* MAY 15, 2009

Congress and Waterboarding
Nancy Pelosi was an accomplice to 'torture.'

By KARL ROVE

Someone important appears not to be telling the truth about her knowledge
of the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs). That someone
is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The political persecution of Bush
administration officials she has been pushing may now ensnare her.

Here's what we know. On Sept. 4, 2002, less than a year after 9/11, the
CIA briefed Rep. Porter Goss, then House Intelligence Committee chairman,
and Mrs. Pelosi, then the committee's ranking Democrat, on EITs including
waterboarding. They were the first members of Congress to be informed.

In December 2007, Mrs. Pelosi admitted that she attended the briefing, but
she wouldn't comment for the record about precisely what she was told. At
the time the Washington Post spoke with a "congressional source familiar
with Pelosi's position on the matter" and summarized that person's
comments this way: "The source said Pelosi recalls that techniques
described by the CIA were still in the planning stage -- they had been
designed and cleared with agency lawyers but not yet put in practice --
and acknowledged that Pelosi did not raise objections at the time."

When questions were raised last month about these statements, Mrs. Pelosi
insisted at a news conference that "We were not -- I repeat -- were not
told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation
methods were used." Mrs. Pelosi also claimed that the CIA "did not tell us
they were using that, flat out. And any, any contention to the contrary is
simply not true." She had earlier said on TV, "I can say flat-out, they
never told us that these enhanced interrogations were being used."

The Obama administration's CIA director, Leon Panetta, and Mr. Goss have
both disputed Mrs. Pelosi's account.

In a report to Congress on May 5, Mr. Panetta described the CIA's 2002
meeting with Mrs. Pelosi as "Briefing on EITs including use of EITs on Abu
Zubaydah, background on [legal] authorities, and a description of the
particular EITs that had been employed." Note the past tense -- "had been
employed."

Mr. Goss says he and Mrs. Pelosi were told at the 2002 briefing about the
use of the EITs and "on a bipartisan basis, we asked if the CIA needed
more support from Congress to carry out its mission." He is backed by CIA
sources who say Mr. Goss and Mrs. Pelosi "questioned whether we were doing
enough" to extract information.

We also know that Michael Sheehy, then Mrs. Pelosi's top aide on the
Intelligence Committee and later her national security adviser, not only
attended the September 2002 meeting but was also briefed by the CIA on
EITs on Feb. 5, 2003, and told about a videotape of Zubaydah being
waterboarded. Mr. Sheehy was almost certain to have told Mrs. Pelosi. He
has not commented publicly about the 2002 or the 2003 meetings.

So is the speaker of the House lying about what she knew and when? And, if
so, what will Democrats do about it?

If Mrs. Pelosi considers the enhanced interrogation techniques to be
torture, didn't she have a responsibility to complain at the time,
introduce legislation to end the practices, or attempt to deny funding for
the CIA's use of them? If she knew what was going on and did nothing, does
that make her an accessory to a crime of torture, as many Democrats are
calling enhanced interrogation?

Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy wants an independent investigation of
Bush administration officials. House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers feels
the Justice Department should investigate and prosecute anyone who
violated laws against committing torture. Are these and other similarly
minded Democrats willing to have Mrs. Pelosi thrown into their stew of
torture conspirators as an accomplice?

It is clear that after the 9/11 attacks Mrs. Pelosi was briefed on
enhanced interrogation techniques and the valuable information they
produced. She not only agreed with what was being done, she apparently
pressed the CIA to do more.

But when political winds shifted, Mrs. Pelosi seems to have decided to use
enhanced interrogation as an issue to attack Republicans. It is
disgraceful that Democrats who discovered their outrage years after the
fact are now braying for disbarment of the government lawyers who
justified EITs and the prosecution of Bush administration officials who
authorized them. Mrs. Pelosi is hip-deep in dangerous waters, and they are
rapidly rising.

Mr. Rove is the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to
President George W. Bush.


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