Pelosi, Torture, and Hypocrisy

I swear I didn't know!

Not that it should come as much of a surprise but:

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah in September 2002, according to a report prepared by the Director of National Intelligence’s office and obtained by ABC News.

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. Instead, she has said, she was told only that the Bush administration had legal opinions that would have supported the use of such techniques.

The report details a Sept. 4, 2002 meeting between intelligence officials and Pelosi, then-House intelligence committee chairman Porter Goss, and two aides. At the time, Pelosi was the top Democrat on the House 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.”

EITs stand for “enhanced interrogation techniques,” a classification of special interrogation tactics that includes waterboarding.

Pelosi, D-Calif., sharply disputed suggestions last month that she had been told about waterboarding having taken place.

What bothers me isn’t that Pelosi has been very tough on the Bush administration for having used “torture” on terrorists to gain life-saving information but more that she has made it about the priciple of the thing while, the entire time, denying that she knew what was going on.

Representative Jane Harman (D) also knew about these techniques but she at least wrote a letter, which has been classified, condemning them.  Ironically enough Pelosi knew Harman had been secretly recorded by the government even though during the entire time she condemned that practice.

Shameful conduct for any person, much less one of the most senior Democrats in Congress and the Speaker of the House.

She does a good Porky Pig impression, too: