Minority Leader John Boehner has jumped into the “Nancy Pelosi says the CIA lied to her” fiasco. How soon will the Democrats and the media call the issue a “distraction from the issues that are important to Americans?” (h/t Ace)
A key Republican leader demanded Sunday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi produce evidence to back up her assertion that she was misled by the CIA on the use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
Last week, Pelosi reiterated an earlier claim that she was briefed by the CIA on such techniques only once — in September 2002 — and that she was told at the time that the techniques were not being used.
“Lying to the Congress of the United States is a crime, and if the Speaker is accusing the CIA and other intelligence officials of lying or misleading the Congress, then they should come forward with evidence and turn that over to the Justice Department so that they can be prosecuted. If that’s not the case, I think she ought to apologize to our intelligence professionals around the world. You have to understand, John, we treat prisoners, detainees, prisoners of war better than any country in the world.  And our intelligence professionals have done a marvelous job in doing their job – keeping Americans safe.  And when you think about the fact that we lost 3,000 of our citizens on September 11th, we’ve lost nearly 5,000 of our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting for our safety and security here in America, all of this information that helps our soldiers, that helps our border security people, all comes from our intelligence professionals around the world.  And instead of criticizing them, instead of accusing them of lying, we ought to be patting them on the back and telling them, ‘job well done.’†(Note: rather then using the somewhat shortened quote at CNN, this is the the full quote from Boehner’s webpage. Video is also available)
Ok, Nance. Now what? You’ve tried to spin it back to blaming Bush (paragraph 13-14.) No one is buying it, including your home town paper. PolitiFact.com states that you are the one lying, Nance. Sen. Kit Bond (R-Missouri) states that the record will show YOU were briefed. So do other Republicans and Democrats. So do the CIA. So, will you repent, Nance? Let’s ask Gene Poteat, president of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers
Those CIA officers chosen to brief the Congress, and especially the intelligence committees, are very senior, experienced officers, who well know the reputation and future of the CIA, as well as their own jobs, are on the line should they be perceived as not telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Such restrictions, however, do not apply to members of the Congress when they then appear before the public.
Funny how that works, eh?
Conspiracy exit question: could Queen Nancy be using this to try and get Republicans to support a Truth Commission?
PS: as Moe Lane puts it, I musta been channeling Maureen Dowd there, for a moment. Red State has a similar headline, as does Hot Air Headlines. I think a friend must have told me about it, and I have a lot of friends, but, it might have been twitter or something. 😉
Seriously, I did not see their headlines before writing this one. If it matters.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU
Teach I am not sure how one puts up evidence that something was not said. Of course the CIA it self said that they could not vouch 100% on what was or was not briefed. We do know that at time the CIA was making a lot of mistakes such as the WMD (a slam dunk) and the terrifying yellowcake from Africa. We also do know with a high degree of certainty that Bob Graham was not briefed at all on 3 of the 4 times that the CIA said that it had briefed him. We know this because Graham notes EVERYTHING that he does in onghand note books. He is famous for doing so, even down to the color underwear he puts on