Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) explains how he does not believe a Truth Commission is in the best interests of America, but if one does occur, all facts must be put on the table and exposed.
Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) states that Speaker Pelosi has had way too many stories about her knowledge of torture which only de-legitimize her position and make her look less trustworthy. (0:12)
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) explains how the CIA has repeatedly lied to the American people, whether in Iraq or in regards to torture, and how they are now trying to shift the blame onto the American people. (0:24)
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) explains how the CIA created the laws allowing them to implement waterboarding as an interrogation technique, but it failed to tell Congress what was happening. She believes that the CIA is attempting to shift the spotlight from themselves and onto other groups, like Congress. (0:27)
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) explains how she believes that the government needs to authorize a “Truth Commission” to look into any illicit activities done by the Bush Administration. Until that is done, she calls upon the proper committees to look into these issues. (0:22)
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) explains how she, as speaker, tried to pass a law banning torture, but it was vetoed by President Bush. Because the Democrats lacked the necessary amount of seats they were unable to override Bush’s decision. She knew that the only way torture would have been banned was through the election of a new president, and with President Obama, torture was once again banned. (0:22)
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) attempted to clear-up any questions regarding how much she knew about the CIA’s use of waterboarding and when she knew that they did employ it. She unequivocally stated that she was given an “inaccurate and incomplete” briefing as waterboarding had already occurred at the time of the meeting, though the agent failed to mention this point. Also, she stated that the CIA lied to America at the same time in regards to their statements on weapons of mass destruction. (0:29)
By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News service
Ali Soufan, a former FBI supervisory agent, confirms that the George W. Bush administration lied on its use of torture in its interrogation
processes.
In 2005, President Bush said that “America does not condone torture”,
a statement that has been put into question following the recent
decision by President Barack Obama to publish four memos which detail
the legal justification used by the Bush administration to justify the
methods employed in the interrogation process led by the CIA.
Chairman of the Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the
Courts Sheldon Whitehouse said “John Yoo (former official in the Department of Justice) told Esquire Magazine that waterboarding was only done ‘three times’ when public reports now indicate that two detainees were waterboarded 83 and 183 times”.
This revelation has hindered the American reputation abroad, resulting
in a struggle between institutions of the government such as the
intelligence agencies and the Department of Justice on who is to blame
the most for having carried out these seances.
Philip Zelikow, former counselor of the State Department, said that “
Attorney General John Ashcroft and his Department of Justice, along
with the White House Counsel, Alberto Gonzalez, assured the
government’s leaders that the proposed program was lawful.”
Whitehouse said that “We were told that waterboarding was
determined to be legal, but were not told how badly the law was
ignored, bastardized and manipulated by the Department of Justice’s
Office of Legal Counsel, nor were we told how furiously government and military lawyers rejected the defective OLC opinions-but we ignored.”
In parallel, Soufan said that “The interrogation team was a
combination between the FBI and the CIA. All of us had the same
opinion that contradicted with the contractor.”
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said “I’m also proud of the fact that
the United states of America, when its made mistakes, has not been
afraid to admit these mistakes and learn from them and pledge not to
make the same mistakes again.”
Former FBI agent Ali Soufan says that the FBI and the CIA agreed on which technique to use for interrogations. They were against torture. (0:40)
Ali Soufan, a former FBI supervisory agent who worked under the Bush administration, describes the two methods of interrogation used by both the CIA and the FBI: the “informed interrogation approach” and the “enhanced interrogation method”. The second corresponds to torture and is regarded “compliance rather than to elicit cooperation, according to Soufan. (0:55)
