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ABC reports that contrary to her description that "we were not, and I repeat, were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used," Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress received a 2002 briefing on the torturous interrogation of Abu Zubaydah. Her spokesman has some uncompelling spin about how Pelosi’s statement is consistent with a CIA document that ABC obtained recounting the meeting.
This is what they call a teaching moment. Pelosi, like Richard Shelby, Porter Goss, Bob Graham, Jay Rockefeller, Pat Roberts and Jane Harman, received briefings about CIA torture. The Senate intelligence committee’s investigation of the CIA will not focus on what members of Congress knew; when they knew it; what they endorsed; what they objected to; or what they pushed back against. As such, it will be an incomplete picture, whitewashing the role of elected legislators in the torture apparatus. (Also worth remembering: the CIA has a very rich history of lying to Congress.) An incomplete picture of what was done in our name prevents us from moving on. Hence: the case for an independent commission to investigate the Bush administration, the CIA, the Justice Department, the Defense Department, the State Department and Congress about torture. No more lies, no more obfuscation, no more cant, no more excuses, no more torture.
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I was able to locate a “source” for that document. See my comment at EW’s place here.
Note, one should wash one’s hands after visiting the site where that “report” was located. If I had known ahead of time, I would of worn rubber gloves. *g*
Nancy Pelosi, jane Harman, etc… knew well that torture was being used. That’s why this shit will go nowhere. .
What should be investigated is the whole run-up to the Iraq war. I’d like to know EVERYTHING about Doug Feith, Gambone, the Office of Special Plans. But this will never be investigated b/c so many members of the media were FOR the war (Ackerman and Yglesias fellating Marty Peretz), the Israel Lobby and their push for war, and the many Dems that voted for the war. No one wants to open those wounds again.
Evereyone, especially Democrats, wants to believe that they were against the Iraq war from the jump. But it is not true. It is much easier to point the finger at the Republicans and excoriate them for torture while hoping that the populace forgets about their own support for the biggest foreign policy disaster since Vietnam.
Torturing 1000 people at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. Killing over a hundred thousand in Iraq. Which is the greater crime?
To avoid another war (Iran anyone?), these wounds should be studied.
But it sure is easier to point at John Yoo and scream for justice. Pointing at Eliot Abrams and screaming will never happen. Yoo is a piker, Abrams got juice and is untouchable.
Look in the mirror.
The OLC memos authorizing torture was dated August 1 2002. The CIA briefing was August 4 2002. Now maybe they did admit to Nancy Pelosi that they were using waterboarding on Abu Zubaydah 3 days after they penned the memo. HOWEVER if they did so then they explicitly acknowledged that they themselves did not follow the recommendations of the memo which was to start with less harsh torture techniques and then work you way up and using waterboarding only as a last resort. There is no possible way to say that in 3 days time they were at a last resort scenario. We do know that Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times that August but no matter how this comes down for Pelosi it should be a lot worse for the people who evidently don’t realize that they did not follow the memo which means they didn’t act “in good faith”.
Hi Spencer. Much like the financial mess, anyone in a position to investigate is also potentially implicated. Would they ever launch an independent investigation that will likely end up with them politically damaged at best and criminally liable at worst? Don’t count on it. If they do decide they need a true outsider, though, I’m happy to volunteer my services.
It seems the briefing was September 4, 2002, not August 4. Your broader point stands to reason: interrogators from SERE & CIA communicated up the chain that they thought the less-severe (though, as I wrote in an earlier post, still pretty severe) AZ interrogation wasn’t working, so it would be hard to believe they’d take the OLC perspective on starting out easy as window dressing. Maybe they believed, or allowed themselves to believe, they had already passed that threshold.