Pelosi: No More To Say On CIA Allegation

(CBS/ AP)  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she won't talk any more about her charge that the CIA lied about using waterboarding on terrorism suspects.

"I have made the statement that I'm going to make on this," she told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference. "I don't have anything more to say about it. I stand by my comment."

After CBS News' Capitol Hill Producer Jill Jackson asked the speaker to comment on the political storm sparked by her accusation, other reporters jumped in with a barrage of follow up questions, Jackson reports.

Pelosi said the topic was a distraction from important issues like health care and global warming, according to CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss.

But Republicans aren't letting this one slide.

Ken Spain, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, issued a statement after the news conference calling Pelosi a political liability to the Democratic party.

"Her obsession with the previous administration and her disdain for America's intelligence officials has reduced her to cheerleader status within the far left wing of her party and a distraction to the substantive debate over how to best move our economy forward," said Spain.

House Republicans on Thursday demanded that a bipartisan panel investigate her allegations.

"To have this charge out there and not have it resolved I think is damaging to our intelligence efforts, and certainly will have a chilling effect on our intelligence professionals around the world," House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said.

Democrats beat back the proposal, calling it a political ploy. Republicans Ron Paul of Texas and Walter Jones of North Carolina joined Democrats in a 252-172 vote to block the resolution.

"This is a serious matter," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said of the CIA interrogation program, which at one point included waterboarding, or simulated drowning. President Barack Obama has called the method torture.

"But it's not being treated seriously," he said. "It's being treated politically."

Some Republicans, including Boehner, say the enhanced interrogation techniques were necessary to gain valuable intelligence after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Earlier this month, Pelosi told reporters that she had not been told that waterboarding had been used against terrorism suspects, even though it had been. When asked whether she was accusing the CIA of lying to her, she said "yes."

Pelosi has asked the CIA to declassify information supporting her claims. The CIA sent lawmakers its notes and memos on 40 congressional briefings on the interrogation techniques. But that document has been found to include several errors.

Upon leaving the news conference on Friday, Pelosi declined to answer a question about whether she had called CIA Director Leon Panetta to discuss the matter further.

Instead, Pelosi stuck to her script, saying that Democrats are making progress on other issues.

"We're going forward in a bipartisan way for jobs, health care, energy for our country," she said. Regarding the CIA's briefing of Congress on waterboarding, "I won't have anything more to say about it."

Panetta acknowledged in a May 6 letter to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Tex., that the CIA's list may not be completely accurate.

"In the end, you and the committee will have to determine whether this information is an accurate summary of what actually happened," Panetta wrote.

[DownTheMiddle]

From what I have read, Ms. Pelosi in her capacity at the time, did or at least sould have known that water boarding was being employed. To argue that this matter only distracts from the bigger issue of what Bush and Cheney did, is to miss an even bigger issue. Integrity actually should matter when you are an elected official.

To only object to something on moral grounds after it is calculated to damage the opposition shows a disturbing lack of moral integrity for someone in her position.

Even though I disagree with Cheney, I have more respect for him for arguing his convictions regardless of the political winds. I have new found respect for Leahy because he continues to push for a truth squad even though it is likely that high ranking members of his own party will end up as casualties.

[lambor59]

CIA can lie, if they tell the true like Valerie Plame did, they 'd get fired.
The CIA only do what their boss tell them to do.

[auto1234abc]

Posted by ----One--American---- at 8:27 AM : May 23, 2009

Spamming the same wishful thinking on multiple stories will not make it true. The nation is ready for the end of the politics of fear propagated through the repetition of incredible lies

[brianbwb-2009]

"...You would think that if someone was telling the truth they would vehemently defend their position....Instead, she ducks the subject..." Posted by willow0313

She did say ""I don't have anything more to say about it. I stand by my comment."

How much more defense is needed? Doesn't sound like ducking to me, it sounds more like "You heard me...", as if she doesn't feel the need to repeat herself.

I will say that I do sincerely hope she is called to the carpet for protecting Bush from impeachment. She thusly aided and abetted Bush's cover-up of war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and the blood of the innocent also drips from her hands.

I hope the GOP can somehow cause an investigation, as it is certain to blow up in their faces, as it will prove that the CIA was instructed to carry out acts which are illegal, and then those who gave the instructions can be brought to justice.

Too bad for the neos that by far most of those who gave the instructions just so happen to be of their party.

So c'mon neos, whip up the "investigation fever" get it going, I dare you.

[rednomo]

Ok, Mr Vermin, when can we schedule you in?
Posted by rednomo

Wait how much are you going to pay??? You said you pay... how much.. "I"ll pay anyone wingnut"
Posted by vistavermin1

I'll bet you next paycheck.

Also, I have given you two, first hand accounts of people that actually have been water boarded and both say it is definetly torture. Those are called "FACTS" - you should learn about facts because none of your post contain any, they are about as relevant as a dogs f@rt.

Prove me wrong, give me two accounts of someone that has actually been water boarded and says that it is not torture.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Weatherboarding is not torture. The Navy and Air Force use it as part of their training "Posted by BannedAgainForSayTheTruth

Hey neo, why do you think the military is trained to withstand it?

Because it is torture dummy.

But bottom line, your opinion on whether it is, or is not torture, is irrelevant, as the law on the matter says,

"Article 1

1. For the purposes of this Convention, the term "torture" means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions."

Now if you don't think that it constitutes at least mental pain and suffering, you must be a masochist who gets off on having such done to you.

Typical neo, willing to ignore the law whenever it places a limit on their anti-human agendas.

[rednomo]

It's torture.
Posted by rednomo

Like I'm going to believe Jesse I've got fat around My middle Body Venture.

People who go thought SEER training all say it's hard and it's not something they liked doing. So therefore Obama should ban the Navy, Air Force for this type of training and he hasn't..

So we can and use it in training on our own troops and but not on someone who wants to kill millions of Americans..
Posted by vistavermin1

This guy is the poster boy for the following:

In John Dean?s book Conservatives Without Conscience, Dean sets forth the traits of authoritarian leaders and followers, which have been distilled from a half-century of empirical research, during which thousands of people have voluntarily been interviewed by social scientists.

About 25 percent of the adult population in the United States is solidly authoritarian (with that group mostly composed of followers, and a small percentage of potential leaders). It is in these ranks of some 70 million that are the core of the teabagger supporters.

Here comes the critically important characteristic for those of us that go round and round with them on this site and wonder why they never get it (and never will.) They are people who are so self-righteous, so ill-informed, and so dogmatic that nothing you can say or do will change their minds.

[rednomo]

Ok, Mr Vermin, when can we schedule you in?

[rednomo]

ust let me know when is a convenient time for you.
Posted by rednomo

Every week the Navy here in San Diego County has escape and evasion training were the students are subjected to waterboarding, if you can make it to So Cal the Navy will let you observe the trainning. Contact the Dept of the Navy and request to be an observer..
Posted by vistavermin1

Gee Einstein, you mean navy seals?

Jesse Ventura: You Give Me a Water Board, Dick Cheney and One Hour, and I'll Have Him Confess to the Sharon Tate Murders

On Larry King Live Jesse Ventura takes on the Bush administration chickenhawks and Rush Limbaugh, and defends Colin Powell. After being waterboarded himself in the SERE program, Ventura makes no bones about it. Waterboarding is torture.

KING: You were a Navy SEAL.

VENTURA: That's right. I was water boarded, so I know -- at SERE School, Survival Escape Resistance Evasion. It was a required school you had to go to prior to going into the combat zone, which in my era was Vietnam. All of us had to go there. We were all, in essence -- every one of us was water boarded. It is torture.

KING: What was it like?

VENTURA: It's drowning. It gives you the complete sensation that you are drowning. It is no good, because you -- I'll put it to you this way, you give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.

KING: Even though you know it's not going to happen -- even though before it, you know you're not going to drown.

VENTURA: You don't know it. If it's -- if it's done wrong, you certainly could drown. You could swallow your tongue. You could do a whole bunch of stuff. If it's it done wrong or -- it's torture, Larry. It's torture.

[Walking_Talking_GOO]

Be warned.
Posted by Seething_Soup at

You could always moooove-on.
Posted by omega39-2009

Why move on? What would be the point in debating with other Conservatives on another site?

We Conservatives love exposing your liberal lies.