The Times Carries Water For Porter Goss in Pelosi Attack
By Susie Madrak Friday May 15, 2009 12:00pmThe New York Times loves stenography, and their CIA beat writer Mark Mazzetti does a great job, doing what he's told. Award-winning investigative blogger Marcy Wheeler points out why his work is so misleading:
Pelosi agrees that she and Goss were briefed on the program and, generally, that they discussed techniques. She even agrees that waterboarding was mentioned; the phrase "waterboarding was not being employed" certainly counts as a mention of waterboarding.
But see what number 5 doesn't say? It doesn't say, "those techniques had already been employed." "Were to be employed," a prospective use of waterboarding, not "had been employed," a past use of waterboarding.
Now, Mark. If you want to continue doing Porter's bidding, you're going to have to go back to him--I'm sure you've got him on speed-dial?--and get a stronger statement from him. But as things stand today, Porter Goss' statement is completely consistent with Nancy Pelosi's. The CIA, when it briefed Goss and Pelosi in 2002, did not tell them they had already been using waterboarding with Abu Zubaydah.
As a spook stenographer, Mark, I'm sure you're familiar with the National Security Act, but if you need a primer, why not read about it on the pages of the NYT? You'll see that the National Security Act requires the Administration inform Congress--arguably, the entire intelligence committees--about their covert ops. Requires. But instead, what happened here is that CIA took up torturing, and then, when they "briefed" Pelosi and Goss on it in September 2002, they didn't tell them they were already doing it. They didn't get around to revealing that until five months later--and six months after they had gotten into the torture business.
That is a violation of the law--some might even consider it news. But not the NYT!!! Nope, the NYT is going to keep recycling Porter Goss' carefully parsed statements and imply they refute Nancy Pelosi when they don't. The NYT is going to obsess over the fact that a staffer told Nancy Pelosi something that CIA should have told her almost a year earlier.
But the NYT is not, apparently, going to tell its readers that the CIA broke the law.
And what the hell is wrong with this country that the complicit media is now savaging Nancy Pelosi instead of those responsible for these war crimes? If she did know about torture (and she denies she did), why would she be the target instead of the war criminals who implemented this evil policy? Nope, the corporate media is consistent: It's only a crime if a Democrat does it!
That's why Pelosi is being savaged while war criminal Dick Cheney is still invited onto news shows to share his wisdom.
And if you want to look for complicity, the New York Times need look no further than the closest mirror.
Login or Register to post comments.
should have its press pass revoked
Oh, they can't get through to her because she's on the line with Cheney.
for daring to make a deal out of Pelosi, they of all people live in glass houses on this topic. At the same time it seems to me C&L is carrying Pelosi's water too much, she wasn't honest about what she new either as we saw her back peddling pretty hard in the last few days. I'm so tired of the typical lines being drawn when the shit hits the fan. How about an honest search for truth?
Emptywheel's been all over this for weeks. This storyline is a diversion and a distraction. But by all means, let's use it to insist on a full investigation.
Its a shame she's not the Special Prosecutor.
I just had a flash back as the name Judy Miller came to my mind.
in cheerleading the illegal war of aggression against Iraq this isn't very suprising to see.
they wonder why newspapers are failing miserably? Who wants to pay, and be counted as a subscriber, for drivel like this? I really believe that a paper that was truly unbiased and examined all sides with equal vigor would succeed.
I haven't watched this clip, but the Today Show ran a one-sided story and had a republican senator (never heard of him) on this morning to trash Pelosi. Lauer was reading straight from the RNC's talking points memo.
Don't you know the MSM is all liberal-all the time?
...that many people have enthusiastically bought into simply because they've been disappointed in her performance as Speaker and will use any excuse to bring her down.
The real criminals must be laughing themselves to tears.
Not only for this, but for denying the populace justice in impeaching any of the Bush Admin, for allowing FISA upgrade legislation, and who knows what else at this point. I'm sure there's much more.
She is one of the worst leaders I have ever seen. She's a follower.
Because pushing for SCHIP was fucking poor leadership. As were those votes in '07 to try to end the war in Iraq. Horrible. Who cares if she got a lot of progressive legislature through her chamber in the last Congress?
Doesn't Pelosi know she's supposed to go over to the Senate and force them to vote with her, and then she's supposed to go to the White House and force the POTUS to sign her legislation, too?
She lead none of those initiatives. SCHIP started with Ted Kennedy in the 90's, and the reauthorization of it certainly was not spearheaded by her.
You can blindly support her if you want.
Pelosi wasn't even a co-sponsor of the SCHIP bill
Or did she facilitate its passage in the House?
Do you think she just fell into the Speaker's chair? Is she there by divine providence? Did she murder her opponents for the seat? Or do you think she leads a coalition of liberal Democrats- as compared to the faction of blue dogs led by Steny Hoyer, who challenged her for the Speakership in the last Congress- who voted her in?
There are very few real progressives in all of congress(Durbin:"The Senate is owned by the banks."). I'm always amazed anytime Pelosi or whoever can get anything done for "We the People". She's far from perfect, but trying to deal with what LBJ called "That damn zoo on the Hill", is very difficult.
You should have set the table Nancy. Now they are coming after you!
Marcy Wheeler says:
If I have my facts correct I think that Cheney was torturing much more than 6 months before revealing it to congress (assumoing that Pelosi is correct and I believe her, I'm not going to let the Republicans tell me that they are correct and Pelosi is a liar until I see absolute proof.). Were they not torturing al Libbi in 2001 or early 2002 trying to get him to tell us that Saddam and al Qaeda were in bed together? Maybe I have the dates wrong because I have seen many dates in the past few days. I will try to go back and find out.
Ok, I found a date of "April and May of 2002". It is here in this C+L post from yesterday.
The NYT is putting in a drive through next week. When you manufacture
consent and opinion at the rate they do, it only makes sense.
Would you like a hot apple pie with that?
"WASHINGTON — CIA Director Leon Panetta says agency records show CIA officers briefed lawmakers truthfully in 2002 on methods of interrogating terrorism suspects, but it is up to Congress to reach its own conclusions about what happened."
WTF?
It should be noted that "truthfully" does not mean "fully". The CIA could have very easily given Pelosi the truth, but not the complete truth.
BUT personally, if this is the issue, add Pelosi's name to the indictment list, I don't care. As long as we have investigations and accountability.
Don't be so quick to throw Pelosi under the bus just because the Republicans have switched the subject. In fact because the Republicans have changed the subject I would tend to defend her for only that reason. Mind you I don't care for her that much but I will not attack her just because the Republicans want me to. Let them do it. We should stay on message and get back to Cheney torturing these people which is against the law and he should be thrown in jail for it.
what makes you think the so called "records" are valid?
Panetta, a Clintonista, and non intelligence guy, is a bureaucratic
front man for the most evil organization IN THE WESTERN WORLD!
the whole thing on morning joe today. lawrence o'donnell noted that goldwater said the cia lied about mining nicaraguan harbors in the 80s and joe lost it...
http://blahgblog.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/114/
The cat is out of the bag. Republicans are going down with the whole torture business, and if they want to drag a few DINOs down the toilet with them, so be it. With Democrats like Pelosi, who needs Republicans anyway?
This is all a lot of horse shit from the right , they are trying to diminish the fact that it was Cheney / Bush and the Repugs who authorized torture , not the Dems , in fact the Dems were powerless to stop it whether they knew what was going on or not , also this is meant to distract from the issues and how the Repugs are voting . Just more of the same old Repugnant right politics ... deception and distraction but the F'n MSN is just eating it up and having a ball with it , for all practical purposes working with the scum bag Repugnants . The Dems and Obama need to come out forcefully and strong and just tell it like it is ,it's just more Repug horse shit meant to deceive and distract and they should constantly remind people who was in charge and responsible because there is no debating that. Pelosi was a sucker to take the bait .
"The Dems and Obama need to come out forcefully and strong and just tell it like it is.."
You got it toyota.
extract compromises for future investigations- who what and where they take place will be effected.
and every time the republicans are asked to comment on illegal torture they will bring up pelosi.
Is also doing a bang up job of making Pelosi the villain of the piece.
Dana "Bash" is doing a superlative job of living up to her name.
Of course the right wing LOVES them some juicy Nancy bashing.
CNN = all politics, even when it's not about politics. They sleep with republicans.
maybe Nancy and Condi could share a cell.
But this is nothing more than the Rethugs attempting to intimidate the Dems into dropping any investigation by threatening to take Nancy down with them. "It's better to let us get away with it than to be stained by the scandal." Like O'Same isn't trying to get rid of that hot potato anyway.
Oh, maybe if we had 60 votes in the Senate, maybe we could...
Even if there were 60 votes, there probably wouldn't be any more then 20 for it. The guilt runs very deep in our current representation.
seat Al Frankin NOW!
He won the election.
That would get us closer the the 60 number.
Whether the CIA stated to be employed, or had been employed, Pelosi did not speak out against it, and hid it from the public. She is culpable in this mess, along with any other legislator that didn't vehemently fight it. There are so few, if any, that I can't even think of any that did.
Please stop blowing the smoke around, and let Pelosi know that she is also guilty for not doing everything in her power to stop it. If she didn't know that it had happened, she definitely knew it was going to happen.
These people deserve no sympathy whatsoever.
not doing everything in her power to stop it
precisely - what was in her power to do? Let's find that out too.
Maybe she did everything she was lawfully allowed to do.
That is the precise argument being used by those that enabled torture to happen. In most cases, they hide being the OLC memo's. Pelosi is doing the same thing.
Her oath was to protect the law of the land, and she didn't do it. I don't care what excuse she has, she sold out the citizens of this country to be part of the powersharing in congress. All the more reason I call her a follower, and not a leader.
Ya, the argument used by those that were informed but not actively involved, perhaps. Every person involved from bush on down, will have crossed many different legal lines, and it all needs to be sorted out. Pelosi has a very interesting tangential involvement that cuts to the crux of state secrecy in a modern democracy. Cheney shackled Pelosi so many years ago while we still thought he was a nice guy.
never thought he was a nice guy. In fact, I was pretty sure, once he selected himself as the vice presidential candidate, that he was pure, unadulterated evil and he proved me right.
on the block if their constituents allow them and their families to be threatened daily from 1000 radio stations? and dems ignore it by sticking in a CD because it gives them a headache to listen to it.
'obama's head needs to roll' limbaugh, sept 10, 2008. how many people complained to their local limbaugh station?
pelosi has been constantly attacked by a pack of chickenhawk liars sitting on the country's biggest soapbox and dems keep ignoring it and expecting their reps to be medal of honor winners.
you're doing limbaugh and hannity's work.
But then again, Republicans did whatever they wanted during the Bush years and the Dems did nothing to stop them (and in some cases they even helped the GOP), which leads me to believe this just adds to the pile. Time to pay the price.
420_forever , it is fact that Bush / Cheney for all practical purposes had a dictatorship going and the Dems were in fact completely powerless to do anything at all , they were literally locked out of meetings and any discussion or decision making , powerless . The Dems had to meet by themselves in some basement as I recall , that's how bad it was . Even the last couple years when the Dems got a slight advantage , they didn't have enough power or votes to stop Bush / Cheney who would have and did literally ignore Congress anyway when it suited them , they made up their own law and rules and cut Congress out ! The Dems certainly are not squeaky clean but don't forget who was in charge and had all the power , don't fall for the Repug / rightwing , MSM bullshit .
I agree. even if the price is no more state secrets, or some major reform of the state secrets system. that's Pelosi's part in this play.
Yeah, that would make their heads explode.
Before I would be tortured by Pelosi in a SCOTUS seat.
CNN is couching the torture story in politics! They must stop it! Stop it! Who is producing this crap? Is it illegal to post their names? I have no idea who dreams this depraved theater up day after day, and i bet nobody else does either!
And yet, even though Congress, under Pelosi, attempted to ban TORTURE(like TORTURE wasn't already illegal) and Bush vetoed it, she stood down because...
... TORTURE is not punishable by US Law or International Law?
This is like saying that because there are no laws regarding the use of beheading, killing someone with this technique is not punishable?
Funny that Pelosi didn't get a commitment from the CIA about the use of TORTURE when they settled the matter in 2002, that it was NOT being used...
... EVER!
.
I wonder why?
The NYT sent me another subscription Form.
I wrote in black marker, "No thanks; I can go to the RNC website and get your stories for free."
this is all just a wonderful distraction manufactured by the Cheney clan to convince people that the real issue of torture is "who knew what when" instead of "who had people tortured to manufacture justification for invading Iraq illegally". Its blame deferment and its working because instead of talking about Cheney and his role as dungeon master, here we are with videos of Pelosi flapping like a fish out of water. I hate to say this, but this is a PR win for Cheney and Co.
... Well, if the GOP/Newt/Rush/Cheney et.al. think EIT's are legal and no big deal, then claiming Pelosi knew means just what to them?
compromises
.
Researcher seeks probe of Bush-era ‘homicides by torture’
By David Edwards and Stephen Webster
Published: May 15, 2009
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/05/15/invest...
Because we're finished talking about the war criminals. Everyone (in PowerLand) agrees that they broke the law but that prosecuting them would be bad manners.
This story makes no sense. It's as if a serial killer, still on the loose, is discovered to have informed his cousin in some vague way that he may be a serial killer. The entire focus of attention and of the investigation immediately turns to "what did the cousin know and when did she know it?" Nobody is talking about the murderer. Meanwhile, he's sitting on some beach laughing at the whole thing, planning his next kill.
into torture- how can they be bipartisan and truthful if pelosi was involved.
Login or Register to post comments.