CIA 'Briefed Truthfully' in '02: Panetta

(NEWSER) - The CIA debacle engulfing Nancy Pelosi stems from two key mistakes on the part of the House speaker, Jay Newton-Small writes in Time. Pelosi’s dangerous belief that media training is “a waste of her time” was demonstrated when she walked away from her own press conference on the subject of interrogation briefings. Her other mistake—or character flaw—is reacting rashly in unanticipated situations. More»

(NEWSER) - AG Eric Holder today named a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture against CIA operatives who interrogated terror suspects during the Bush administration, the Washington Post reports. John Durham, who is currently probing the destruction of interrogation tapes, will look into fewer than 12 cases detailed in a CIA report released today and determine if a full-scale investigation is warranted. The Bush-era Justice Department investigated and dismissed the cases. More»

Kristol: Why else would CIA boss 'humiliate' his party's speaker?

(NEWSER) - After Nancy Pelosi suggested the CIA had misled Congress, the agency’s director fired back with a letter denying the claim. But the idea that Leon Panetta would send a letter “humiliating a House speaker of his own party” entirely of his own accord seems “almost inconceivable,” writes William Kristol in the Washington Post. Perhaps he “ran it by” Rahm Emanuel—begging the question: “Does Emanuel (and, presumably, President Obama) want a chastened Pelosi to remain speaker?” More»

(AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today she was not complicit in the government’s decision to waterboard terrorist suspects, and she claimed the CIA misled her about whether the interrogation technique considered torture by many was being used. “To the contrary … we were told explicitly that waterboarding was not being used,” the California Democrat said of a formal CIA briefing she received in fall 2002. More»

'Someone appears not to be telling the truth' about waterboarding

(NEWSER) - Karl Rove indulges in a bit of revenge on Nancy Pelosi in his Wall Street Journal column today, writing that "the political persecution of Bush administration officials she has been pushing may now ensnare her." As evidence mounts that the CIA told her as early as 2002 about waterboarding—which "Democrats are calling" torture—Rove wonders whether Pelosi should be considered "an accessory to a crime." More»