Much Ado About Nancy Pelosi

The Ridiculous Nancy Pelosi 'Scandal' Made Simple (and Hilarious)

Did Nancy Pelosi know about torture? Was she briefed about torture? When did she know about torture? Did she authorize torture?

"Who cares?" says Sam Seder of Air America's BreakRoom Live with Maron & Seder.

The important issue is authorization, "Was she in a position to turn this country into a torture nation?" WATCH:

[h/t Isaac Fitzgerald, AlterNet]

Nancy Pelosi: A Diversionary Distraction

The Republicans are in a huff over Nancy Pelosi and what she did and didn't know or what she did and didn't do. The GOP is talking about torture. But missing from this conversation and finger pointing is the fact that no matter what Pelosi's actions were or weren't, it was the Bush/Cheney administration who actually ordered torture, knew of torture and promoted torture.

Pelosi has requested a Truth Commission to actually investigate the actions of the Bush administration including what information was given to Pelosi and when.

Mark Karlin at BuzzFlash believes all of the angst over Nancy Pelosi is just a diversionary distraction.

The Republicans are chronically good at throwing a glass against the wall, and as eyes shift toward the crashing sound stealing the money off the table. Deception is second nature to them.

So let's not hear all this hand-wringing over Nancy Pelosi. Yes, she was probably told something rather euphemestic about the CIA's actions to "prevent another terrorist attack." But she's just a bystander to the war crimes. Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush were driving the bus of war, torture and murder.

Think Progress also weighs in on this issue.

For weeks, conservatives have been launching hypocritical and disingenuous attacks on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) regarding her level of knowledge of the Bush administration’s torture program.

Pelosi has been clear that recent questions about her level of knowledge about Bush’s torture program only add more — not less — need for an investigation to take place. “Until a truth commission comes into being, I encourage the appropriate committees of the House to conduct vigorous oversight of these issues,” Pelosi said.

If conservatives were being honest about their criticisms, they’d be taking up Pelosi’s desire for a full investigation, an inquiry that would not only examine what members of Congress knew but also the prominent role Cheney played in authorizing illegal acts.

Does anyone see a problem that we need a Truth Commission? Or that some politicians oppose a Truth Commission. It seems that TRUTH has taken a backseat to political antics.

Who's Lying Now?

Was Bush Lying When He Said We Don't Torture


Trancript:

COOPER: Do you believe that it did work in this case, as the vice president has -- as Vice President Cheney has indicated?

FLEISCHER: No, again, Anderson, your premise is that it is torture. And I think the only people who can determine that are people from the Department of Justice.

COOPER: But it's interesting, though...

FLEISCHER: If it is torture, if it is torture...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: ... when the Khmer Rouge did it, when the Khmer Rouge did it at Tuol Sleng prison, and you can go there, and you can see the instruments they used to water-board people, I mean, we labeled it as torture.

FLEISCHER: And, Anderson, that's why I said the only people who are in a position to make an authoritative judgment on it should be career, independent-minded people at the Department of Justice, without anybody at the White House interfering or anybody else interfering.

And then, if they decide it was, then they have got a very careful decision to make about how far and extensive do you prosecute people. Is it the people who did it? Is it the Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill who were briefed on it and didn't object to it? And who in the administration would you have to apply that standard to?

This is where this whole thing can go.

But, going back to the memo, and going back to bipartisanship, you know, it's not just the Bush people who said it was wrong to release that memo. Bill Clinton's head of the CIA said it was wrong to release those memos, because you're teaching al Qaeda operatives exactly what our techniques are.

And why do we want anybody in al Qaeda to know what the limits of our techniques are, Paul?

BEGALA: The techniques that -- the techniques that we no longer use, the techniques that were in "The New York Review of Books" and half of the newspapers and magazines in North America, Ari. I mean, it is...

FLEISCHER: Paul, it was your administration's head of the CIA who objected to the release of those memos.

BEGALA: It doesn't -- it doesn't make...

FLEISCHER: It's a Clinton official who said that.

BEGALA: It doesn't make him right. Torture is always wrong, Ari. We executed...

FLEISCHER: I agree with you that torture is always wrong. BEGALA: Excuse me for talking while you're interrupting.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Let Paul finish.

BEGALA: We -- our country executed Japanese soldiers who water- boarded American POWs. We executed them for the same crime that we are now committing ourselves. How do you defend that?

FLEISCHER: Well, again, Paul, I guess you already are the jury, the prosecutor, the judge, and a citizen all rolled into one. You have already pronounced judgment that it is a crime.

So, if it is a crime, my question goes back to. Which Democrat members of Congress who sat in on the briefings, were authorized, were told about it, while -- particularly at a time when the Democrats had the majority in the Senate, would you say need to be prosecuted, Paul?

BEGALA: Here's the thing. Ari, you think it's a political issue. And, so, you say, well, Democrats knew, or George Tenet said this, and he used to be a Democrat. And...

(CROSSTALK)

FLEISCHER: Because the only people you want to blame, Paul, are Republicans.

BEGALA: Again, excuse me for trying to make a point here.

FLEISCHER: That's why.

BEGALA: No, no, no.

FLEISCHER: The only people you want to blame are the Bush administration.

BEGALA: I just said a moment ago -- I just said a moment ago, if -- if George Tenet, who was head of the CIA when I was in the White House, if he says this, he's wrong, too.

Nancy Pelosi: We Were Not!
I Repeat NOT EVER TOLD Waterboarding Was Used!