Pelosi caught in lie over CIA torture report

By Bob Turner |

Washington - A report by the Central Intelligence Agency revealed that now Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was briefed on CIA torture methods in 2002, which the Democratic leader had previously denied having any knowledge of.

Pelosi along with other key leaders in Congress had been briefed on CIA interrogation methods, including waterboarding, dozens of times, which included the destruction of interrogation videotapes and other records.

Of particular note was a September 4, 2002 briefing to Pelosi in which she was given details on the interrogation methods, including waterboarding, used on Abu Zubaydah, a top Al Qaeda operative. A Justice Department memo released last month revealed that waterboarding had used on Zubaydah at least 83 times.

Only last week Pelosi had said, “We were not - I repeat were not - told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used.”

Yet the CIA had gone so far as to produce a chart on the number of times Pelosi had been briefed, which in effect caught the liberal Democratic leader in what critics say was “a bold face lie”.

The chart shows that over a seven year span Pelosi had been briefed a total of 40 times on interrogation and intelligence gathering techniques used by the CIA in gathering intelligence information from detainees.

Porter Goss, former CIA Director who attended those intelligence briefings with Pelosi said he was ’slack-jawed’ to read about Pelosi denying she understood that waterboarding had been used on prisoners, calling her response “a disturbing epidemic of amnesia.”

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