Democrat Pelosi says Cheney set tone for CIA interrogation practices

[MindMover]

Last edited Sun Apr 6, 2014, 02:58 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday that former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney "set a tone" for the interrogation and detention programs conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Pelosi said she believed Cheney, an influential figure in U.S. security policy under former President George W. Bush, was proud of the CIA's actions during the Republican administration.

"I do believe that during the Bush-Cheney administration, that Vice President Cheney set a tone and an attitude for the CIA," Pelosi said on CNN's "State of the Union" program.

"Many people in the CIA are so patriotic, they protect our country in a way to avoid conflict and violence," she said, adding the agency's "attitude" came from Cheney. "I think he's proud of it."


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/06/us-usa-cia-pelosi-idUSBREA350FV20140406?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=574655

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Nancy Pelosi blames CIA's "enhanced interrogation" on Dick Cheney


In advance of a report from the Senate Intelligence Committee that will cast a harshly critical eye on the CIA's post-9/11 "enhanced interrogation" program, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sought to absolve the spy agency of some of the blame for using interrogation methods critics have dubbed tortuous.

Pelosi told CNN on Sunday that the "patriotic" officials at the CIA were only following marching orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney.

"I do believe that during the Bush-Cheney administration, that Vice President Cheney set a tone and an attitude for the CIA," she said. "Many people in the CIA are so patriotic, they protect our country in a way to avoid conflict and violence."

"But the attitude that was there...I think it came from Dick Cheney," she said. "I think he's proud of it."


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nancy-pelosi-blames-cias-enhanced-interrogation-on-dick-cheney/


Next up, arrest these war criminals ...

[WhiteTara]

1. Can we send them to the Hague yet? nt

[Voice for Peace]

2. this sounds like some kind of foreshadowing of holding somebody accountable

Between the release of the CIA report on torture, and
Nancy's comments, what's going on??

[MindMover]

3. My question and others is, ...

how far down the line do you carry the responsibility ... we have the pictures of abu ghraib and soldiers were put on trial and imprisoned but not the leaders .... ????

[Voice for Peace]

12. here we have Nancy Pelosi essentially naming the beast

and an independent Senator denouncing Cheney for his glee.

We have the report, and we have the rest of the world
who very well may speak up and take action on these
war crimes.

It seems like a spotlight is shining on this sick sick man,
and it's not going to be pretty. Fox may regret putting him
and his friends back on TV.

[hughee99]

17. My guess is that someone is going to run a story soon on which members of congress

knew what was going on when it was happening. Pelosi is getting out in front of it..

[2banon]

29. It's sort of hard for me to buy into the notion that Congress critters were out of the loop

on this information.. Sy Hersh's expose' 10 years ago was given an enormous amount of media attention. albeit, a very rare event for the M$M, in terms of deadly serious reporting.

[2banon]

22. No, this is a re-run of the worst decade of our history

Nancy is intellectually incapable of speaking directly, and unwilling to present the facts, and demand accountability. As a woman, I've been horribly embarrassed, mortified and outraged by her as the first Woman Speaker of the House. Is this the best we can do, Dems? Really?

[polynomial]

4. My deepest apologies to Nancy Pelosi

My deepest apologies to Nancy Pelosi

In comments a time ago my anger over reacted when Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi said “We don’t know what is in the bill till after we vote for it”. That was the ACA health care bill. After reflecting on that I realized legislation is jacked around so much that it is necessary at this time in history to do just that. See what happens.

It alarms me to know our legislation is just “jack around words “ that benefit the one percent rather than we the people is a disappointing realism. Worse our supreme court has defined the current conservative stance on money is free speech as an incredible fault line in modern America politics.

What the electorate needs to know is that trace or thread that winds through the laws signed in power. Navigating through this legislation is difficult especially being just a citizen. But now with the Internet maybe things can change.

[Kelvin Mace]

7. Please tell me you are being saracastic

in your apology to Pelosi.

If not, please see my post below that Pelosi is either a complete fool who has no business in congress, or is complicit in torture.

[Demeter]

13. Probably both

[DRoseDARs]

5. "Impeachment is off the table..." You got some fucking nerve, Nancy. nt

[The Stranger]

35. You beat me to it.

The Pelosi Disaster fucked us bad.

[Kelvin Mace]

6. NEVER going to happen

since Pelosi was complicit in this. Any ethical person with an ounce of sense would have known at the time that the possibility of torture being used was quite real and imminent. They would have not only issued letters to the various agencies reminding them of their duties under international law, but that they would take a dim view of "twisting" of the law to excuse torture or simply rename it.

Given what was known of Bush, Cheney and the PNC gang pushing for the war, given the AMPLE evidence that the administration was LYING us into invading Iraq that existed before the invasion, it was obvious that torture was going to be used.

What did Pelosi know and when did she know it?

The Bush administration did not inform Congress that it had waterboarded detainees in classified briefings, after the agency had already done so, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) charged Thursday.

Pelosi told reporters that the administration officials only told her and those in a classified briefing in the fall of 2002 that they believed they had the legal authority to do so, based on Office of Legal Counsel memos which have recently been released by the Obama administration.

"In that or any other briefing...we were not, and I repeat, were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used," said Pelosi. "What they did tell us is that they had some legislative counsel...opinions that they could be used, but not that they would."

This interview took place in 2009, SEVEN damn years after she was told the Bushies had torture on their agenda!! She was told that the Bushies believed they had the legal authority to torture and Pelosi thought they didn't intend to torture? Sorry either Pelosi was the most gullible fool in Washington or she was complicit in torture.

Pelosi was silent until revelations about torture came out to the public, then she was SHOCKED that it happened, and totally not responsible for it happening.

Bullshit!

[840high]

27. Thank you.

[fasttense]

8. What a clumsy and badly written headline.

The story is interesting and worth posting but what's up with Reuter's awful headline?

Democrat Pelosi?? Do they say Republic Cheney? No, they don't even mention darth vader's political party. And they certainly don't purposely misuse the RepubliCON party's name. Of course they never say that Cheney set it all up and just loved the torture. They say Pelosi said it so they can deny they are doing any reporting. "Gee, Mr Cheney, we didn't say you tortured, Pelosi said it. We just reported what she said. Please don't hit us."

I'm surprised the writer and editor had the nerve to admit they cobbled together that awful headline. Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Jim Loney and Stephen Powell.

[MindMover]

9. LOL .. thought the same at the time of reading ... almost looks like it came from a Republican blog

[JDPriestly]

10. I thought the entire article was poorly written. Very poorly written. You can hardly decide

what Pelosi really said. Seems to me the writer may have left out a lot from Pelosi's quotes.

[Eugene]

15. The Repugs are complaining she is politicizing the issue.

Source: The Guardian

CIA torture report: Nancy Pelosi blames Dick Cheney

Rory Carroll in Los Angeles
theguardian.com, Sunday 6 April 2014 18.47 BST

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

The attack on one of the most polarising figures in US politics drew an immediate rebuke from the House intelligence committee chairman, Mike Rogers, who accused Pelosi of dunking an already fraught issue into the mid-term election campaign.

Also appearing on CNN, Rogers said: “What worries me most about that more than any other statement is that it politicises this in a way that I think is horribly counterproductive and is likely to leap to the wrong conclusion.”

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/06/cia-torture-nancy-pelosi-blames-dick-cheney

[Enthusiast]

11. Arrest these fucking treasonous war criminals.

There is no way to sugar coat what they did to this country.

[Solly Mack]

14. "Patriotic" people refuse to torture regardless of who sets the "tone".

Cowards (the guilty, the complicit, the enablers, the apologists), on the other hand....

One doesn't avoid violence by engaging in violence (torture).

[on point]

16. But not worth impeaching, then prosecuting though?

[pa28]

18. But accountability was "off the table".

More words.

[OnyxCollie]

19. Nancy Pelosi needs to apologize

to those who were tortured for doing absolutely fucking nothing to hold Cheney accountable.

Coward.

[Doctor_J]

20. says the woman who could have impeached the entire Bush terrorist organization

She's been a disappointment. Had the situation been reversed, a Dem president who did what Bush did would have been impeached the day after the Repukes took the House. All of these little failures added together are why the party is completely ineffective.

[2banon]

21. "Setting a Tone and an attitude" Nancy, Really?

uh no Nancy, they set the POLICY and the PRACTICE which YOU ENABLED and continue to enable with this mealy mouthed prevarication of the facts. SHAME ON YOU!

[Unknown Beatle]

23. It was Cheney.

Don't look at me. It was Cheney, I tell you. I had nothing to do with it, promise. - Nancy (New Sheriff in Town) Pelosi

[BlueStater]

24. Then why didn't you do anything about him, dumbass?

Just stop talking, Nancy. You disgust me.

[840high]

28. +100

[nilesobek]

25. I'm proud of this forum

and all of the comments. There are brave people right here who would have said "no," to torture and are still saying, "no," and calling for prosecution of the criminals.

In regards to Pelosi, some democrats crossed the Rubicon quite some time ago and no amount of explaining or misdirection ploys will justify enabling this process to happen. I'm sure that there is an urgency among some Democrats to bury or whitewash this.

[DCBob]

30. Typing something on keyboard is not a "brave" act.

There were legitimate reasons why Dems didnt go after those warmongers.

[JoeyT]

32. I'm not sure "complicity" is a legitimate reason.

I mean, it's a reason, sure. Probably not a very legitimate one.

[BrotherIvan]

34. What would those reasons be?

Please explain how exactly letting torturers and war criminals off the hook was done for "legitimate reasons." Political expediency doesn't count, btw.

[DCBob]

37. The main reason, as I understood it was..

That the country was in the midst of a severe economic crisis and needed to focus on more important issues. Also, its sort of an unwritten rule not to go after past Presidents/VPs and other high level cabinet members.

[nilesobek]

36. Nowadays with the NSA listening in

and secret renditions going on I would say that any resistance to the torture, especially posting on an online forum is a brave act.

You say the democrats had legitimate reasons not to go after the evil torturers and warmongers. I'm quite interested in finding out what those, "legitimate," reasons are. Care to enlighten me?

[DonCoquixote]

26. no Nancy

YOU did when you made it clear that "impeachment is not on the table" thereby emboldening the GOP.

[pacalo]

31. Of course he did. Anyone who was paying attention knows Cheney set the tone.

Every day was just "dress-up day" for the spoiled rich brat pretending to be in charge. The brat's "policy explainer" routine wasn't as oratorically polished as the ex-B-actor figurehead serving the 1% in the 80s, however. The brat craved media attention so much that observers were given opportunity after opportunity to grasp how ill-prepared he was for the job.

[RandiFan1290]

33. "Don't worry, we've got your back"