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The Big Lie, Again |
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Watching Kit Bond insist that House Speaker Pelosi couldn’t claim that if CIA briefings were given her about torture she could not do anything about it anyway, I am once again seeing the putrefying lies wingers use to refute damaging charges. This morning on CBS news Bond claimed that she could have ‘called for confidential hearings’ - an action which was routinely ignored by the wingnuts in charge of the House at the time she was somewhat briefed.
Only those with short memories seem to inhabit the voter category for wingers, which is hardly a surprise. If memories include depression days, their deregulation mantra would long ago have been rooted out. As Timothy Noah pointed out yesterday at Salon, these days, in defeat, the wingers have returned to type, definitely not a nice one; t’s a familiar pattern. …When President Clinton submitted his first major domestic policy initiative to Congress—reform of the health care system—GOP strategist Bill Kristol famously urged congressional Republicans to reject any compromise “sight unseen.” As President Obama and Congress prepare to introduce their own health care reform bill, history is repeating itself: GOP strategist Frank Luntz has already coached congressional Republicans on scare tactics to oppose it.
Speaker Pelosi has knocked the blocks out from under CIA and winger claims that she could have acted to stop torture if she had chosen. She has said that the briefing she actually got only described possible future use, and never established that such horrors had been committed by our own interrogators. Instead of arguing against the inhumane aspects of torture, once again the right wingers attack its opponents while clinging to their own failed ideology.
This morning, Huffington Post cites supporting evidence given by former Senator Bob Graham, another person braving what is sure to be outright bludgeoning by the faction that wants to keep torture, and keep the myth that we are protecting our security by ending our history as a civilized nation.
“What struck me…was the fact that in that briefing, there were also two staff members,” he said. “As you know, the general rule is that the executive is to brief the full committees of the House and Senate Intelligence committees about any ongoing or proposed action. The exception to that is what is called “covert action,” where the president…only briefs the Gang of Eight, which is the four congressional leaders and the four intelligence committee leaders. Those sessions are generally conducted at an executive site, primarily at the White House itself. And they are conducted with just the authorized personnel, not with any staff or any other member of the committee…. Which leads me to conclude that this was not considered by the CIA to be a Gang of Eight briefing. Otherwise they would not have had staff in the room. And that leads me to then believe that they didn’t brief us on any of the sensitive programs such as the waterboarding or other forms of excessive interrogation.”
The remarks made by Graham bolster the comments offered by Pelosi on Thursday. The Speaker told reporters that during her briefing session in the fall of 2002 she was not just kept in the dark about the issue of waterboarding, she was assured that it had not been used.
“Yes, I am saying that the CIA was misleading the Congress,” she said.
However, records and testimony do show that high-ranking aides were present during a February 2003 briefing when waterboarding was discussed by the CIA with Reps. Porter Goss and Jane Harman.
Graham declined to speculate as to what took place during Pelosi’s briefings, noting that the House and Senate had two entirely different sessions. But he did point out that, at the time, “the whole credibility of the intelligence committee, particularly the CIA, was pretty much in question” — giving credence to Pelosi’s claims that she was given faulty information.
“The irony,” said Graham, “is that the whole series of events in late September of ‘02 were concurrent with the CIA’s release of the first classified version of the National Intelligence Estimate, which was one of the key factors that led me to vote against the war in Iraq because I thought that their case was so weak.
The same CIA that asked for the torture memos to justify its war crimes is not going to accept its outing by a force for return to Geneva Conventions. While its position as the unfortunate agency ordered to carry out crimes by a maladministration that was trampling on the Rule of Law occasions some sympathy, the CIA will have to allow some great changes in its posture if it is to get through this latest crisis. Putting up a smokescreen isn’t enough. Crimes have been committed, and punishment is going to be called for.
The CIA is in a position like that of the German high command following WWII. Its criminals will need to be prosecuted, not defended.
Speaker Pelosi is right to insist on getting the truth out, and the entire Congress needs to get to work with the prosecution of those who ordered, and committed, criminal acts. Anything else is betrayal of the country.
Of course, there will be lies. The Gang of No has nothing positive to run on, and will need to hide its record in the only way it knows. The big lies have been dragged out for its defense. That’s all they’ve got.
(This post also at http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/ )
Did she or didn’t she? That’s really the real question. And of course neither side will ever come to an agreement on that matter.
http://www.newsy.com/videos/pelosi_vs_the_cia/
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 %u2014 WORKING CLASS
p.s. I still think the timing of Sen. Bob Graham’s ruptured cerebral aneurism was suspicious. More so now, than before.
Thanks, good thought and research. John Dean had some more on this, see at http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/2009/05/keeping-country-secure.html
Speaker Pelosi’s point that replacing the previous administration was the step needed is a terrific one, too. War crimes prevention by removal of war criminals is a first big step forward.
Now we must have prosecution.