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No Wonder Impeachment Was “Off the Table”: Democrats Approved Mass Surveillance and Torture … and the Subsequent Cover-Up
Pelosi Was Briefed On – and Covered Up – NSA Spying On Americans
When a teen asked Nancy Pelosi last week why she supports unconstitutional NSA spying, Pelosi responded that the NSA lied to Congress about what they were doing, and she didn’t know:
But Pelosi was actually briefed on – and approved – illegal mass surveillance by the NSA.
Last November, high-level NSA whistleblower Bill Binney confirmed to Washington’s Blog that Pelosi was briefed on NSA’s mass surveillance of Americans:
WASHINGTON’S BLOG: Is CBS right that you tried to warn Congress 10 years ago?
BILL BINNEY: Yes, first to Diane Roark (House senior staff assigned to monitor NSA) in late 2001, then, to a House Intel Committee member. Diane also talked to Porter Goss [then-chair of the House Intelligence Committee] and Nancy Pelosi [ranking member on the Intelligence Committee at the time] about it in the same time frame. This to me was the obvious reason Nancy said (when she was speaker) that impeaching George W was off the table. Cause she was part of it from the beginning.
Last week, Diane Roark confirmed that this was true:
WASHINGTON’S BLOG: Bill Binney explained in a recent interview that Pelosi refused to impeach Bush because she herself had signed off on mass NSA surveillance of Americans. Can you confirm Mr. Binney’s statement from your experience?
DIANE ROARK: Yes, Nancy Pelosi was one of the “gang of four” because she was the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee in 2001 and for some time after that. So she gave the go-ahead to the Administration along with the others.
She now claims that the administration withheld information from her. However, I sent her numerous memos updating her as I learned more and giving background on the system. I did this through her staff director, who assured me he had given them to her. Her office claimed to the New Yorker in 2011, however, that she had not received the memos.
See this for Roark’s explanation of what the mass surveillance is really about, and Congress’ refusal to demand accountability or controls.
Pelosi Also Complicit In Torture
Pelosi was also complicit in torture. And yet she lied about that, also.
Nancy Pelosi claimed in 2009:
The Bush administration did not inform Congress that it had waterboarded detainees in classified briefings, after the agency had already done so…
Pelosi told reporters that the administration officials only told her and those in a classified briefing in the fall of 2002 that they believed they had the legal authority to do so, based on Office of Legal Counsel memos which have recently been released by the Obama administration.
“In that or any other briefing…we were not, and I repeat, were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used,” said Pelosi. “What they did tell us is that they had some legislative counsel…opinions that they could be used, but not that they would.”
However, that is likely untrue.
As noted by the above-linked article at Huffington Post:
Her assertion contradicts a recently released Senate committee report that cited CIA records to claim that senior members of Congress in both parties were briefed on the waterboarding, which had already been done to detainee Abu Zubaydah.
Moreover, the Washington Post wrote in 2007:
Four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA’s overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.
“The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough,” said a U.S. official who witnessed the exchange…
The CIA gave key legislative overseers about 30 private briefings, some of which included descriptions of that technique and other harsh interrogation methods, according to interviews with multiple U.S. officials with firsthand knowledge. With one known exception, no formal objections were raised by the lawmakers briefed about the harsh methods during the two years in which waterboarding was employed, from 2002 to 2003, said Democrats and Republicans with direct knowledge of the matter. The lawmakers who held oversight roles during the period included Pelosi…
“Among those being briefed, there was a pretty full understanding of what the CIA was doing,” said Goss, who chaired the House intelligence committee from 1997 to 2004 and then served as CIA director from 2004 to 2006. “And the reaction in the room was not just approval, but encouragement.”…
Abu Zubaida, the first of the “high-value” detainees in CIA custody, was subjected to harsh interrogation methods beginning in spring 2002 after he refused to cooperate with questioners, the officials said. CIA briefers gave the four intelligence committee members limited information about Abu Zubaida’s detention in spring 2002, but offered a more detailed account of its interrogation practices in September of that year, said officials with direct knowledge of the briefings.
The CIA provided another briefing the following month, and then about 28 additional briefings over five years, said three U.S. officials with firsthand knowledge of the meetings. During these sessions, the agency provided information about the techniques it was using as well as the information it collected.
Other Top Dems Also Complicit
It’s not just Pelosi … top Democrats like Harman and Rockefeller also knew all about spying and torture, and approved … or at least covered it up.
Cover Up of 9/11 Torture and Unreliable Testimony
Veteran reporter Robert Scheer wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2007 that Pelosi and Harman hid from the 9/11 Commission and the American people the fact that the interrogations of 9/11 suspects were videotaped, and that the alleged “confessions” of those held at Gitmo were wholly unreliable. They could have stopped the whole farce cold — but chose to go along with it.
By way of background, the CIA’s torture program ended up deceiving the 9/11 Commission. Specifically, the 9/11 Commission Report was largely based on third-hand accounts of what tortured detainees said, with two of the three parties in the communication being government employees. The 9/11 Commissioners were not allowed to speak with the detainees, or even their interrogators. Instead, they got their information third-hand. The Commission itself didn’t really trust the interrogation testimony… yet published it as if it were Gospel.
New York Times investigative reporter Philip Shenon Newsweek noted in a 2009 essay in Newsweek that the 9/11 Commission Report was unreliable because most of the information was based on the statements of tortured detainees.
As NBC News reported:
- Much of the 9/11 Commission Report was based upon the testimony of people who were tortured
- At least four of the people whose interrogation figured in the 9/11 Commission Report have claimed that they told interrogators information as a way to stop being “tortured.”
- One of the Commission’s main sources of information was tortured until he agreed to sign a confession that he was NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO READ
- The 9/11 Commission itself doubted the accuracy of the torture confessions, and yet kept their doubts to themselves
Indeed, the type of torture used by the U.S. on the Guantanamo suspects was of a “special” type. Senator Levin revealed that the the U.S. used Communist torture techniques specifically aimed at creating false confessions. And see these important reports from McClatchy, New York Times, CNN and Huffington Post.
No Wonder Impeachment Was “Off the Table”
No wonder Democrats “took impeachment off the table.” They were wholly complicit in Bush and Cheney’s crimes.
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Old news.
Faulkner:
"The past is never dead. It's not even past."
This line is often paraphrased, as it was by then Senator Barack Obama in his speech "A More Perfect Union".
Why the fuck would they impeach him when they knew he would get all the blame and people are so unfuckingnbelivabley stupid?
words, words, and more words:
torture is "enhanced interrogation"; war is "kinetic action"; spying is "keeping america safe"; droning a shepherd is "bringing freedom and democracy.
playing games with words is "hypnotizing the sheeps and the muppets".
"who's your daddy?" "baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
.......but, but,but, I thought the Democrats were here to protect us from the bad guy Republicans....
Oh, I'm so confused now.
Two heads of the same snake. They all do as they're told, and stick to their fascist script.
Two teams, with respective team colors, dressing rooms, trainers...with a common owner.
Sportsfans cheer their team on and rally with the score.
The owner sells them tickets, nine dollar hot dogs, ten dollar beers, five dollar pretzels and $20 foam fingers...for each team.
Sportsfans go to a colliseum built with their funds and pay the owner to let them sit and cheer and buy shit. Then, as they leave, they have the privilege of being mugged by the opposing sportsfans.
More like the KFC, McDonald's, Arby's, Denny's, TacoBell, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Hunan Kitchen restaurant franchises all supposedly competing with each other on the same shopping corners, while all owned by oneand the same proprietor.
One of the best ways to cover up a false flag is torture someone until they sign an unseen confession. Problem solved.
Does anyone still seriously believe that any kind of accountablility still exists in government? It is owned and the owners and their employees are all on the same team and playing by their own rules. There is no more "Mommy" to run to. We have become worse than a banana republic as a result of systematic theft from what was once our sovereign.
A Banana Republic With No Bananas
Well as long as we're keeping score of what constituted mass surveillance and torture in the first place after 9/11 through "war" and the votes needed to make them happen!
Press the pictures of bin Laden and Saddam for her voting record on the two wars that have killed over 3 million and made refugees out of nearly 12 million more...
I hate her guts but I hate the rest of them Republican, Democrat and Independent that voted for the same after 9/11 that made it all possible without any debate whatsoever in the House and Senate floor(s) for going to war... The "lie" was good enough for them, and more importantly most of them knew it was a lie after 2001!
Worst of all? The list of grievances against ALL of them grows with impunity as you look at each of their voting records and the fact that the American people didn't even care enough to ensure that they were locked away for the rest of their lives based on that biggest of "lies" that to date is still unresolved!
And the consequences will be none. Precedent / Policy has already been set that supports Criminal lying to the American People while arming, funding & training Al CIA duh terror organizations.
Criminals Bush, Cheaney, Rice lied the American into war & got away with it. Criminals, Obama, Hillaery & Rice are just continuing the exact Criminal "Policy" which "National Security" protects. A big LIE.
I think the consequences are flowing faster and faster.
See Iraq.
Blow back from the war in neighboring Syria. Maybe that's the paln of Al CIAduh. Wait till these monsters undermine the house of Saud.
Just like with Clinton and Bush, impeachment, and the threat of impeachment, is a show for the proles. The repubs and dems will work out their differences at the next meet up at the Masonic Hall down the street. They will all fight over who has the "priviledge" of dragging Albert Pikes's mumified corpse around for their evil ritual. They will decide which govt minion is the fall guy, pay him off, then continue with their raping and pillaging of me and you.
TORTURE:
Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
— Convention Against Torture, Article 1.1
THE US SIGNED IT: 18 April 1988 and it was ratified, October 21, 1994.-
What does Felice D. Gaer do, vice chair of CAT (UN) representing the US , Committee Against Torture, term expiring in 2015???
Apparently, whether or not someone or "something" signed a document is supposed to mean something, somewhere, to someone, regarding people like Danny Pearl etal I suppose.
What an interesting contrivance of feeble force ;-)
They can run but they can't hide.
I am Article 3, Section 3 Witness 1.
Let me guess, Guilitines ?
Why yes. However a rope or nail-gun will do in a pinch.
"Let me guess, Guilitines ?"
We the people say ... Why the hell not? If the leaders can do it then its the obligation of the people to bring justice.
I'm partial to death by a thousand cuts.
They already sold us to China...let's adopt a few of their practices.
How did I know who you were replying to? Too funny.
In the video, Pelosi is like George W. Bush was: unable to string together a coherent sentence; misusing words (e.g. 'we hold them to a high order' when she meant ''high standard').
Is lead paint in the Capitol making our leaders retarded? Or is it just the effect of Californication on Pelosi's walnut-sized brain?
She's 74 years old. Probably hasn't had any protective estrogen in her body in thirty plus years, and you expect her to think straight? We're lorded over by a bunch of geriatric fucks on the Potomac. Apologies to older people, but if they are truthful to themselves, most will agree they aren't the most mentally agile folks on the planet. Look at congress, it's like a charnel house in waiting.
Neither was intelligent to start with. Puppets is all they are.
Just know the worst is true and be confidenat that stealing and misleading is just part of the job. The "Freshman" orientation is like a mafia meeting in that one learns the terms of service," made members", " making one's bones," the limits on taking pay offs and the men to see if one is caught. The Intelligence people control the show and run Washington and these hungry simple country folk are amazed how will they get taken care of. Corruption is the blood of WASH DC. Hang them one and all.
The only trust to be had in government is that they're lying, if it matters. Bush made the Democrats his willing accessories. Power corrupts and being an insider to power corrupts equally. National and international laws are a gilding to fool the sheeple, that underneath, everything is clean.
Hate Bush and his Democrat and Republican accessories equally.
You can make anything legal, if congress passes a law saying it's ok. Murder, stoning, stealing.....all you need is a majority and it's all legal and ok. Look at Corzine. Theft in plain view, no consequences.
And we all wonder how the Germans let Hitler rise to power.
Legal and just and/or justice are two completely different things aren't they? ;-)
Legal is a government created tool which is used against the enemies of government. Justice is a delusion of mankind.
Only disagree slightly, justice can be had without law.
But its illegal ;-)
Which justice: What I want; what you want; or, what they want? Justice, like fairness, is a delusion from childhood.
When everyone is equal under law, there is fairness.
Congress (the makers of law) doesn't get to have trading accounts to front run "the law" no more than "highly regulated" algos (lol) get to front run law.
We can play around with distinctions of law all we want, all night, but law gives advantage to law givers and selected classes...always.
Perhaps the sheep will be a selected class someday.
But I wouldn't hold my breath in which class they will always fall ;-)
Our courts combine the English courts of law and courts of equity into one court/one judge. But, what is equity/fairness: reparations for past injustices or evaluation of only present circumstances. In my experience and speaking with others in the federal courts of the second circuit, district and appeal, we couldn't name one honest judge using either equity or law to make decisions. The problem is the judges are all loyal political hacks, screened for the past sixteen years by Sen. Schumer. The law, like equity, is subject to interpretations, whims, venality and stupidity. What should be carved in the stone above court house entrances is "Abandon all hope of law or fairness, ye who enter here."
Yes indeedy. Justice has become subservient to the law. For people to to be free, it has to turn around. Law must be subservient to justice.
As Celente said..."It's pronounced 'Just Us!'".
It has to be turned around on its own or be forced to turn around.
I'm fine either way (believe me, I can be a pirate or a patriot, easily) I just don't want anyone throwing "the law" in my face from some on-high perch in a black robe after "the law" was abused to spy and steal from me and yes, murder one of our own, don't care that he went over, its law or its not. I have absolutely zero interest in holding up the edifice of "law" that is wrong.
Deviating...I know George's "leanings" but I can say he was one of the few who recognized the "force of law" can be used as an injustice re ObamaCare. For that, he was marked as honest given the facts in my book.
Honesty, fairness & forthrightness is the root of any just law.
I'm an optimist so I hope it turns around. The "law" now causes more problems than it solves. In most cases law is just made up by a bunch of mini-tyrants who want to shit on us. I support the non-aggression principle. Honesty, fairness & forthrightness and dont touch my shit. If you need my help, ask.
There ya go, just ask and lift the other burdens to make it possible.
Force us and we will take the one thing that "civilized society" believes in most..."the law", strip her naked and leave her on the side of the road.
Just like they have done now, only much worse, she won't be "the protector" anymore, she'll be exposed as the victim.
Then everyone can lament her fate ;-)
What ever are you talking about? Stripping the law and leaving her naked... turning it from being the protector to being the victim? Seems to me that this has alreaady been accomplished by the 1%'ers while the rest of us get harrassed at every fucking opportunity. I've never seen so many cop and highway patrol on the highways in my lifetime. They have no qualms at all about issuing people a $150 fine for driving a bit fast while the banker in town who stole a few million gets first class protection from these same upholders of the law. I fail to see any tipping point in veiw. Not that I don't wish for one to come along, but it seems that with all the money came all the power to those mf'ers.
It's more like the .01%er than the 1%ers.
Of course they were complicit. As was nearly every member of congress when they voted to destroy the Constitution with the passing of the Patriot Act. Keep the muppets in perpetual fear; then begin to strip away their rights by using the terrorism card. Works every time.
I am SOOOO looking forward to seeing Pelosi swing after her Nuremburg Trial...along with 90% of our politicians.
Yep, it's just too easy. I was watching a few of Mark Dice's vids earlier - he's a bit of a smug bastard, but when people struggle to answer basic general knowledge questions how can there possibly be any resistance to any of this? Boiled frogs all round.
The Constitution was destroyed long ago via The Act of 1871, Emergency War Powers Act & Trading With The Enemy Act which considers The American People as the enemy.
The Constitution was destroyed long ago via The Act of 1871, Emergency War Powers Act & Trading With The Enemy Act which considers The American People as the enemy.
I hear this argument routinely. I am open to the idea, but, much like the claims that in many civil actions the courts are trying to impose Admiralty Law on persons defined as corporations and not on a natural born person, again an idea I listen to, what is the point? Regardless of what you claim about the Act of 1871, the reality is that the State has a police force that obeys the courts who follow rules so convoluted that they can be twisted to any interpretation that the State wants. So, regardless of whether your claim is legitimate or not, the reality is that the State has the power to do as it pleases.
But, I will continue to search the news for an instance where an honest lawyer (if one exists) somehow pushes back against the State using this as the core of his strategy. Until then, it really makes no difference.
I appreciate your point, but, the guys with the full body armor, black uniforms, full auto weapons, don't seem to be listening.
Pelosi & all the other Criminal Foreign Agents ( CONgress) / House / Senate Intelligence Commities were also briefed on the Torture program back in 2002 making them Complicent / Accessories & War Criminals at large.
IF "both parties are the same", like many LiberTARDian voters claim, why does the Socialist Semite Democrat Media treat them so differently?
What WASN'T Bush's fault, and why is nothing Obama's fault?
Remember the "it happened on his watch" Democrat bullshit meme under Bush?