Pelosi, EIT and the Briefing
08 May 2009 12:55 pm by Taylor Marsh
As I said on Twitter last night, ABC doesn’t have the story they think they do. Greg Sargent offers some proof that this analysis is correct. The following graphic is from Greg:
It clearly reveals that Pelosi was briefed on EITs (enhanced interrogation techniques), but the specifics are left out.
Nevertheless, breathless with a breaking fever, people have decided to report that Pelosi was briefed on EITs, assuming waterboarding was part of the package. There is absolutely no proof or actual conclusive evidence that Speaker Pelosi was specifically told that waterboarding would be used in the torture of prisoners. As of today there simply isn’t, though this is still unfolding, so we don’t know where it will lead.
Reports do prove that although Pelosi was indeed briefed on EIT, the specifics were missing in the single briefing she had.
…The CIA declined to comment on why the chart does not make it clear whether waterboarding was covered in the Pelosi briefing. But a federal official familiar with the list indicated that the agency’s records may not have been that specific.
[...] Although the records describe early briefings on the CIA program, they also indicate that the operation was shielded from the vast majority of lawmakers for years. It wasn’t until September 2006, four years after Goss and Pelosi initially were briefed, that the agency’s interrogation program was described to the full House and Senate intelligence committees.
Porter Goss pontificating on what should have been deduced means nothing if the specifics weren’t delineated. People are now assuming that a briefing on EITs automatically means that Pelosi knew that waterboarding was being used on prisoners.
There’s another wrinkle to the Pelosi story from Sargent as well. The CIA doesn’t even know if the notes of the briefings are accurate.
(U//FOUO) This letter presents the most thorough information we have on dates, locations, and names of all Members of Congress who were briefed by the CIA on enhanced interrogation techniques. This information, however, is drawn from the past files of the CIA and represents MFRs completed at the time and notes that summarized the best recollections of those individuals. In the end, you and the Committee will have to determine whether this information is an accurate summary of what actually happened. …
Pelosi was briefed in September 2002. Abu Zubayda, as we now know, was waterboarded the previous month over six dozen times. You’d think if the Pelosi briefing included waterboarding numbers like this would certainly have stuck in the Speaker’s mind. It’s not something you’re likely to forget.
