Boehner Opposes Call For Probe Into What Pelosi Knew About Torture
One thing that’s getting lost in the noise: House GOP leader John Boehner, a leading critic of Nancy Pelosi on the question of what she was told and when about torture, actually opposes a formal investigation into what she knew.
By contrast, Pelosi herself has said she wants the CIA to release the notes and memos that critics claim will prove she had been told waterboarding was used.
Boehner made a big splash yesterday by demanding that Pelosi provide evidence of her claim that the CIA lied in saying she’d been told about the use of waterboarding. Asked this morning on Fox if he favored a formal probe of this, Boehner replied that first she should back up her claim:
“Let’s not get too far down the road here. I’m not going to take anything off the table, but I do believe that the ball is in her court. She has to either put up or have an apology and move on.”
Boehner spokesperson Michael Steel confirmed to me that Boehner currently opposes a formal probe into what Pelosi was told. “At present he’s focused on getting an answer from the Speaker,” Steele said, in a reference to Boehner’s demand that Pelosi substantiate her claim about the CIA.
The politics here seems obvious: If the House GOP supports an actual investigation into what she knew, that makes it tougher to keep the focus on the demand that she back up her assertions about the CIA. And it’s not clear how she would do that.
While Boehner opposes a formal probe into the question, Pelosi said last week that she would be “very happy” if the CIA released all the notes and memos that detail who was told what and when. So make of that what you will.
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Update: In fairness, it should be pointed out that while he hasn’t called for a probe of what Pelosi knew, Boehner has supported Pelosi’s call for the release of all the CIA briefing notes and memos.
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“Boehner made a big splash yesterday by demanding that Pelosi provide evidence of her claim that the CIA lied in saying”
Yes, Boehner is demanding that Pelosi prove a negative, which is impossible, at the same time he’s talking out of the other side of his mouth on the truth actually coming out.
JaO pointed out Hoekstra walking back his comments yesterday on FoxNews Sunday after seeing the CIA records. I wonder why nobody is talking about this. The one guy who has been taking pot shots who would be most in position to say unequivically that she is lying after seeing the records themselves now says “its not crystal clear”. If Boehner wants to know why hasn’t he gone over to see the records? Thats a rhetorical question of course.
Greg
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Had you seen this?
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http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2009_hr/detainees.pdf
what is it, SG?
Supposedly one of Zelikow’s memos.
Got it from here
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http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2009/05/detainee_interrogation.html
Sg – What an ending to that memo, where it draws on Israeli precedent in similiar situations: “[T]hat Commission, and the Israeli Supreme Court chose what it called “the way of Truth and the Rule of Law.” The Court observed: ‘Although ademocracy must often fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless has the upper hand.’”
sgwhiteinfla: “JaO pointed out Hoekstra walking back his comments yesterday on FoxNews Sunday after seeing the CIA records. I wonder why nobody is talking about this.”
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It wasn’t on Fox News Sunday. It was a short interview late Sunday afternoon, which got little notice.
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FYI, here again is that link to the video:
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http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=5121466&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/
My bad JaO, just wanted to bring it up again and also give you credit. So why was Chris Wallace doing the interview?
ABC
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Thats the same thing I said. If that really is Zelikow’s memo then everybody in the Bush Administration should be ashamed of themselves.
Pelosi may have some knowledge of the torture fire that was started by the Bush Adminstration, but the fact remains the Bush Administration initiated torture policy fire. Boehner and other Republicans want to burn Pelosi, but can’t risk throwing her into the fire without more disclosures of just who started the fire and who wished to use the fire to gin up the Saddam/al Qaeda connection.
So, I say to current Republican leadership – support more torture investigations or shut up! -Kevo
sgwhiteinfla: “So why was Chris Wallace doing the interview?”
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I don’t know. It was just worked into Fox News’ general news coverage after the Obama speech at Notre Dame.
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As I said earlier, I think Wallace did a pretty fair job of trying to pin Hoekstra down on the facts.
p.s. I do think the Hoekstra interview is being wqay underplayed. It deserves a headline.
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Does Greg Sargent read the comments on his own blog?
JaO
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Greg definitely reads comments. But that of course doesn’t mean he can run all of the stories we want him to. Trust me if anybody knows its me lol. He has his own lane and I respect that. But I agree with you that it needs to be blown up because Hoekstra basically is the only one of the Republicans bashing Pelosi who can actually say he has seen the documents and now after having seen them he can’t say for sure that she knew what the administration did to Zubayah after all.
SG – You write, “If that really is Zelikow’s memo then everybody in the Bush Administration should be ashamed of themselves.” Right, but stating the obvious, even if it isn’t . . .
Musing over this: why did the Bush/Cheney administration hate democracy?
ABC
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I mean EVERYBODY from top to bottom, not necessarily just the main players who get most of the spotlight. I mean anybody associated with it at all. The ones who ordered it should be ashamed just because.
STOP! The Attacks On Speaker Pelosi
Last time they tried to attack Speaker Pelosi ( second in line to the President of the United States) it was about her alleged abuse of military transportation. This attack as expected turned out to be bogus. It turned out that the previous Speaker (Hastert – a Republican) made far more use of military transportation. It turned out that Speaker Pelosi was possibly overly prudent and too self-restrained in her use of military transportation.
Now Republicans are trying to attack her about allegedly having been told by the Bush administration about things she was not told about, like water boarding. Republicans are attacking her because she is being so effective at getting the peoples work done in congress, like healthcare. And Republicans want to stop her. Don’t put up with that. Every time they attack Speaker Pelosi they are attacking you and the rest of the American people. If they go after her, go after them even harder.
They are trying to con Speaker Pelosi and the American people. And here is how it works. Approximately 6 years ago CIA had a briefing with Pelosi and congress, but DID NOT tell congress and Pelosi that the Bush administration was using torture ( water boarding ) on detainees. Then the Bush administration sent in Porter Goss to head the CIA and to destroy, and doctor records in part to make it look like Pelosi, and the Democrats in congress were onboard with the illegal torture of detainees by the Bush administration.
See, apparently at these intelligence briefings members of congress are not allowed to take notes. And if they do, they are not allowed to keep them. Apparently the CIA makes notes, but the members of congress are not allowed to see those notes either. And they can’t tell anybody about what was said at the briefings. But the CIA can come back six years later and claim they told members of congress something six years ago that they did not tell them at that time. And they can use falsified notes to substantiate their claim. Planting disinformation was the type of thing the CIA became very good at during the time Porter Goss was a young CIA agent. Just gotta love it.
If you will remember, their was a mass exodus of senior CIA officials after Porter Goss took over. And the complaint at the time was that longtime, highly experienced agents were being replaced by other people based mostly on their political loyalties to the Bush administration and their extreme right-wing ideologies. Which is just exactly what you need if you want people who will be willing to break the law under orders. Sound familiar? I don’t think you can trust any CIA records after Goss took over.
I have nothing but the utmost respect, and admiration for the dedicated and patriotic members of OUR! Central Intelligence Agency. When the Bush administration betrayed one of OUR! agents (Mrs. Wilson) it made me boiling MAD! I think our new Director Pennetta has got some internal investigation and agency house cleaning to do. If you backtrack on the individuals that have been making the false attacks on Speaker Pelosi, and trace who they have had contact and conversations with, you should be able to connect the dots and catch your conspirators.
The key that the CIA records are falsified is Sen. Bob Graham and his journal, and common sense.
By the way, I think Mr. Pennetta is an excellent choice to head the CIA and fix it.
They are trying to kill healthcare reform. And continue our healthcare crisis. Don’t put up with that.
PASS THE WORD.
To The Congress Of The United States:
If it is true that you are not allowed to have or make any permanent records of your intelligence briefings for later clarifications, and protection, that is ridiculous. That leaves all of you vulnerable to just this type of scam that is being perpetrated on Speaker Pelosi. So here is what you can do about it to protect your-selves in the future.
Members should be able to make notes and other recordings of these briefings. Then these briefings and recordings can be reduced to a computer file that can then be encrypted and digitally signed with a detached digital signature using key encryption. Then each of you can encrypt, and sign each others copy of the record that can only be unlocked with the other parties key. And both parties copies can be verified with each others copy of the files detached digital signature.
Very easy. Very secure. No more exposure to falsified records down the road.
You see, it almost doesn’t really matter what CIA allegedly did or didn’t tell Speaker Pelosi, and congress. Because the briefing format is so deficient of any checks, balances, or verification that all we know is that all external briefing accounts support Speaker Pelosi’s version of events. Pelosi and congress should have been given every benefit of the doubt. And that should have been it.
There are many other booby traps out there set for you congress. Be careful.
God Bless You
jacksmith — WORKING CLASS
p.s. I still think the timing of Sen. Bob Graham’s ruptured cerebral aneurism was suspicious. More so now, than before.
I swear everytime I see Boehner and Pelosi together it’s like they have a secret love affair going on….only she nags him about his smoking and he about her batty eyes.