House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah in September 2002, according to a report prepared by the Director of National Intelligence’s office and obtained by ABC News.
The report, submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee and other Capitol Hill officials Wednesday, appears to contradict Pelosi’s statement last month that she was never told about the use of waterboarding or other special interrogation tactics. Instead, she has said, she was told only that the Bush administration had legal opinions that would have supported the use of such techniques.
According to Glenn Thrush over at Politico, Speaker Pelosi continues to deny that she knew anything ahead of time.
At this point, nothing short of video coming out showing a CIA briefer speaking very slowly about how the CIA just waterboarded Zubaydah where Pelosi can be clearly seen taking notes will convince those that still believe Pelosi.
What's more is that these latest memos say that there were about 40 such briefings for top level legislators on both sides. Jay Rockefeller is mentioned by name as well as Bob Graham. Jane Harman is also mentioned as being briefed however it's already been leaked that she did in fact raise an objection to these techniques by letter.
This whole thing is really nothing short of a political disaster for the Democrats if they continue to move forward with it. In every which way the Democrats lose on this. The public approves of these techniques. They don't want any sort of investigation, and furthermore, any sort of investigation would ultimately lead to evidence that many powerful Democrats knew what was going on and said nothing.
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