Pelosi playing defense on torture

POLITICO - By GLENN THRUSH 4/27/09

Did Nancy really know about the torture going on?

Here's an excerpt from today's Politico article regarding this issue:

"Republicans have been circulating a December 2007 Washington Post report that quoted Bush administration officials saying Pelosi did little to block “enhanced interrogation techniques” in 2002 when she was briefed as the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee. At a press briefing last week — one she hoped would focus on the legislative accomplishments in Obama’s first 100 days — Pelosi said she didn’t raise objections because intelligence officials didn’t divulge they had actually begun using the techniques at the time of the briefing. “We were not — I repeat — were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used,” she said. However, that account seemed to be contradicted by a Senate Intelligence Committee timeline that found House leaders were briefed “in the fall of 2002, after the use of interrogation techniques on Abu Zubaida. CIA records indicate that the CIA briefed the chairman and vice chairman of the committee on the interrogation.” And Porter Goss, who was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee when Pelosi was the ranking member, made the same point in a Saturday Washington Post op-ed. “The chairs and the ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, known as the Gang of Four, were briefed that the CIA was holding and interrogating high-value terrorists,” Goss wrote. “I do not recall a single objection from my colleagues.” Pelosi dismissed such criticism, telling reporters the 2002 briefing was strictly classified, and she was hamstrung from raising objections with officials or even sharing information with other lower-ranking committee members. " (SEE FULL ARTICLE HERE)