Nancy Pelosi and the War on Torture

“And Speaker Pelosi has, at times, objected to activities that were approved by the president. Those activities were changed as a result of her objection . . .
House Minority Leader John Boehner on CNN’s State of the Union 05/17/2009

J. Dennis Hastert, (R. Ill), Speaker of the House of Representatives; Richard K. Armey, (R. Tex.), Majority Leader; Tom DeLay, (R. Texas), Majority Whip; Richard A. Gephardt, (D. Mo), Minority Leader; Nancy Pelosi, (D. Ca) Minority Whip.
That was the leadership in the House of Representatives at the time of the now infamous CIA briefing on enhanced interrogation techniques.

To listen to the Republicans you would think that Nancy Pelosi was in the Speaker’s chair in 2002 and had a lot of clout. “If she knew about the torture and objected, she should have said something then!” they cry. Others have intimated that by not voicing any objections she was an accessory to the crime of torture.

Lost in all this discussion are one or two important points.

In the House of Representatives, the rule of the majority Party (in 2002 the Republicans) over the minority Party (in 2002 the Democrats), is nearly absolute. At the time of the briefings, Pelosi had been a Minority Whip for less than a year. As a Minority Whip she had very little standing outside the Democratic Congressional Caucus. Any objections she would have made to CIA torture techniques, would have been ignored.

The current Minority Leader, John Boehner (R.OH), knows this. He currently operates under rules that are just as draconian for the minority Party as they were in 2002. He has no options to stop anything he doesn’t like. In 2002, Pelosi was even more junior in party leadership than he is. He is fully aware that even if she were told what was going on and she did object, that it wouldn’t have made any difference.

I am struck that people like Hastert, Armey and DeLay have not come rushing forward to back the CIA assertions that they told the Congressional Leadership what they were up to. After all, if the CIA briefed a junior member of the minority party’s leadership on the enhanced interrogation techniques being used, they would have briefed the full House Leadership, as well.

Hastert, Armey and DeLay are not ones to miss an opportunity to jump on Democrats with both feet. Their silence validates Speaker Pelosi’s story. If the CIA told her what they were doing, they would have told them as well. If that happened Hastert, Armey and DeLay, would be crowing that fact from the roof tops.

Also lost in the fray, is a more important point. It is not important when a minor member of the minority leadership knew about torture. It is more important to know who authorized that torture and why. The Republicans have done a great job of shifting the question of Cheney’s involvement and the poor legal reasoning supporting it, to what then Minority Whip Pelosi was told about water boarding.

Focusing on Speaker Pelosi is pure misdirection. We need to get back to the real issue here. Did Cheney push torture as a means to establish a connection between Iraq and 9/11? What was actually done? Who signed off on it?

The Republicans cannot on one hand say that torture is ok, and that it is not a crime, and on the other hand accuse Pelosi of complicity because she didn’t stand up to it. If they want to investigate what Pelosi knew and why she was silent, then they should investigate Hastert, Delay and Armey as well as Pelosi and Gephardt.

Finally, why does Obama want to move forward and leave all the questions about torture in the past? I think it is because powerful Democrats were involved. If everyone who was involved in allowing torture to move forward was investigated, if everyone who knew and didn’t say anything was exposed, most of the current power structure in Washington would be compromised.

For example, current Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was a Republican member of the same subcommittee as Pelosi in 2002-2003 and would have been briefed at the same time on the same things. So was Ellen Tauscher, who is now nominated for Undersecretary of State for Arms Control.

In the Senate former Senator Bob Graham has talked about the briefings he did and did not receive as a member of the Senate Intelligence committee. Others on his committee who would have been briefed were Diane Feinstein, (D. Ca); Carl Levin, (D. Mich); John D. Rockefeller IV, (D. W.Va); Richard Durbin, (D. Ill); and Evan Bayh, (D. Ind). Compromise this group and the Democrats in the Senate are decimated.

Lost on the Democrats is the fact that this is not just about catching the Republicans doing wrong, this is about the US Government morally failing in a spectacular manner.

We are on a slippery slope here. Our government has set aside a group of people that it is ok to abuse. It is OK to dehumanize them, demonize them and turn them into “others.” Right now it is easy to draw a circle around these “others.” After all, when you say “terror suspect” what group comes to mind? Certainly not unemployed, white ex-military like Timothy McVeigh.

At some point that circle will widen and include new “others” for “good reasons of national security.” How soon will it be before we start picking up Hispanics in border states and torture them for information about the drug cartel wars in Northern Mexico?

Is this scenario farfetched?

Look how even mainstream media like CNN and Lou Dobbs are quick to paint all Hispanics as illegal immigrants. It is a short step from this, to assume they will know something about the drug cartels, and short step from that, to torture them for the information.

The best way to take care of a hard task is to do it and get it done. We will not be able to put the issues of torture behind us until we investigate them and hold all the major players accountable. If we don’t take the painful steps now to lance and drain this infection on the body politic, it will continue to spread and poison us all.