Democrats were routinely briefed on Bush ‘torture’ techniques, document shows
Published: May 8, 2009
Updated 1 year ago
The CIA has released a devastating document detailing the dates and explicit details of secret Congressional briefings in which members of Congress were told of the Bush administration’s torture techniques and when they had been used.
The document is explicit (PDF here). Most damning, perhaps, is its description of a meeting held between CIA staff and then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss and now-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which shows that Pelosi was briefed on the Bush Administration’s torture techniques in 2002 — even though she’s publicly said she was never told about the use of waterboarding.
Equally striking, however, is the volume of the briefings that have been conducted on the CIA’s interrogation practices since 2002. The document runs ten pages, with up to four briefings a page.
Briefings given to Democrats are of particular significance because the party has been the most vocal about the Bush Administration’s torture practices. Apparently, however, they had known about the practices for years. At least 19 Democrats were briefed about the techniques in detail by end of 2006.
Those briefed earliest on the so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” included Pelosi, Goss, Rep. Jane Harman, then-Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL), Sen. John Rockefeller (D), Sen Patrick Roberts (R-KN) and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL).
On Sept. 6, 2006, the CIA briefed the full Senate Intelligence Committee, excluding Sen. Ron Wyden (D-WA), who did not attend. According to the document, “Significant details of EITs were provided in this briefing to include mentions of waterboarding, diet manipulation, nudity, walling, and stomach slap.” EIT is shorthand for “Enhanced Interrogation Technique.”
The Committee’s composition then included:
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Pat Roberts,KansasChairman | |
John D. Rockefeller IV, West VirginiaVice Chairman |
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Orrin G. Hatch, Utah | |
Carl Levin, Michigan |
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Mike DeWine, Ohio | |
Dianne Feinstein, California |
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Christopher S. Bond, Missouri | |
Ron Wyden, Oregon |
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Trent Lott, Mississippi | |
Evan Bayh, Indiana |
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Olympia J. Snowe, Maine | |
Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland |
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Chuck Hagel, Nebraska | |
Russell D. Feingold, Wisconsin |
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Saxby Chambliss, Georgia |
The CIA director also briefed the House Intelligence Committee that day (all of whom attended except Mike Rogers [R-MI]). “The Director briefed on specific EITs, provided detailed descriptions and answered numerous questions on the specific techniques,” the report says.
| Members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,109th Congress | |
|---|---|
| Democrats: | Republicans: |
|
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Also briefed in September 2006 were Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN).
“The Director [of National Intelligence] ‘provided significant details, naming all EITs and providing a verbal description of most EITs,’ the report says. “There was also a specific description of waterboarding.”
It’s important to note that all of the briefings were held in secret, and that lawmakers could have faced criminal prosecution if they spoke out. However, at least two Democrats did lodge complaints: Sen. Rockefeller, expressed his disapproval of items he learned during the briefings in a personal, hand-written letter to Vice President Dick Cheney; while, as the Washington Post revealed in December of 2007 that in 2003 Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) “filed a classified letter to the CIA…as an official protest about the interrogation program.”
“The report, submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee and other Capitol Hill officials Wednesday, appears to contradict Pelosi’s statement last month that she was never told about the use of waterboarding or other special interrogation tactics,” ABC’s Rick Klein writes. “Instead, she has said, she was told only that the Bush administration had legal opinions that would have supported the use of such techniques.”
On Sept. 4, 2002, US intelligence officials met with Pelosi, then-House intelligence committee chairman Porter Goss (who later became CIA director) and two aides. Pelosi was, at the time, the ranking member on the intelligence committee.
“The meeting is described as a “Briefing on EITs including use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah, background on authorities, and a description of particular EITs that had been employed.”
Last month, Pelosi denied having been told of the techniques or waterboarding.
“In that or any other briefing,” she said, “we were not, and I repeat, were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used,” Pelosi said at a news conference in April. “What they did tell us is that they had some legislative counsel . . . opinions that they could be used, but not that they would.”
Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said Pelosi didn’t remember the meeting as it was described in the report.
“The briefers described these techniques, said they were legal, but said that waterboarding had not yet been used,” Daly told ABC. He said “the report backs up Pelosi’s contention that she was briefed only once on “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
“As this document shows, the speaker was briefed only once, in September 2002,” Daly said.
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“It’s important to note that all of the briefings were held in secret, and that lawmakers could have faced criminal prosecution if they spoke out. At least one Democrat, Sen. Rockefeller, expressed his disapproval of items he learned during the briefings in a personal, hand-written letter to Vice President Dick Cheney.”
So, congressional members would have faced criminal charges for disclosing … illegal activities conducted by the Bush administration. This is a fucking joke, right? What kind of an back-asswards systems is this??!!
Well, I kinda give Rockefeller kudos for making his displeasure known, even though Dickhead Cheney probably tossed his letter in the fire.
See, this is what I said, this is why the Dem’s aren’t going to go after Bush like it or not. They are all guilty of these horrible crimes.
That’s what I’ve been saying all along too, but the wishful-thinking, delusional, illusional Dem kool-aid drinkers didn’t want to hear it. The damn fools.
The Bush-accomplice Dems are equally complicit and accomplices in the crimes. Period.
So why do the Dem kool-aid drinkers continue to hang on to these war criminals who abandoned them years ago? Just because these parasites have a D behind their name?
This is how organized crime works. You get your people to participate in a crime so that revealing the crime becomes self-incrimination. That’s why oaths of secrecy work well. You rat, and you get snuffed. It’s no mystery. The Bush Cabal knew that they were committing war crimes and needed as many accomplices as possible to protect themselves.
What will Holder do? Not a damned thing.
This is obviously the reason that the dem leaders are doing all they can to avoid the appointment of a special prosecutor.
If they have some type of hearing or commission in congress, then these dems can perform damage control and carry out a successful whitewash operation.
This further drives home the point: A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR is the ONLY WAY there is a chance for Justice to be served and a healing process to begin.
All that was leaked was a list of meetings with subjects alleged to have been covered. By the way, being acronym illiterate, I’m not sure who gave the briefings (in fact, some of the briefers identities for some meetings were not even loosely identified).
Pelosi denied being told waterboarding was taking place but that the Bush Administration had determined it to be legal to do so.
Peter Goss, at that time a former CIA agent and soon to be Director of the CIA was at that meeting, too, and, from what I have read, hasn’t commented or been asked about it. Why? Is he trying to cover his derriere by implicating Pelosi? Was she intimidated into silence by his presence? Could she have been prosecuted, lost her security clearance, be waterboarded and/or imprisoned at Guantanamo without access to a lawyer if she revealed any information about the briefing? Was she being wiretapped at the time, like Harmon?
The document is marked Unclassified//FOUO. This is what that means (from ioss.gov website): For any document/product correctly bearing the U//FOUO handling instruction, certain safeguards must be taken. Generally speaking, the material should be treated as if it were classified CONFIDENTIAL. This means it cannot be discarded in the open trash, made available to the general public, or posted on an uncontrolled website. It can, however, be shared with individuals with a need to know the content, while still under the control of the individual possessing the document or product. For example, U//FOUO material relating to security precautions during overseas assignments may be shared with family members at home. The material should then be returned to the government office and be properly retained or destroyed. Wherever possible, U//FOUO information should not be passed over unencrypted communications lines (e.g., open phones, non-secure fax, personal e-mails). If no secure communications are available for transmission, U//FOUO material may be sent via unprotected means, with supervisory approval after risk has been assessed.
Who “leaked” it? Goss?
if this does not prove that the whole goddamned u.s. government is rotten to core, then i don’t know what will.
In 2002, everyone was swept up in a tide of vengeance. If the public was briefed, they probably would have supported torture.
Our needed period of atonement includes everyone, Dems, Reps and the general public and the media. If we’re to mature as a nation, we must reflect on the mechanisms that allowed war fever to take hold.
This is no surprise to anyone following these war crimes. We’ve known for sometime that the Democratic party is either in collusion with or blackmailed by the Republican Party. “Impeachment is off the Table”
Pelosi’s complacency and involvement in these war crimes should be investigated and punished.
The ONLY really surprising point is that the CIA leaked this information. This indicates they are either ethical (doubtful) or have more incriminating information and are intimidating these politicians further.
Now that our security departments control politicians (and our legislation), there is only one thing left for us to do. The military coup has already occurred, only this time it was silent.
“I do not like [in the new Federal Constitution] the omission of a Bill of Rights providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for… protection against standing armies.” –Thomas Jefferson to James Madison
The fact that Pelosi and the other Dems knew about torture means nother as they were forbidden by
US Law from revealing what they knew. Not their fault.
But she did take impeachment off the table which cost thousands of US Soldiers theri lives.
She may be able to make up for it by cfalling for a Special Prosecutor and getting a congressional investigation going.
If you want the Bush Torture advicating Lawyers Prosecuted
Sign the Petition to Prosecute Them
http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
Over 250,000 have signed
.
Unless I am missing something, the fact they briefed the congress doesn’t change the facts that the Bush Crime Family hired ambulance chasing lawyers to write memos to authorize torture. Congress did not do it. Bush and Cheney and their entire gang are still thugs.
Put them all in prison, waterboard them and find out what the truth is. Keep waterboarding them till we’re sure they’re telling the truth. There isn’t a teaspoon full of courage in the whole Federal government. How can we allow ourselves to be ruled by this trash?
I agree with sspeedracer there, this is not news to any one paying attention.
Senate hearings on the matter dated Sept. 24th, 2008 “Pentagons Harsh Interrogation program” says it all. Really now, why else would the mafia queen take impeachment off the table? She was not only briefed in 2002, she WATCHED! Remember the little lost fact of destroyed C.I.A. tapes?
Anyone still standing behind Bush and company does NOT have the American peoples safety at heart. Any one NOT standing up and demanding accountability and RESTRUCTURE is dooming us to a even worse HELL than Bush created.
This country was the greatest gift on earth, till we handed it over to SATAN!
Pelosi: “Impeachment off the table.” Geeeee Nancy, got sweaty pits right now?
Hello California, what is your problem? She needs to go. Reid can follow her out as well.
You asked what the problem is?
The problem is that war criminal Pelosi has a big D behind her name. That’s why she was re-elected and will continue to be re-elected. That along with D party-line programming in most people, the “Democratic Machine,” the voters’ willful ignorance about Pelosi’s Bush-accomplice record and Cindy Sheehan ran a pathetic campaign against this useless parasite. Also, the corporate media gave Sheehan no coverage. They ignored her. Pelosi didn’t even have to campaign here and she didn’t. This arrogant, self-entitled piece of trash obviously feels she’s above reproach and she’s in her job permanently and will remain so. All of this is why war criminal Pelosi is back in office ….and will remain so.
I voted for Cindy Sheehan.
Let us not jump the gun. Who was in power in the White House and who ordered torture? Briefings can take many forms in substance. It stands to reason the crime family covered their asses but the fact remains that torture is a crime and they hired ambulance chasers to write bogus memos to cover their asses for the crimes they committed. Nothing here changes that fundamental fact.
Doesn’t matter what the fine print said. They had their roles in this and did not take appropriate action which makes them accessories. They’re guilty. Give them the same level of sanctuary that was given to the people they allowed to be tortured.
So now the sam the shams and the pharoahs of the world are going to believe the CIA is telling the truth?
capemh,
You got it. Those who believe the CIA have many brooklyn bridges leading across the moat to their psychosis. Boy imsam loves R-TX and the CIA, so s/he must be a real progressive.
This is the story of Porter Goss and this is the story of J. Edgar Hoover who practised and preached government by blackmail.
The CIA kool-aid-drinkers here like imsam need not read it, it was not written by your mentor the CIA.
Now that the democrats have been implicated in these crimes there is no way congress will push for prosecutions or investigations. We’ve been had folks…. the dems are as guilty as the rethugs on this one. America is finished. Only a revolution will stop the madness.
So now the Dem kool-aid drinkers like Dredd feel the need to rush to the defense of indefensible war criminals who have a D behind their name.
When will the Dem kool-aid drinkers finally realize that your party has long-ago ABANDONED you, therefore, why do you keep hanging on to them and why do you feel the need to constantly believe anything that comes out of their mouth and why do you rush to their defense, when they don’t give a fuk about you or me? How DYSFUNCTIONAL is THAT behavior?
It must be remembered that between 1-2 weeks after 9-11, the general public learned about torture at Guantanamo and that was part of why so many people protested Bush’s (and the D/R congress) terrorist attack on Iraq. We all knew there was torture going on so one would have to be delusional to believe that somehow the Ds and Rs didn’t know it was going on.
Why do you people feel the need to make excuses for these indefensible scum in congress?….and you do it repeatedly.
(In the last election, I voted for Nader/Gonzalez and Cindy Sheehan….all TRUE PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATES).
The rest of you voted for Ds and Rs and we continue to suffer for it.
I think Raw should rename their site: DemExcuseMakers.com
There you will learn that it’s perfectly fine for Dems to torture, wiretap, rendition, give $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ to the bankers and Wall street
BUT…
If the Repugs do any of the exact same things, people would be screaming about it. But because it’s the “Dem Team” doing it now, it’s okay.
HYPOCRITES. PATHETIC.
When are you goddamned fools going to learn to vote for a third party and give them an opportunity?
9/4/02: CIA briefing to Goss, Pelosi, Sample and Sheehy: “Briefings on EITs including use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah, background on authorities, and a description of the particular EITs that had been employed.”
Holy Crap! Are reporters all on crack?
Read the CIA’s words exactly. Don’t read in more then the CIA actually says. Give the CIA credit…they are tricky…read carefully.
Nowhere above does the CIA commit to saying that they told Pelosi which EITs had been employed. If they had told her they would have said so directly instead of artfully dodging around as they do above.
Again - Holy Crap! Are reporters all on crack?
I will never understand the need of many people to rush to the defense of millionaires, just because the millionaire happens to be a politician from one’s political “team.” But I’ve seen it over and over.
The gullible sheep really seem to need a “team” to support, both with sports and with politics. I was listening to a talk show tonight and there was one person after the other grasping at anything to defend their “team” millionaires, in this case Pelosi.
For anyone to say this war criminal Pelosi didn’t know this and didn’t know that, it’s bull shit. Many of us knew what was going on right after 9-11.
Why did Pelosi not say anything when Bush spewed, “this country does not torture?” when she KNEW that was a LIE?
One criminal covering the ass of another criminal. That’s called an accomplice.
Democats told about it could not reveal it under penalty of prosecution.
The fact that Pelosi and the other Dems knew about torture means nothing really as they were forbidden by
US Law from revealing what they knew.
Not their fault that the law was there.
But Pelosi did take impeachment off the table
which cost thousands of additional US Soldiers dead
and more thousands maimed.
She may be able to make up for it by calling for a Special Prosecutor and getting a congressional investigation going.
If you want the Bush Torturers Prosecuted
Sign the Petition to Prosecute Them at
http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
Over 250,000 have signed
.