The press supposedly was poised to flay Lyin' Nancy alive in her weekly news conference today. But after she informed them that she would not answer questions about what she knew and when she knew it regarding her claim that he CIA lied they collectively tucked their tails and jumped back into the Democrat tank... At the very least they could have turned and walked out. No politic an can stand being ignored..
So it is obvious her strategy is to allow her minions to reframe the story with a series of "I don't remember..." and arguments over dates, all the time ignoring that it is Obamie and his CIA main man who they are insulting. Outside of a snap back from Panetta it appears that Obamie is going along and will try and let the story die. In the end he needs Pelosi more than she needs him.
But the problem is that there is too much out there. And the press, if they cared enough to get off their collective rear ends have the story in Pelosi's own words. Follow me on this.
ABC News broke this story on 12/10/2007. That's 17 months and 11 days ago. Now. Remember that date.
A leader of the CIA team that captured the first major al Qaeda figure, Abu Zubaydah, says subjecting him to waterboarding was torture but necessary.
In the first public comment by any CIA officer involved in handling high-value al Qaeda targets, John Kiriakou, now retired, said the technique broke Zubaydah in less than 35 seconds.
ABC News Link
Pelosi herself acknowledged in a December 2007 statement that she was aware that Harman had learned of the waterboarding and had objected in a letter to the CIA's top counsel.
"It was my understanding at that time that Congresswoman Harman filed a letter in early 2003 to the CIA to protest the use of such techniques, a protest with which I concurred," Pelosi said in the Dec. 9, 2007, statement.
Washington Post Link
Major investigative reports, such as ABC's above, are completed days in advance. So there is no doubt that Pelosi would have been asked about it. So what did they do?? They issued a mea culpa one day in advance of the ABC story. By doing so they could say, "See our press release yesterday." This is a standard "get out in front" move.
And in it she admits that she was aware that Harman had learned of EIT and had written a letter to the CIA, "...a protest with which I concurred." That is past tense. So she admits she knew because how else could she have "concurred?"
"I didn't know but I concurred?" I repeat. You cannot concur (agree) with something you don't know. It isn't possible. (Excuse me while I giggle.)
Now, what further evidence do we have, besides her own words, that she knew?
In December 2007 the Washington Post reported that leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees had been briefed in the fall of 2002 about waterboarding -- which simulates drowning -- and other techniques, and that no congressional leaders protested its use.
Washington Post Link
In fact, she didn't deny she knew. She admitted she was aware that Harman had written a letter re EIT use and concurred with Harman's letter.
Now, let's dig a little deeper into this and see how she would have known, and why she had no choice but to admit it, at that time.
But there’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.
Politico Link
So now we have followed the cat home, and as my Mom always told me, no matter how long the "tail" it always follows the cat home.
In December 2007 it was a major story but no one connected the dots, if indeed they even knew that Harman and a Pelosi aid was briefed almost five years before. It wasn't until Pelosi and her Leftie friends decided to attack the lawyers who did the legal work on EIT that interest was rekindled. And when Obamie, at first, wouldn't definitively say his justice department wouldn't prosecute all concerned, the story got big and suddenly dates, times and lies became important.
Pelosi has done what so many politicians do. She has made the rope, she has tied the knot and she has hung herself. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving person.
Now she stonewalls. That got her by today. I don't think it will in the future. Taking down Nixon was great fun. Baiting Bush was almost as much. Speakers of the House aren't in the same group, but they'll do for a warm up.
(I wrote a portion of this in a Tennessean comment.)
