The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    How Dare You, Ms. Pelosi?

    By DF on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 7:16pm | Politics

    Nancy Pelosi ought to be ashamed of herself for daring to suggest that the CIA has ever done anything untoward, much less that they have misled Congress.  The CIA is 100% on the up-and-up.  They have never bungled analyses, been involved in drugs or arms trafficking, toppled foreign governments, engaged in torture and/or rendition and they have certainly never, ever been anything less than totally forthright about their actions.  Shame on you, Ms. Pelosi!

    "I think her accusations against our terror-fighters are irresponsible and, according to the CIA's record, Speaker Pelosi was briefed on what had been done," said Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "It's outrageous that a member of Congress would call our terror-fighters liars."

    Quite right, Mr. Bond!  Have you anything to say, Mr. Boehner (it's pronounced BAY-ner, seriously)?

    Boehner defended the agency’s record and said it was “hard” for him to imagine “anyone in our intelligence area would ever mislead a member of Congress.”

    Good show, gentlemen!  Good show.

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    Comments

    I refuse to click your links on the grounds that  it is outrageously rude to use factual evidence to refute ironic rhetoric. Jerk.


    by Orlando on Sat, 05/16/2009 - 3:48pm

    I apologize.  It's a deep personal flaw of mine.


    by DF on Sat, 05/16/2009 - 5:48pm

    Yep, CIA not so credible on this. However, gotta say I probably coulda come up with a few links showing Congresspersons being somewhat "economical" with the truth, eh?

    That said, the idea that Pelosi must be telling the truth because of she wants a Truth Commission is missing a few steps. Any such Commission would blow the lid off of numerous big big people, and the littler stuff like Pelosi would fade away. She knows that. So her call for it doesn't clinch the case.

    More troubling for me these past months has been that Obama's not gonna go after this because it WOULD take down a large swath of people he wants.

    - McChrystal being Exhibit A. Dude ran the torture plantation.

    - How about Gates. Not only would he have known about this round, but he was up to his ass in this stuff during Iran-Contra.

    - And Bill C and Al G, who kicked off extraordinary rendition. HRC would be sitting in an uncomfortable chair as that story got unfurled. "So your husband cranked up extraordinary rendition and sent people to torture hellholes? But you're gonna prosecute our guys?"

    This thing would get ugly, fast. Which is why I'd like to see it done, of course. But it's also why I can't see it being done without reallllllllllly tight lines drawn around just what we're gonna look at, and within what timeframes....


    by quinn esq on Sun, 05/17/2009 - 11:29pm

    Exactly right, Quinn. Not to mention Petraeus, Odierno, and a bunch of mid-level camp commanders. It would also come out that much of the enhanced interrogation had been contracted out to civilians without any legal authority over the people they, in some cases, killed. An unholy mess, getting less holy by the day.


    by acanuck on Mon, 05/18/2009 - 4:27am

    Don't get me wrong.  I've got plenty of criticisms of the Speaker.  However, she wasn't running this stuff.  Is she being entirely forthright at the moment?  I don't know, but this whole meme of "how-dare-you-suggest-that-our-terror-fighters-are-anything-less-than-Superman-pure" is utter nonsense.

    You make some very salient points about how much blame there is to spread around here.


    by DF on Mon, 05/18/2009 - 3:49pm