Pelosi Roasted by Waterboarding Revelations
She can't wiggle her way out of this one.
Pardon me for being surprised that people are shocked to find out that Speaker Pelosi is a typical politician. Regardless of whether one thinks waterboarding is torture, the verdict on Pelosi’s record on torture is in: she’s an accomplice by choosing to remain silent, ironically outed by the director of national intelligence of the administration she worked to get elected.
DNI Dennis Blair has put together a list of CIA briefings of members of Congress related to torture, or “enhanced interrogation techniques,” whichever term you prefer, including waterboarding. The document reveals that on September 4, 2002, Speaker Pelosi was briefed and given “a description of the particular EITs that had been employed” on high-level al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah. It is now widely acknowledged that one of these “particular EITs” used on Zubaydah was waterboarding, putting him in an elite class of only three detainees to have had the technique used on them.
This doesn’t exactly square with Pelosi’s recent statement: “We were not — I repeat were not — told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used.” Oops.
Pelosi’s spokesperson, Brendan Daly, has responded to the CIA document by saying that “the briefers described these techniques, said they were legal, but said that waterboarding had not yet been used.”
Let’s give Pelosi the benefit of the doubt and assume that somehow waterboarding, despite being used on Zubaydah in August 2002 — that is, before her briefing — was somehow left out of the list of EITs used on Zubaydah. What about all the other EITs?
Here, there is a clear contradiction between her statement of not being told about “any of these other enhanced interrogation methods” and the CIA document saying she was briefed on “the particular EITs that had been employed.” There can be no reconciling the differing descriptions of the briefing. Pelosi is a seasoned politician, but I can’t see how she can wiggle her way out of this one.
Page 1 of 2 Next ->
Ryan Mauro is the founder of WorldThreats.com and the director of intelligence at the Asymmetrical Warfare and Intelligence Center (AWIC). He’s also the national security researcher for the Christian Action Network and a published author. He can be contacted at TDCAnalyst@aol.com.
 |
 |
 |
Podcasts |  PJM Home |
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
52 Comments
1. BPT (Australia):I suspect that Pelosi’s alleged Botox injections are interfering with her mental faculties.
May 11, 2009 - 2:15 am 2. Benson:I’d like to see a tough investigative reporter — someone who learned from Claudia Rosett, bless her — go after Pelosi’s secret earmarks and the connections with her husband. Can the FOI Act be used to expose every string she has pulled? The waterboarding issue is an embarrassment for the Speaker, while her corruption, if satisfactorily demonstrated, could be a career-ender.
May 11, 2009 - 2:45 am 3. Barb:We can only hope!
May 11, 2009 - 3:11 am 4. LeighB:Nancy, Nancy, Nancy…you knew about this and did not object until it became popular to do so. Don’t expect “cover” from this administration, unless it is under the bus.
May 11, 2009 - 3:13 am 5. Rick:If only some reporter/investigator had the balls to nail her to the wall- expose all her lies,corruption, and hypocrisy. But would the liberal media cover it? Probably not.She is a typical politican. Our government is full of them, on both sides of the aisle. Soon the only solution will be to eliminate all of them.
May 11, 2009 - 3:39 am 6. Douglas:Somehow, I cannot imagine an “investigative reporter” of any kind looking into the dealings of a liberal democrat.
May 11, 2009 - 3:57 am 7. Brian:Of course they were informed. The leadership in Congress gets the same reports as the President. Anyone that believes the congress when they say “the president lied” is simply ill informed. The president CANNOT lie about intelligence, that is why it is set up the way it is. Pelosi has gone one further… she has lied to the people. Which in my mind should be illegal in a representative democracy as is lying in a court room.
May 11, 2009 - 3:58 am 8. Ken:That should be the next bill pushed through Congress.
If she only had a brain; Madam Speaker come out of the rain; maybe too much turbulance -lying- I mean flying back and forth to Brokefornia.
May 11, 2009 - 4:09 am 9. Jaxter:In the words of the wise Michael Scott from The Office, “boom, roasted!”
Correction, if she were a Republican she’d be roasted.
May 11, 2009 - 4:32 am 10. misanthropicus:Rank opportunism and lack of sense of responsability for this nation, this is the correct description of Pelosi’s conduct all along this affair.
May 11, 2009 - 4:32 am 11. Perry:Should I add that the interrogation technique thing shouldn’t have become an issue, in the first place?
But again, having the pest that the liberals are, what can we do…
I hope the pressure on Pelosi is so intense that the botox comes exploding out of her lying eyes.
May 11, 2009 - 5:12 am 12. Mike2:The key words the author used were “seasoned politician”. I predict she will not only continue to lie but the leftie zombies in California will continue to elect her. I hope I am wrong.
May 11, 2009 - 5:18 am 13. Terry Gain:Khalid caught the spray
May 11, 2009 - 5:27 am 14. jerryofva:After Nancy said okay.
The Democrats told the same lies about the Terrorist Surveillance Program. A friend of mine in the program told me that Congressional staffers were briefed so many times that they couldn’t get work done. This is another case of the Democrats propensity to first order thinking. They were so obsessed with bringing down President Bush that they couldn’t see beyond their initial actions. Now, they are not only caught up in their own lies but they have handcuffed themselves so that they no longer can pursue effective CT policies.
May 11, 2009 - 5:29 am 15. fear Obama:To Whom It May Concern:
In recent weeks I have stated that I was never briefed, nor had any prior knowledge of, the use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” on detainees by U.S. interrogators. Today, the Central Intelligence Agency released documents indicating they had briefed me on the use of these techniques in September 2002. Having no personal recollection of this meeting, I directed my clerical staff to retrieve meeting notes for the date in question.
After a thorough review of these notes, it appears I was unaware this meeting was with the Central Intelligence Agency. Instead I was under the impression that it was a coffee chat with Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an important constituent group from my home district. In their description of waterboarding, fuzzy caterpillars, etc., I simply assumed they were speaking of new Castro District trends in sexual foreplay. Had I known the real truth — that they were describing the grim tools of a sadistic torture regime beyond the worst imaginings of Dr. Mengele himself — I would have vigorously objected, and would have never cheerfully told my briefer, “play safely!”
I am sorry for any confusion my earlier statements might have caused, and I hope this clarification puts the matter to rest. For future reference, please direct inquiries regarding torture issues within the California 8th District B&D community to my outreach coordinator Julian Julian Julian. All other torture-related issues should be directed to my National Security and Drag Queen Affairs Adviser, Lady Marmalade.
Sincerely,
Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Iowahawk-
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/
LOL- Yo Nancy- Hows about another briefing.
May 11, 2009 - 6:29 am 16. Stef:What? I can’t believe not a single troll emerged to defend Speaker Pelosi… Why is that?
May 11, 2009 - 6:30 am 17. jjkrn:Pelosi Lied
People Died
shout it in their ugly faces
May 11, 2009 - 6:51 am 18. Clay Marley:every chance you get
“The next week is going to be a rough one for Speaker Pelosi.”
Oh really? How so?
Will the MSM do cover stories of her hypocrisy for the next 3 weeks until she resigns? Will any reporter touch this? Will she be asked these “tough questions?
No. It will make the rounds of right wing “extremist” blogs and talk radio, where it will soon fizzle out when it gets replaced by the next great hypocrisy. In the end no minds will change.
May 11, 2009 - 6:51 am 19. njcommuter:If this goes on long enough, some of it might actually leak onto Pelosi’s base. (Someone tell me if it is making it onto CNN and MSNBC; I don’t watch them.) If it leaks long enough, some of it may stick. And her base might decide it’s been betrayed.
It’s still a long shot, but we can hope. We’ll know when it gets daily coverage on HuffingPo and DKos.
May 11, 2009 - 6:53 am 20. fear Obama:16. Stef:
May 11, 2009 - 7:00 am 21. Bumr50:I think someone else ran to Iraq after something like this happened to them, I just can’t remember who.
May 11, 2009 - 7:02 am 22. Meryl:Surprise visit? Ha.
“Pardon me for being surprised that people are shocked to find out that Speaker Pelosi is a typical politician.”
Huh?
I have trouble believing that there is any individual in the United States of America, whether a Pelosi fan or not, who is “shocked to find out that Speaker Pelosi is a typical politician”.
If there are such, then the dumbing down of America is surely picking up speed.
May 11, 2009 - 7:03 am 23. Fuzzlenutter:This all juicy and delicious Schadenfreude, but lets not delude ourselves here. I think we all know what will come of this. A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-Y N-O-T-H-I-N-G. She’s got the big “D” in front of her name and that’s a political Talisman in this day and age for Democrats. No reporter will do any type of investigation (in-depth or otherwise) of this anti-American, miserable, lying crap weasel if they know what’s good for them (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). And the cellar dwellers of San FranFreakShow will elect her once again. In other words, simply business as usual…
May 11, 2009 - 7:05 am 24. glenn:Well actually her hometown paper tried for two days to dodge the bullet. Then on Sunday they ran a hard hitting (just kidding) piece talking about her “carefully worded” responses. Had she been a Republican the word wound have been dishonest. Lots of Bay Area folks know Nance is lying and are willing to say so. The problem is they want Cindy Sheehan.
May 11, 2009 - 7:18 am 25. savage24:She will weasel out of this just as she has weaseled out of all the controversial and stupid things she has done. The main stream media will bury this. When the democrats won a larger majority of the house last election and kept her on as Speaker should have told you she was the Queen. Stupidity loves company.
May 11, 2009 - 7:24 am 26. Sebastian Shaw:Nancy Pelosi’s selective amnesia & denials is just to fit into President Obama’s anti-American political agenda; I believe she has truly felt this way since even after 9/11, but she feared an even worse backlash after America was attacked. The anti-war unhinged Leftists has always been against any & all wars even when it’s justified & this is Nancy Pelosi’s core constituents in San Francisco. However, I like seeing her twist in the wind…
Payback’s a b*tch Nancy…
May 11, 2009 - 8:04 am 27. Sebastian Shaw:I do agree the MSM will play Nancy Pelosi’s defense & try to bury this story. Meanwhile, the MSM’s ratings continue to shrink.
May 11, 2009 - 8:05 am 28. anonymess:Perhaps we should try using waterboarding on Pelosi to see if it will jog her memory long enough to tell the inconcvenient truth about what she knew and when. What’s the harm, since she seems incapable of retaining personal information on the subject. By next week she’ll have forgotten she was ever waterboarded and, for her, life will be good again.
May 11, 2009 - 8:06 am 29. shaui-jan:i agree that this will be minimalized in the press,but the committed left is not going to let this go.they are pissed off about getting played by obama,and they want the conflicts to stop now.their not going to go away.
May 11, 2009 - 8:30 am 30. karstro1:i am not refering to code pink crowd or the obamatrons,i talking about the full time,true believers.individuals who could care less about a big D before someones’ name.or using the term’liberal’or’progressive’,to describe ones self.promising to close gitmo is just a meaningless scrap to them.
all we have to do is keep reminding them about rendition,foreign miitary aid,and obamas’ escalation in pakistan and afganistan.actualy we don’t even have to do that….it’s just too much fun not to.
pelosi and here kind pandered to these people for cash and votes,smearing our military,president and weakening our overall security to boot.her core constituacy is rabidly anti-war.
of course,that means she is going to pay dearly for lying about her knowledge and approval of iet’s in the future.and i for one cannot think of a more deserving person.
cindy sheehan running and winning….that would be sweet.like micheal moore and barney frank,they are the gifts that keep on giving.if these people weren’t real,we would have to make them up.
What does a country do when it’s leaders lie, strech the truth, lie, and lie? I have had enough of this in your face with the abuse of power. When will Americans and news people stand up and tell these leaders to take their lying and shove it?
May 11, 2009 - 8:31 am 31. STAFF MEMO:TO: Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House
From: Staff
Re: The Bloggers Again
I wouldn’t worry ma’am. They rage on the blogs and call to talk radio. They fume in bars. But when it comes time to vote, they split 6 different ways, like some east-european polyglot state. The people that want to overturn Roe v Wade drive away womyn and will only vote on this one issue. The anti-gay crowd will only vote for a homophobe no matter how unelectable he is. Anti-spenders split their vote looking for someone who really won’t spend. Union workers that might otherwise vote republican are now tied to large state budgets–whihc we got while the republicans worried about abortion. Its actually funny to watch. Not to worry Ma’am. They’re noise. Nothing more.
May 11, 2009 - 9:14 am 32. scott:The Government Media Complex continues as the propaganda wing of the Obammy administration while thirty or forty million Americans (at LEAST) obtain the real news and information from the alternative media. The gap widens. Personally I no longer see liberals as political opponents. They are the enemy. They are usurping our constitutional government. They must be stopped.
May 11, 2009 - 9:37 am 33. len:call her “make it up …as you go pelosi”uva65
May 11, 2009 - 10:00 am 34. ic:She can’t wiggle her way out of this one.
Of course she can. A murderer can wiggle out a murder conviction claiming insanity. A Housespeaker can wiggle out of this one claiming dementia.
May 11, 2009 - 12:48 pm 35. Banned by Huffpo:Where’s Cindy Sheehan when you need her? Still hanging around Bush’s ranch in Crawford?
May 11, 2009 - 12:56 pm 36. Doctor T:Don’t believe that she will be that badly affected as the press will ignore it. The Liberals won’t believe it, or will ignore it and the conservative sources taht are still trying to educate the American populace will continue to be demonized and suppressed. Welcome to the new united soviet states. But if I’m wrong then Saints be praised. If I’m right though then there needs to be a stepping up of awareness of Americans that this country needs to step up an protest where this government is going.
May 11, 2009 - 2:11 pm 37. Berlet98:Speaking of roasting:Barack the Magic Roaster
Our president is such a card! He had them rolling in the aisles at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night. He ripped everyone from Rahm Emanuel to Hillary Clinton to Dick Cheney to Joe Biden to himself with jokes supplied by his most avid constituency, Hollywood, delivered to an audience comprised primarily of his “journalist” lapdogs.
It doesn’t get any better than that for a jokemeister.
Immanuel Kant defined laughter as “an effect that arises if a tense expectation is transformed into nothing.” Judging by the belly laughs evoked by the professional jokes Obama told with panache, any tension in the Washington Hilton ballroom dissipated into nothingness as soon as he told his first yuk.
The nature of jokes can say a great deal about the tellers and about the hearers.
Of course, this was an affair usually characterized by zingers from all sides of the political spectrum but this also was the Obama Show and how he zinged his subjects revealed a lot about him and about what’s on his mind these days.
Being able to pick and choose from all the best comic material Hollywood writers had to offer, he no doubt passed on some amusing anecdotes that were lamers and probably some that were politically over the top, even for the Left Coast crew. Off limits, for example, would be any innuendos that Helen Thomas and Hillary Clinton were closet lesbians as well as any comic references to Michelle’s overbite.
One of the better admissible digs took aim at Obama’s Chief of Staff and his background in the rough and tumble life of Chicago politics: “This [Mother’s Day Eve] is a tough holiday for Rahm. He’s not used to saying the word ‘day’ after ‘mother.’ “ Rahm’s mom would have been so proud with the suggestion that her son customarily followed the word ”mother” with “f****r.”
He quipped on the new closeness he now had with his primary opponent Hillary by saying, “The minute she got back from [swine flu-infested] Mexico, she pulled me into a hug and said I should go down there myself.” That crack probably wasn’t too far from the truth. However, the rumors that Hill still sticks pins into her Obama voodoo doll are absolutely unsubstantiated.
Playing on his messianic, god-like aura in some quarters, he delivered this ostensibly self-deprecating line, “My next 100 days will be so successful, I will complete them in 72 days. And on the 73rd day, I will rest,” after “building a library dedicated to my first 100 days.”
Actually, word is that his 100-day library is all but completed and that he has vowed to complete the next 100 by Thursday, providing his teleprompter agrees.
(Quotes but not the editorial comments were taken from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/09/AR2009050902802_pf.html.)
Obama’s recognized his media buddies in this deferential genuflection posed as a jibe: ”Most of you covered me; all of you voted for me. Apologies to the Fox table.”
That particular reference was less a joke than it was Obama’s expression of appreciation for the mass media idolatry and his gut antipathy toward the only network that sees him for what he is, reports what he says and does, and lets its viewers make a final determination of what it all means.
So, was Saturday night’s Correspondents’ Dinner all in good fun? Maybe in Obama’s mind, aware as he was of his appreciative audience who were virtually hysterical with laughter. Nothing less was expected from the White Press Corps and the invited non-correspondents.
The audience was overflowing with Tinseltown’s elites such as Glenn Close, Robert De Niro, Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck, Natalie Portman, Stevie Wonder, Sting, John Cusack, Demi Moore, Alicia Keys, Eva Longoria Parker, Forest Whitaker, “Ludacris,” George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg.
All are said to be close observers of the political scene, even if their journalistic credentials are a tad incomplete. All would probably opt for a revified Leon Trotsky over any Republican should Leon ever be declared an American by birth.
Actors Gary Sinise, Sly Stallone, Kurt Russell, Clint Eastwood, Dennis Hopper, James Woods, Stephen Baldwin, and Jim Caviezal were conspicuous by their absence. Apparently they weren’t invited.
Hey, we all have missed out on invites, no? But have we missed out on an invite to a major dinner/roast in which a speaker has hilariously advocated for someone’s death and used the 9/11 attacks as a prop for humor?
President Obama was tickled pinkish by the witticisms of Wanda Sykes, a “quickwitted” nonentity and fellow black comic. He all but fell out of his chair guffawing at Sykes’ riotously funny routine in which she said Rush Limbaugh was the 20th highjacker on September 11th, 2001 and was guilty of treason for not being an Obama camp follower.
What really brought the house down was her hope that Limbaugh should die of kidney failure. . . .
(Read the rest at http://genelalor.com)
May 11, 2009 - 2:42 pm 38. Rocky:Isn’t it about time for some aspiring, hard hitting, and hungry journalists to start doing their jobs to investigate and write articles about the corruption, dishonesty, and mishandling of public tax dollars on the Dems, Peolosi, Reid, Rangell, etc.?
When will they grow the brass ones to do real work and hold people like Pelosi accountable?
Just asking…
May 11, 2009 - 2:49 pm 39. elvis:REMEMBER WHEN EVEN DEMOCRATS BELIEVED THAT KILLING THE BAD GUYS WAS A GOOD THING?
May 11, 2009 - 6:49 pm 40. steveg:Has anyone else noticed that Nancy has started wagging her finger as much as the Tele-Bama? What is it about the liberal left and finger wagging? I’m sorry, but this annoys the crap out of me.
May 11, 2009 - 8:20 pm 41. whyaminotsurprised:And just when the heat gets to the red line, she takes a trip to Iraq? A little bit of “Wag the Dog,” comes to mind. Time to get out of Dodge! Run Nancy, run!!
I’ve always wondered why no political writers have written a book about how this total Loon got to her position. She is way out of her league and is a complete moron.
Can anyone explain, just exactly how does a loon from San Francisco get to be third in line from the Presidency (in the case of a national disaster)?
I can only hope that we will get to see her bug eyes finally pop out after being hoisted by her own petard!
May 11, 2009 - 10:38 pm 42. PatriotUSA:Nasty Pelosi will do her “best” to try and lie, weasel, spin, claim “duh” and everything else to slime out of this one. It is apparently quite acceptable when democommiecats have these “problems” with memeory, funds, votes, etc. If this had been a republican or conservative politician well that dam would have burst long ago.Pelosi, Frank, Dodd, Rangel, Reid are all the perfect little trollbots that the mullah obamaham loves. None of these politicians really care about the USA, nor do they love their country even though it has given them riches and power. These comrades,… umm I mean politicians hate the USA and it goes back farther than 9/11. The new password for the White Hoose is: Hate the USA, and all visitors must use the footbaths once they are installed. You will find “Allah Akbar,
May 11, 2009 - 11:46 pm 43. Lark:Freedom stops here” on Obama’s desk.
Titanic to iceberg. Your tip is showing.
May 12, 2009 - 6:56 am 44. seven:Obama is attacking Britian. The Brits knew about and approved the waterboarding and if it is wrong for the Republicans, it is wrong for pelosi to support it as did others.
May 12, 2009 - 9:26 am 45. WJA:the CIA has gotten obama in a bind.
Of course the “queen” will get away with it, MSM won’t make it an issue. Hard hitting investigative reporters? You have to be kidding, they just send the required sanitized white house press releases to their editors as reporting.
May 12, 2009 - 1:46 pm 46. casual observer:Pelosi is sounding a bit like Sergeant Schultz of HOGAN’S HEROES fame— “I KNOW NOTHING.. NOTHING !!!”
May 12, 2009 - 4:22 pm 47. Paul -Indiana:Accepting any statement from Pelosi requires the willful suspension of disbelief.
May 13, 2009 - 8:28 am 48. GClarke:Yep! It’s happened. Just opened the box on my new Funk & Wagnall’s and, yes they do, next to the entry for “LIAR” they have Nancy’s coldly smiling face scotch-taped over that of Bill Clinton.
Sweet!
May 14, 2009 - 12:23 pm 49. ricpic:I see where the insane look of permanent frozen glee has been (temporarily) knocked off Nancy “Crazy Eyes” kisser. At least there’s that.
May 14, 2009 - 2:44 pm 50. Will:Pelosi should be roasted,to a crisp. How she got that job is very interesting.
May 14, 2009 - 4:12 pm 51. Air2air:So what would be the consequences? If she is found to be lying, does a legal proceeding follow, or is it just a matter of re-election?
May 14, 2009 - 7:05 pm 52. noipperse:Fantastic article! I will visit soon.
May 20, 2009 - 6:56 pm