Pelosi, Harmon, Graham, and Rockerfeller All Briefed Fully on "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" in 2002

File this under the "See, I told you so," category.

The Washington Post, hardly a bastion of Conservative thought, has confirmed that Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Jane Harman (D-CA), Bob Graham (D-FL Ret.), and J.D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV), were all fully briefed on the enhanced interrogation techniques, including films of water-boarding, for over an hour by the CIA and not only did they not object, but they were enthusiastic over the successes and techniques being used.

Hill Briefed on Waterboarding in 2002
In Meetings, Spy Panels' Chiefs Did Not Protest, Officials Say

By Joby Warrick and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 9, 2007; Page A01

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.

"The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough," said a U.S. official who witnessed the exchange.

Congressional leaders from both parties would later seize on waterboarding as a symbol of the worst excesses of the Bush administration's counterterrorism effort. The CIA last week admitted that videotape of an interrogation of one of the waterboarded detainees was destroyed in 2005 against the advice of Justice Department and White House officials, provoking allegations that its actions were illegal and the destruction was a coverup.

Yet long before "waterboarding" entered the public discourse, the CIA gave key legislative overseers about 30 private briefings, some of which included descriptions of that technique and other harsh interrogation methods, according to interviews with multiple U.S. officials with firsthand knowledge. [Emphasis added]

So, what's with all of this outrage by "Pig Eyes" Durbin and Harry Reid? Why all of the sudden has it become necessary for the Attorney General's office to appoint another special prosecutor?
The even larger question is why are the Liberals so outraged at the idea of the CIA destroying interrogation tapes to protect the identities of CIA operatives, yet so indignant at the so-called "outing" of Valerie Plame? Could there be more than a little hypocrisy at work here? Even worse, could the Democrats, once more, be playing political games with our national security?

The Post quotes Porter Goss, the then Director of the CIA as saying:

"Among those being briefed, there was a pretty full understanding of what the CIA was doing and the reaction in the room was not just approval, but encouragement."[Emphasis added]

The Post quotes an unidentified "official present at the briefings" as saying:

"In fairness, the environment was different then because we were closer to Sept. 11 and people were still in a panic, but there was no objecting, no hand-wringing. The attitude was, 'We don't care what you do to those guys as long as you get the information you need to protect the American people.'"[Emphasis added]

In fact, it was not until the leaks about waterboarding were disclosed in the press that members of Congress began to whine about human rights abuses and "torture." But the CIA had already abandoned waterboarding by 2005, so we now know that all of this whining and gnashing of teeth over our inhumane treatment of prisoners by Pig Eyes and the other sanctimonious Democrats has all been political posturing...just as I said before.

The real reason for all of this outrage, is camouflage to divert the public's attention away from the fact that the Democrats are about to cave in on the troop funding requests by the President. The Democrat Controlled Congress is going to approve $Billions more in funding without any of the restrictions they claimed they would demand before they funded the troops again.

Not only are Democrats and Liberals gutless in conducting a war, but they are also gutless in standing up for their own principles (mostly because they have no core principles beyond the desire for power).

Long Live Our American Republic!!!

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