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Report: Pelosi Was Briefed About Waterboarding In 2002
written by Kris Alingod - AHN Contributor
Friday May 8, 2009 3:37 p.m. EST
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) knew as early as 2002 that the Central Intelligence Agency was using waterboarding, or simulated drowning, on terror suspects, contradicting recent statements from her that she and other lawmakers were not informed by Bush administration officials about aggressive interrogation tactics.
According to ABC, the Obama administration has sent the Senate Intelligence Committee a report detailing classified briefings by intelligence officials to lawmakers. Pelosi was present in only one, a meeting on Sept. 4, 2002, when she was the ranking Democrat in the House Intelligence Committee.
That briefing focused on "enhanced interrogation techniques" including those used on Abu Zubaydah, a top al-Qaeda member captured the same year and detained in Guantanamo Bay.
CIA Director Leon Panetta siad in a letter to lawmakers included in the report, "This information... presents the most thorough information we have on dates, locations, and names of all Members of Congress who were briefed by the CIA on enhanced interrogation techniques... however, [it] represents... notes that summarized the best recollections of those individuals. In the end, you and the Committee will have to determine whether this information is an accurate summary of what actually happened."
Pelosi's spokesman, Brandan Daly, has told ABC, "The briefers described these techniques, said they were legal, but said that waterboarding had not yet been used."
Amid controversy over declassified interrogation memos and Republican claims that Congress had been informed by the Bush administration about the CIA's interrogation program, Pelosi had said last month that she had only been told along with other top lawmakers that there were legal opinions that could authorize the use of harsh tactics, but not that the tactics were already being used.
The speaker has also endorsed a proposal from some Democrats, including Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chair of the Senate Judiciary Panel, to create a "truth commission" to investigate abuses by the Bush administration against detainees.
The Justice Department last month announced the release of four Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memos that allowed terror suspects to be interrogated using methods such as waterboarding, which critics say is torture. The memos were issued by the OLC to the CIA in August 2002, and in May 2005.
Leaks of the memos had caused a firestorm of criticisms against the Bush administration, and then-Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey had to testify several times before lawmakers who had launched high-profile inquiries, issued subpoenas and sought to make them public.
Former CIA director Michael Hayden had said declassifying the memos "would cause grave harm to U.S. security," echoing Republican criticisms.
The memos were followed by a report from the Senate Intelligence Committee that said former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had approved waterboarding as early as 2002 when she authorized, as National Security Adviser, the interrogation method to be used on Zubaydah. The committee report said Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002.
Report: Pelosi Was Briefed About Waterboarding In 2002
written by Kris Alingod - AHN Contributor
Friday May 8, 2009 3:37 p.m. EST
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) knew as early as 2002 that the Central Intelligence Agency was using waterboarding, or simulated drowning, on terror suspects, contradicting recent statements from her that she and other lawmakers were not informed by Bush administration officials about aggressive interrogation tactics.
According to ABC, the Obama administration has sent the Senate Intelligence Committee a report detailing classified briefings by intelligence officials to lawmakers. Pelosi was present in only one, a meeting on Sept. 4, 2002, when she was the ranking Democrat in the House Intelligence Committee.
That briefing focused on "enhanced interrogation techniques" including those used on Abu Zubaydah, a top al-Qaeda member captured the same year and detained in Guantanamo Bay.
CIA Director Leon Panetta siad in a letter to lawmakers included in the report, "This information... presents the most thorough information we have on dates, locations, and names of all Members of Congress who were briefed by the CIA on enhanced interrogation techniques... however, [it] represents... notes that summarized the best recollections of those individuals. In the end, you and the Committee will have to determine whether this information is an accurate summary of what actually happened."
Pelosi's spokesman, Brandan Daly, has told ABC, "The briefers described these techniques, said they were legal, but said that waterboarding had not yet been used."
Amid controversy over declassified interrogation memos and Republican claims that Congress had been informed by the Bush administration about the CIA's interrogation program, Pelosi had said last month that she had only been told along with other top lawmakers that there were legal opinions that could authorize the use of harsh tactics, but not that the tactics were already being used.
The speaker has also endorsed a proposal from some Democrats, including Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chair of the Senate Judiciary Panel, to create a "truth commission" to investigate abuses by the Bush administration against detainees.
The Justice Department last month announced the release of four Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memos that allowed terror suspects to be interrogated using methods such as waterboarding, which critics say is torture. The memos were issued by the OLC to the CIA in August 2002, and in May 2005.
Leaks of the memos had caused a firestorm of criticisms against the Bush administration, and then-Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey had to testify several times before lawmakers who had launched high-profile inquiries, issued subpoenas and sought to make them public.
Former CIA director Michael Hayden had said declassifying the memos "would cause grave harm to U.S. security," echoing Republican criticisms.
The memos were followed by a report from the Senate Intelligence Committee that said former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had approved waterboarding as early as 2002 when she authorized, as National Security Adviser, the interrogation method to be used on Zubaydah. The committee report said Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002.
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