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.

Ouch!

Am I crazy or did he just call the CIA liars?

H/T: Hot Air.

There is a long tradition in Washington of making political hay out of our business. It predates my service with this great institution, and it will be around long after I’m gone. But the political debates about interrogation reached a new decibel level yesterday when the CIA was accused of misleading Congress.

Let me be clear: It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress. That is against our laws and our values. As the Agency indicated previously in response to Congressional inquiries, our contemporaneous records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing “the enhanced techniques that had been employed.” Ultimately, it is up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened.

My advice—indeed, my direction—to you is straightforward: ignore the noise and stay focused on your mission. We have too much work to do to be distracted from our job of protecting this country.

We are an Agency of high integrity, professionalism, and dedication. Our task is to tell it like it is—even if that’s not what people always want to hear. Keep it up. Our national security depends on it.

The bottom line here is this no longer a partisan issue… Republicans are calling her a liar and now, by implication, so is the White House. Speaker Pelosi has painted Democrats into a corner and she very well end up being sacrificed for the good of the party.

Related

• Analysis: Democrats’ risky focus on torture – Examiner.com
• Panetta Defends CIA Briefing – Wall Street Journal
• Pelosi admits waterboard briefing – Washington Times
• Speaker’s Comments Raise Detainee Debate to New Level – Washington Post
• Pelosi’s Fancy Footwork – Dana Milbank
• Gingrich: Pelosi ‘Lied,’ ‘Despicable,’ ‘Dishonest,’ ‘Vicious,’ ‘Trivial’ – The Note, ABC News.
• The CIA Replies: It is Pelosi Who is Lying – NewMajority.com
• Video: Kit Bond says CIA doesn’t brief on rejected techniques – Hot Air

MSNBC’s Norah O’Donnell: “Speaker Pelosi came out today and essentially when asked if the CIA is lying, she said, ‘they mislead us all the time.’ Do you agree with that? Does the CIA mislead Congress all the time?”

Senator Joe Lieberman: “No, on that specific point, I totally disagree. You have to have confidence in the CIA. And over the 20 years I’ve been here, I’ve been briefed constantly by the CIA and I’d say that they’ve told me the truth, as they see it.”

H/T: Weekly Standard via Hot Air.

Nancy Pelosi is playing a dangerous game of chicken with the CIA. It seems pretty clear from what’s been reported that’s she’s lying about what she knew and when knew it. It also fairly obvious that the agency isn’t going to willingly be made the Democrats whipping boy.

Ed Morrissey asks the million dollar question:

And if the CIA really had lied to her in the briefings, why didn’t Pelosi start out with that explanation?  In fact, why didn’t she mention that in 2005 when both the EITs and the briefings were made public?  Coming four years later, this explanation lacks any kind of credibility.

William Jacobson analyzes the situation and concludes:

Here’s my prediction of what will happen if Democrats push the investigation to the bitter end causing damage to national security, a political death match with the CIA, and Democrat-on-Democrat finger pointing:

Steny Hoyer, Speaker; Jane Harman, Majority Leader; Nancy Pelosi, Chair of the House sub-committee on fresh water fisheries; Republicans, unexpected gains in 2010 mid-term elections.

The Democrats wished hard for an investigation into waterboarding and other interrogation methods. They may have wished too hard, because they are about to get what they wished for, with no way out.

I can’t say a disagree, I suspect by now many Democrats regret opening what has turned out to be a can hissing venomous snakes that threaten to bite them rather than their intended target.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A source close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now confirms that Pelosi was told in February 2003 by her intelligence aide, Michael Sheehy, that waterboarding was actually used on CIA detainee Abu Zubaydah.

Source says Nancy Pelosi didn’t object about waterboard usage because she wasn’t personally briefed about it.

This appears to contradict Pelosi’s account that she was never told waterboarding actually happened, only that the administration was considering using it.

Sheehy attended a briefing in which waterboarding was discussed in February 2003, with Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, who took over Pelosi’s spot as the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

This source says Pelosi didn’t object when she learned that waterboarding was being used because she had not been personally briefed about it — only her aide had been told.

The source said Pelosi supported a letter that Harman sent to the administration at the time raising concerns. The source asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of matters discussed in classified intelligence briefings.

I distrust anonymous sources with a passion and I’d normally ignore a story like this but… the details match closely with earlier reporting and would appear to confirm what me already knew or at least surmised: Nancy Pelosi is lying about what she knew and when she new it.

Special thanks to Cliff for the tip.

From the Politico:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi learned in early 2003 that the Bush administration was waterboarding terror detainees but didn’t protest directly out of respect for “appropriate” legislative channels, a confidant of the San Francisco Democrat said Monday…

[T]here’s no dispute that on Feb. 4, 2003 — five months after Pelosi’s September meeting — CIA officials briefed Pelosi aide Michael Sheehy and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), then the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, on the specific techniques that had been used on Zubaydah — including waterboarding.

Harman was so alarmed by what she had heard, she drafted a short letter to the CIA’s general counsel to express “profound” concerns with the tactic — going so far as to ask if waterboarding had been personally “approved by the president.”

According to the Pelosi confidant, Sheehy told Pelosi about the briefing — and later informed Pelosi, the newly elected minority leader, that Harman was drafting a protest letter. Pelosi told Sheehy to tell Harman that she agreed with the letter, the Pelosi insider said. But she did not ask to be listed as a signatory on the letter, the source said, and there is no reference to her in it…

“She felt that the appropriate response was the letter from Harman, because Jane was the one who was briefed,” said the person. Pelosi “never got briefed on it personally, and when Harman got a ‘no response’ from the CIA, there was nothing more that could be done.”

Bull, as Allahpundit notes there was a lot Ms. Pleosi could have done:

Other possible “appropriate responses,” right off the top of my head: (1) Pelosi could have demanded to be briefed personally to learn more about this alarming new development; (2) Pelosi could have written her own letter; (3) Pelosi could have co-signed Harman’s letter; (4) Pelosi could have demanded a CIA response to Harman’s letter; (5) Pelosi could have pressured the GOP leadership to inquire further; (6) Pelosi could have leaked the details about waterboarding to the press, which wouldn’t have been “appropriate” per se but would at least have signaled the depth of her alleged concern. Instead, she let it lie. How come, Madam Speaker?

Is anyone buying this crap?

Related

• Democrats race to hearings on interrogation memos – Associated Press