Thread: 'The CIA is America's scapegoat' Pelosi 'should be thrown

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'The CIA is America's scapegoat'
Former officer: Pelosi 'should be thrown out of her job'

Posted: May 16, 2009
12:30 am Eastern
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Members of the CIA are most likely "seething and outraged" by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's claims the CIA misled her about its use of coersive interrogation methods, according to former CIA officer Larry Johnson.

"She was informed, the Congress was informed," said Johnson.

"This is not the first time Congress has developed a version of Alzheimer's disease in failing to remember what it was told about certain covert operations throughout history."

He spoke with Greg Corombos of Radio America/WND. The audio of the exchange is embedded here: http://www.cwfa.org/main.asp

"I think she's crossed a line now," said Johnson.

He castigates lawmakers who are hawkish behind closed doors and then take a different position in public and he slams both parties for using the CIA to further their own political ends.

"The CIA is America's scapegoat," continued Johnson.

"If you listen to Nancy Pelsoi, the CIA was lying to Congress about Iraq, and was helping manufacture all this misinformation. And then, if you listen to the Republicans, CIA officer Valerie Plame, who was an operations officer undercover, she was actually undermining Bush policy. Now, which is it?"

Johnson said Pelosi should be "held accountable" and thinks "she should be thrown out of her job."

"I guarantee you this, the one who's lying in this case is Nancy Pelosi."

A former congresswoman, who once sat on the House Select Intelligence Committee with Pelosi, contends the speaker "needs to come clean" about the claims she's made.

"This just gets stranger and stranger everyday," said former New Mexico Rep. Heather Wilson.

Wilson spoke with Greg Corombos of Radio America/WND. The audio of the exchange is embedded here: http://www.cwfa.org/main.asp

"I wouldn't be surprised if there's, within a few days, some notes that were taken at the actual meetings and Mrs. Pelosi may have more egg on her face before this is over," added Wilson.

She worries what impact Pelosi's accusations against the CIA will have on the work currently being done by the intelligence community.

"More than anything else, good intelligence has kept this country safe since September 11. It's our first line of defense against people who would try to kill us," she continued.

"They are not going to necessarily take the risks that we ask them to take to keep this country safe."

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Pelosi turns down Sunday show invitations
By Emily Goodin
Posted: 05/16/09 03:03 PM [ET]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) turned down invitations to be on several Sunday morning talk shows and is instead spending the weekend with her family.

The Speaker was invited to appear on NBC's "Meet the Press,â€

Pelosi tries to backpedal on CIA criticism

By Mike Soraghan and Sam Youngman
Posted: 05/16/09 11:32 AM [ET]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has backed down slightly in her fight with the CIA, saying that she really meant only to criticize the Bush administration rather than career officials.

"My criticism of the manner in which the Bush Administration did not appropriately inform Congress is separate from my respect for those in the intelligence community who work to keep our country safe," Pelosi said in a statement.

Pelosi caused an uproar Thursday when she accused the CIA of lying to her about its use of waterboarding – which she considers torture – on terrorism suspects.

Her comment came after President Obama's CIA director, Leon Panetta, challenged her version of events, insisting that his agency told her the truth in a controversial September 2002 briefing.

Panetta, who served with Pelosi in Congress as a fellow California Democrat, had issued a memo to CIA staff Friday reiterating that agency records show "CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing 'the enhanced techniques that had been employed,'" according to CIA records.

"We are an agency of high integrity, professionalism and dedication," Panetta said in the memo. "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."

In her statement and answers Thursday, Pelosi had switched back and forth between criticizing the CIA and Bush administration officials. Republicans said she was unfairly criticizing non-political career officials doing the briefing when she claimed "they mislead us all the time."

In what is so far the most difficult episode of her speakership, Pelosi is under fire about what she knew of the abusive interrogation techniques approved by the Bush administration and when she knew it.

At the same news conference where she accused the CIA of misleading her on the topic, Pelosi acknowledged for the first time that she knew in 2003 that terrorism suspects were waterboarded. She said she learned that from an aide who sat in on a briefing in February 2003.

Republicans have called her a hypocrite for criticizing techniques as "torture" when she tacitly agreed to the practices after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. One lawmaker — Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) — called on Pelosi Friday to step down as Speaker.

At the same time, liberal groups could question why she didn't push back harder against the Bush administration. Pelosi defended herself for not speaking out at the time about information disclosed in a classified briefing. Asked why she didn't co-sign a formal objection by Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), who attended the briefing with Pelosi aide Mike Sheehy, Pelosi said any objection would have done little good.

"No letter could change the policy," she said on May 14 at a news conference. "It was clear we had to change the leadership in Congress and in the White House. That was my job, the Congress part."

RELATED:

View the documents that detail which members were briefed on interrogation techniques
PANETTA: CIA director says Pelosi was told the truth
AVOIDANCE: White House ducks Pelosi-CIA battle
THE STORM: Pelosi deflects waterboarding criticism
PROBE: Lindsey Graham threatens to call speaker
NO. 2: Hoyer wants all the facts out

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/pel ... 05-16.html

Pelosi should be put into one of those smoke-filled cloakrooms until she can figure out what she knew and when she knew it.