Is Nancy Pelosi Lying?

Now that Nancy Pelosi has publicly put out her version of the briefing(s) she and other members of Congress received regarding water boarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques, the question is this: Is she telling us the truth about how much she knew and when she knew it?

That should not be too hard to determine now that the White House is ordering the CIA to release its memos for public inspection. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) is also asking National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair to release details of the congressional briefings and who specifically attended. The below appears on Hoekstra's official website (excerpted):
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"It was not necessary to release details of the enhanced interrogation techniques, because members of Congress from both parties have been fully aware of them since the program began in 2002. We believed it was something that had to be done in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to keep our nation safe. After many long and contentious debates, Congress repeatedly approved and funded this program on a bipartisan basis in both Republican and Democratic Congresses.

Last week, Mr. Obama argued that those who implemented this program should not be prosecuted -- even though the release of the memos still places many individuals at other forms of unfair legal risk. It appeared that Mr. Obama understood it would be unfair to prosecute U.S. government employees for carrying out a policy that had been fully vetted and approved by the executive branch and Congress. The president explained this decision with these gracious words: "nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past." I agreed.

Unfortunately, on April 21, Mr. Obama backtracked and opened the door to possible prosecution of Justice Department attorneys who provided legal advice with respect to the enhanced interrogations program. The president also signaled that he may support some kind of independent inquiry into the program. It seems that he has capitulated to left-wing groups and some in Congress who are demanding show trials over this program.

Members of Congress calling for an investigation of the enhanced interrogation program should remember that such an investigation can't be a selective review of information, or solely focus on the lawyers who wrote the memos, or the low-level employees who carried out this program. I have asked Mr. Blair to provide me with a list of the dates, locations and names of all members of Congress who attended briefings on enhanced interrogation techniques. "
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Pelosi, in the above statement, refers to a meeting in which the possibility of enhanced techniques was mentioned, but insists that no mention was made that the methods had been used or were definitely going to be used. So her statement is that she was never briefed to the effect that enhanced methods were, in fact, being utilized. She is on the record, albeit, not under oath. If there is going to be a "truth commission" as she would like, such "truth commission" should include the degree of knowledge and approval on the part of each concerned member of Congress. Hopefully, a "truth commission" would include putting those in Congress who were briefed under oath. (Maybe such action would dampen the enthusiasm of the Democrats to hold such an ill-advised "truth commission" in the first place.)

Notwithstanding the above, if it turns out that Pelosi is lying in the above statement, it would seem appropriate for her to resign her position as Speaker of the House, if not from Congress altogether-not because (and if) she was briefed about water boarding and advised it was being done-rather because she would be lying about her role.

If, in fact, Speaker Pelosi, who wants to drag this whole thing out into the open and prosecute those responsible, turns out to have been aware all along, it would mark her as a liar and colossal hypocrite of the first order. So, if we have to go through this circus, then we should not let Congress off the hook. What we don't need is a repeat of the 9-11 Commisssion where Jamie Gorelick, the architect of The Wall that kept the CIA and FBI from exchanging information and intelligence that might have nipped 9-11 in the bud, wound up sitting on the commission-when she should have been sweating it out as a witness.

Are you sure you want to push this "truth commission", Speaker Pelosi?