrorism effort. The CIA last week admitted that videotape of an interrogation of one of the waterboarded detainees was destroyed in 2005 against the advice of Justice Department and White House officials, provoking allegations that its actions were illegal and the destruction was a coverup. Yet long before “waterboarding” entered the public discourse, the CIA gave key legislative overseers about 30 private briefings, some of which included descriptions of that technique and other harsh interrogation methods, according to interviews with multiple U.S. officials with firsthand knowledge.
Sounds to me like the CIA got a “green light” for this program.
Of course they were green-lighted. What do you expect, with chickenhawks like President Cheney/Rove in charge, and the Chimperor in Chief flapping his gums as they pull the strings?
They love manly stuff like pain, torture, and war, as long as THEY are not personally involved. It’s like a video game for them.
Ha ha dumbos.
It’s almost as if #1 can’t read — BOTH parties leaders had no problem with it until one saw it as a way to make political headway.
To all it may concern – war and peace is a messy, messy game. That’s why it most people really shouldn’t be made aware of what is done. It’s nasty, dirty and stuff that no one should have to do. But it has to be done.
Tieing the hands of those whose job it is to keep US (not the world) free and safe is neither logical or desired. Using your everyday morality in regards to having to deal with very bad people won’t work.
The enemy is never logical, kind or trying to “do what’s right”. They want to kill you – whether you are a flowers in the hair, waterboarding is bad type OR if you want to fight fire with fire.
#1 – they want to kill you, they really don’t care how civilized or pro-human rights you are.
>>It’s almost as if #1 can’t read
Sure I can read, champ. It’s just that I don’t agree with the adoption of ineffective torture techniques, that go against the accepted provisions of the Geneva convention, implemented by chickenhawks and other cowards, in an effort to garner favor with the rednecked Pabst Blue Ribbon guys who are Dumbya’s (and President Cheney/ Rove’s) core constitutency.
If they win, the terrorists win. Or have they already won?
I personally love the dichotomy of hard core Bush bashers. I dislike most of what Bush has done. But he can’t be a dumbass that can’t tie his shoes…and a mastermind that tricked the Dems into everything all at the same time. You can’t have it both ways. He’s an evil genius, or he’s a moron.
I don’t think he’s either. I think he’s of average intelligence (which doesn’t say much), and he does what he thinks is right. He’s shortsighted, and too stubborn for words. He’s not evil.
>>But he can’t be a dumbass that can’t tie his
>>shoes…and a mastermind that tricked the Dems
>>into everything all at the same time.
Of course not. He’s a dumbass that can’t tie his shoes, and President Cheney/ Rove is a mastermind.
There was no tricking of Democrats, though. He tricked the Supreme Court and the American sheeple, and managed to get himself into a situation where the neocons controlled the Executive Branch, the Senate, and the Congress all at the same time.
That’s why he (and President Cheney/ Rove) could push through all this anti-American bullshit, before he was swept out on the outgoing tide of corruption, cowardice, and deceit.
Got that?
September 2002 = the 1st anniversary of 9/11
They WILL say that Nancy was one of the 4 people at the briefing, but WON’T say that she was one of the “at least two lawmakers” who wanted the CIA to “push harder”.
Is that meant to imply that Nancy was one of the “at least two”?? and any objection to it now – by her – is a flip-flop?
It doesn’t matter who was briefed… it was a classified briefing. No one attending the briefing could talk to anyone about the material presented…
September 2002… do you really expect anyone to publicly criticize the “War” effort at that time – pre-Iraq invasion – and risk being pilloried for “giving aid and comfort to the enemy”??
These briefings were a great idea by Cheney & Co. Tell a few leaders what was REALLY going on, knowing full well those leaders couldn’t say anything publicly… and then be able to honestly say “But, we told them all about it – and a couple of them liked the idea”.
Genius.
Evil, but Genius.
>>Sounds to me like the CIA got a “green light” for this program.
Sucker.
That’s exactly what they want you to believe. This is clearly butt covering spin and you fell for it.
The Congresspeople were not allowed to take notes, consult lawyers or even talk to their own staff about this. They had no way to confirm that they were even being told the truth by the CIA.
How IN BLOODY HECK we’re they supposed to make informed judgments under those conditions?
Answer: they couldn’t… and that was the whole point of this farce
Oh, yes he can, Calin. He just has to be smarter than the Dumbocrats. LOLOL.
No comments about the hypocrisy of the Democrats? Only Republicans have morals, so they are the only ones who can by hypocrites, right? No one expects Democrats to have any sort of morality, so them lying is simply not news?
Cheney is the mastermind?? The guy that can’t tell a lawyer from a small game bird?
I think you’re giving the Dems more credit than they’re due. The average politician is functionally retarded. It doesn’t matter if there’s an (R) or a (D) by their name. They are all crooks, and only in it for themselves. It doesn’t matter which party they happen to belong to. Their only job is to get re-elected and collect as much under-the-table cash as possible without getting caught. Remember the official motto of Congress: “Screw America….I gotta get mine.”
>>Cheney is the mastermind?? The guy that
>>can’t tell a lawyer from a small game bird?
Oh, he can tell all right. See the evil genius that he is??
>>They are all crooks, and only in it for >>themselves.
Well, that’s your opinion, and you’re entitled to it (meaning I won’t seek out your ISP and send my barracuda lawyers after you). Some of the “crooks” seem to do things that are good for America, and some don’t. In the last 7 years, none of the jesters in Little King Georgie’s court seem to have fallen into the former category, not even the Head Jester himself.
Dems, neocons, R, D, whatever, does it make any difference?
Where there is a war people die.
War is not a sport, there are no rules, just primal instincts.
You may fool yourself with “rules of engagement”, “geneva conventions”, “smart weapons” etc etc, but the nature of wars haven’t changed just because you don’t see any bodybags on CNN 😀
What’s wrong with torturing enemies if it may save our own people?
How about poison snakes? How about biting them in the balls with poison snakes?
Sounds like a good way to get some information… Let the second subject watch the first…
OK, what happened to throwing them out of the helicopter on the way back to base? Again let the second one watch the first.
“Hey what happened to all of the prisoners?”
#13 you mistaken murdering POWs with torturing them… there is a big difference, you know?
>>you mistaken murdering POWs with torturing
>>them… there is a big difference, you know?
To Little King Georgie’s puppetmasters, there’s precious little difference.
#14–PVC==actually, #13 is correct in everything he posted. He did not mention torture. He is talking about “How do you get information out of Prisoner #2?” Getting Prisoner #1 tossed out of the helicopter is one way although I would rather be tossed than totured myself?
So, yes the Huffington post has a thread on how the Democrats have become addicted to caving into the Repugs. Nice read that appears to be insightful on this. Just shameful!!
Impeach Bushie Boy and his cabal NOW so that the Next President will not act with such contempt towards Congress, the Constitution, and the GOUSA!!!
After a few beers I’d water board Pelosi. Hoosier daddy…
The fact is that both parties signed off on waterboarding. The Democrats are equally guilty for all you Bush bashers. This is not a Republican vs. Democrat issue. Both Repubs and Dems understand that waterboarding is a physically harmless technique of breaking the “will to resist” of the people that have sworn to kill us. It has been used for decades by the military (as recently as Vietnam).
And it is a whole lot less horrific than what they would do to us. They would simply cut our heads off. How is that for the ultimate in torture?
So now that Pelosi and all her Democrat cadre are equally to blame, will the outrage from the Left now end? Not likely.
They are all hypocrites. And Dems and Repubs are two sides of the same coin. Suck on that.
Oh, no, Mark. Democrats cannot be hypocrites!
You have to claim to have some sort of ethics or sense of right and wrong before you can be a hypocrit. For the Democrats, all morality is relevant, so they don’t really claim to have ethics, ipso facto.
Pelosi is the devil. She’s in cahoots with them all.
What I mean by #13 is waterboarding is mild stuff… and quite humane compared with the more traditional methods of ‘information gathering’ as practiced by governments and ‘professional information gatherers’…
How many waterboarded prisoners have we permanently injured…
I like setting them free after they have ratted on their buds… Remember the canary in the mouth made popular in Chicago and New York?
>>waterboarding is mild stuff… and
>>quite humane
I guess you’ve never actually witnessed one, huh?
Hoo boy. This is what Amerika is turning into… “yeah, but it’s not as mean as cutting off their balls and sticking them up their asses”, so that makes it all right”.
Heil Bush! Heil Cheney/Rove!
#22 Mister Mustard
You forgot Heil Pelosi!
I see it is already working… they couldn’t come out and say that Nancy was one of the “at least two” who wanted the CIA to “push harder” – but several posters act as if she was…
i.e. #18
“So now that Pelosi and all her Democrat cadre are equally to blame, will the outrage from the Left now end?”
“They are all hypocrites. And Dems and Repubs are two sides of the same coin.
Another great strategy: tar all politicians with the same brush, so that it seems pointless to hold the guilty accountable – because they’re all guilty, aren’t they?
#12 “What’s wrong with torturing enemies if it may save our own people?”
Remember that if videos are ever released showing Americans being water-boarded…
I think it would be a great public-relations move for the terrorists: water-board a few Americans, and then ask us what we’ve complaining about – since it obviously isn’t torture.
“It’s not like we were cutting their heads off!” 🙂
As pointed out earlier, the Congressmen were not permitted to take notes. Nor was any of the “briefing” recorded. So expecting people to remember exactly what transpired during the “briefing” is a little disingenuous.
Also, Jane Harmon is making some noise about being ignored by the CIA in correspondence about the tapes.
http://tinyurl.com/2z7e7t
But then the Republicans mudslingers wouldn’t care about the truth. Just claim the Democrats are as much to blame as they are and hope it all blows away.
Alright, so not all of McCullough’s posts are garbage.
#26. I’ll take that as a compliment, sort of.
Mark T. said, The fact is that both parties signed off on waterboarding.
Goodness you guys are such suckers.
It’s a “FACT”, you say?
I’ve never heard of any “signing off” on this! The article doesn’t even say that.
It says they were “briefed”, but not allowed to take notes, consult with lawyers or confer even with their own staff members.
I seriously seriously doubt the CIA told the total truth to these congresspeople. But we can’t even know that much because of the creepy-as-hell secrecy of this administration.
This isn’t congressional approval — not even close to it. For that, they needed an honest verifyable accounting of the procedures and there needed to be debate and a vote.
This is sleazy CYA by the CIA and IT’S WORKING because so many of you are just suckers.
Phillep said, You have to claim to have some sort of ethics or sense of right and wrong before you can be a hypocrit.
I’m a Democrat. I think it is immoral to torture.
ANd I think it is highly immoral for Republican to support torture.
>>I’m a Democrat. I think it is
>>immoral to torture.
Most democrats think it’s highly immoral to torture. For that matter, most ethical people of any persuasion think it’s highly immoral to torture.
Mr. T’s disingenuous declaration that “both parties signed off on it” suggests he’s not one of those.
In 1947, the United States sentenced a Japanese soldier, Yukio Asano, to 15 years at hard labor for “war crimes”, in which he “waterboarded” an American civilian.
Now they’re saying “well, it’s not as bad as cutting off their balls”.
Sheesh. We have met the enemy, and he is us. The terrorists have won.