CIA director, and former Clintonista, Leon Panetta said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was told the truth by the CIA in briefings about torture or enhanced interrogation techniques (EIT’s). Panetta stated that it is not the policy of the CIA to “mislead”, as they have been accused by Pelosi. Read more, see photos and video below.
CIA Director Leon Panetta
I can’t emphasize enough, just how much trouble Nancy Pelosi seems to be in; and to be honest with you, I am enjoying it thoroughly. This is the perfect case of, foot in mouth disease; the more Nancy Pelosi opens her mouth, the deeper her troubles become. Now, even former Clinton administration official and current CIA director Leon Panetta is saying that Speaker Pelosi’s claim of being “mislead” is not true.
In a memo written to CIA agents, Panetta says that Nancy Pelosi was told “nothing but the truth.” He also said that it is ultimately up to Congress to weigh the evidence and determine what really happened. Pelosi has continued to deny that she was briefed on waterboarding or other EIT’s and that she was lied to by the CIA.
The only problem with that accusation is that other members of Congress who were briefed with Pelosi, do not agree with her statements. Her statements essentially say that she was the only member of Congress being lied to by the agency. In the memo to agents Panetta said:
“We are an agency of high integrity, professionalism and dedication,” Panetta said in the memo. “Our task is to tell it like it is — even if that’s not what people always want to hear. Keep it up. Our national security depends on it.”
The title of the memo is “Turning Down the Volume”, in it Panetta encourages his agents to continue to do their jobs while ignoring the “noise” that has ensued due to the accusations of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Panetta says:
“My advice — indeed, my direction — to you is straightforward: Ignore the noise and stay focused on your mission,” Panetta wrote. “We have too much work to do to be distracted from our job of protecting this country.”
I have to say, that despite being the former Chief of Staff for Bill Clinton, and Obama appointee, it is very refreshing to see Leon Panetta, at least publically, taking his job of CIA Director seriously. We live in very dangerous times and desperately need the CIA working at full and unhindered capacity. The accusations and the firestorm that has been unleashed by Nancy Pelosi are an unneeded distraction for the national security of the United States.
Nancy Pelosi is in hot water, from both sides; she is in trouble with the right for accusing the Bush administration and the CIA of lying to her and Congress. She is in trouble with the left for not going public and railing against the EIT’s that she and the left claim to be torture. This cannot possibly end well for the first female to hold the position of Speaker of the House.
The fact that CIA Director Leon Panetta is defending his agency is another nail in the coffin of the Speakership of Nancy Pelosi. Stay tuned here for further updates on this developing story.
Nancy Pelosi Photos
Panetta Fires Back Video
Photos: Photos: www.wenn.com
May 16th, 2009 at 8:05 am
The b*tch should be impeached!
May 16th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
So, let me get this straight – Pelosi may or may not have been told of illegal activities perpetrated by the Bush amdinistration, Republicans and rightwing pundits claim these were definitely not illegal activities, but they want Pelosi to fry for possibly discovering what they think is legal anyway…
Stupid.
And how would Panetta know if the CIA lied or not? I understand it’s his job to support them and their integrity, and I get it that the CIA’s morale has been at an all time low after years of abuse by the Bush administration, but why would anyone believe the CIA on this? If they were breaking the law, of course they’d lie about it!
Why is it that Republicans so easily believe the unbelievable and get so worked up about nonsense like this Pelosi story? What the heck is the matter with you people?
JMJ
May 17th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I studied logic when I was in college, and it was SO interesting:
Pelosi OKed torture.
Torture is OK.
Therefore, Pelosi is OK!
Simple as that.
May 17th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Shannon, my apologies, sorry bout the poor editing on my part in my last post.
Some of those are excerpts, my own words from other blogs on the same subject and I missed editing a couple things.
You can remove it and I’ll re submit it or you can do whatever you deem necessary
May 17th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Arch.
By your logic if your pecker gets hard you should stick in anything ?
Waterboarding was legal in 2001-02-03
Surprisingly MSNBC carried the piece;
“Hayden told the House Intelligence Committee that he officially prohibited CIA operatives from using waterboarding in 2006 in the wake of a Supreme Court decision and new laws on the treatment of U.S. detainees.”
He said the agency has not used waterboarding for “just a few weeks short” of five years.
“Though now legally questionable, Hayden said, waterboarding was legal in 2002 and 2003, a time when the technique was used to interrogate Al-Qaida detainees.”
What everyone seems to be missing in all this is that the left has put more energy into convicting those that tried to or succeeded in saving American lives than they have of those that actually mean us harm or those that have killed Americans.
I mean what the f*ck ?
Can we please go after the real bad guys and stop this f*ckin idiocy ?
I swear, if the energy behind their hatred for Bush were put into the GWOT there might not be one rabid camel jockey left on the planet !
Does this broad actually think she can put the Bush admin. on trial retroactively for laws that were not on the books at that time ?
gimme a break.
What we have here is some angry little wench who launched a personal vendetta against an honorable and decent man. In the process she asked for truth commissions that inadvertently came around and bit her in the a$$. As a result now shes willing to take down and slander anyone who stands in her way and that attempt in addition has also bit her butt as she has been no doubt busted lying.
This is the third person in line to the presidency who has made it as obvious as her plastic surgery that shes on a personal mission that has nothing whatsoever to do with the the countrys integrity, its foundation or its safety of its citizens.
For those reasons she needs to step down.
In times where patriotism was an attribute not to be taken lightly she would of probably been beheaded for her actions. Today, we’ll see it all propped up in front of us as some edition of American Idol or the most popular soap opera.
All I know is I wouldnt wanna be on the CIAs sh*t list.
Really Nancy, just quit while you’re ahead. Come on out and tell everyone that you were doing your best to be apart from something you couldnt prove the others were doing. Also that you’re well aware that the CIA would not lie to you and tell the truth to everyone else, that they’ve all been there long before and after Bush and that it was more a matter of you being incredibly stupid or just not paying attention.
And that even when an old Clinton crony assigned by the messiah has contradicted and basically called you a liar its time to bail.
That oughta get everyone off your back.
If its true that waterboarding wasnt illegal during 2001-02-03, and it sure seems it was, then all were seeing here is witch hunt based on pure hatred and of no concern for justice or the safety of our country.
Only those like Pelosi who brought up and instigated this bullsh*t for expedient purposes are the ones who should be prosecuted for exactly what she accused the Bush administration of doing… MAKING SH*T UP !!!!!
She is the liar, she is the one who wants to misrepresent the facts in order to send perfectly innocent and honorable men and women to prison.
It would be really nice if we saw these punk moonbats worry more about the trials of those who actually mean us harm and have killed Americans instead of trying to bring down those whos only intention was to save American lives.
Its sickening. It honestly gives me a little nausea
And by the way Jersey.
Bush and co. did nothing but enhance the CIAs morale the whole 8 years and he sure as hell didnt call them all liars when the yellow cake story broke. Did he ?
Nancy and Obama have done more to destroy the CIAs morale in the last 2 weeks with outting memos, calling them liars while threatening to release pics than any past administration ever !
Wise up.
May 17th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
It bemuses me that you all want to play this gotcha pelosi move as if it somehow tells you who the real women is, when we have known all the time. Now you say “finally, we gotcha” rather than “what did you expect? we know who she is, or is she a creature of (OUR) politics and really an embodiement of the duplicitous American Politik. Yeah, think about that and have a harsh talk with Yourselves. This whole thing is such a canard. Sad to see Newt go down this brainless road, simply for the power of it. What do you want people? Power or Integrity? bleep.
May 17th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Shannon, as you can see I re-submitted.
Feel free to delete the first one.
———————————————-
Jersey McJones;
“Why is it that Republicans so easily believe the unbelievable and get so worked up about nonsense like this Pelosi story? What the heck is the matter with you people? ”
Whats the matter with us ? Excuse me ?
If I remember correctly it was the moonbats who launched this crap, not us.
Onamas the one who wanted these memos released, and then followed up with threatening to release the pics also, right ?
Seems like he got a little ahead of himself and was told by some better minds (not hard to fine when hes around)that the blowback from this could be more to his disadvantage than anything.
Yeah, it was Gates who told him to chill out, but….
too late ! You guys are the ones who got all “WORKED UP” and opened this can of worms, so its on you guys for getting all excited and not us on the right who by the way as a matter of fact said we’d just as soon leave alot to do about nothing alone.
But noooooooooooooooooooo, you guys just had to let your hate lead you around by the nose, didnt you ?
Good for you, I hope you guys get yours, really. The way things are going the GOPs not gonna have to do too much to get the crown back, piece o cake.
What Pelosi and Obama started is whats “nonsense” here, not our reaction..
Whats not nonsense is wanting the speaker of the house to explain why she would willingly misrepresent the facts while at the same time launching accusations against our intelligence agencies that they lied to the members on the committee.
Whats not nonsense is wanting her to step down if whats suspected is proven.
Whats not nonsense is that even members of your own party want nothing to do with her anymore.
We all know how politicians are, its no surprise to any semi knowledgeble person that misrepresentation takes place all the time. But if you’re so stupid as to get caught in the manner this woman did its time to hang it up already.
Me thinks shes got a combination symptom that consists of BDS, ideological bigotry, radical feminista, and severe hormonal imbalances resulting from peak menopause.
May 17th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Brian.
Its not the “gotcha”
Read what I wrote to Jersey.
The left started this gotcha crap and now its backfired to the point we have one of the most prominent positions in our government running around lying her a$$ off threatening to destroy a good part of the fabric thats left.
Its the ulterior motives that have become evident that are the problem here and not discovering what we all already knew.
If a republican were to launch a personal vendetta like this while lying, defaming and slandering innocent people all over town to accomplish desired results I would ask for his/her head also.
May 17th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
we might be mere animals marking our territorial imposition on this poor blog in cyber space—splains a lot. But I will offer up todays astonishing lil story on Donald Rumsfeld religious verse boilerplate sprinkeled into bush intelligence hearings and their top politico cohorts. He actually quotes the bible and overlays it on abrams tanks racing through the desert for thug hussain. I forget exactly where but was by cnn, abc, reuters, and the new york times earlier and found it. But what of my theory, pelosi is in third place as thats the best our political system can do, which says a lot about all of us. by the way, moonbats are flying by their own sonar, and we need battery driven flashlights to wander about at midnight. so who is smarter? they have built-ins, and we have to built fold-outs by melting rocks and punch presses and stuff.
May 17th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
” moonbats are flying by their own sonar, and we need battery driven flashlights to wander about at midnight. so who is smarter? they have built-ins, and we have to built fold-outs by melting rocks and punch presses and stuff.”
You dont get it, do you ? They’re called “moonbats” for a reason dipstick !
If they fly by sonar then why do they think they need the moonlight to navigate ?
True bats dont need any light at all to navigate but the moonbats only come out when theres enough moonlight to see where they’re going because they’re too stupid to know what they’re own abilities are.
Got it Sherlock ?
Once again you’re wrong and since you cant really place a time or place on your crap about Rumsfeld as usual you’re probably lying again.
May 17th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
just maybeee, they “capitalize” on the moonlight that aids insect feeding as the extra light draws the bugs out for finding their own lurking around food. They use God’s lantern to illuminate their feeding trough. No the Rumsfeld story is true on ABC’s net news site RUMSFELD BRIEFS SAID TO QUOTE BIBLE. Like pelosi you can apologize later for saying I am lying. like pelosi…..
May 17th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
the report was from robert draper of GQ magazine, not ABC news. it was reported on ABC news’ blog.
that is not to say the story is true or untrue, simply it is reported by one person, not multiple sources.
further, it was not rumsfeld that put the bible quotes on, but some general named Glen Shaffer, — at least accoding to the story.
however, the report is from an anonymous source at the pentagon. another anonymous source at the pentagon said that obama quotes the koran every day.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:33 am
What has happened to getting to the bottom of the Pelosi-Panetta controversy. Did He deliberately back off and used Chaney issue as a distraction??Is it possible he does not wish to confront a fellow democrat. Please don’t drop this issue, as Pelosi should be booted for calling CIA liars.