Paul Kane reports in today’s Washington Post that in addition to the briefing that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) personally received in 2002 on the use of waterboarding, one of her aides was briefed in 2003 on the waterboarding of Abu Zubaida.
Michael Sheehy, a top Pelosi aide, was present for a classified briefing that included Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), then the ranking minority member of the House intelligence committee, at which agency officials discussed the use of waterboarding on terrorism suspect Abu Zubaida…Republicans have accused Pelosi and other Democrats who attended the earliest classified briefings of knowing what CIA operatives were doing and offering their support for the methods, including waterboarding. They argue that Pelosi, who served as the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee until January 2003, objected only after the use of the techniques became public several years later.
I spoke to a senior Republican aide who feels that the speaker is getting an awfully easy ride on this — that the briefing of the Speaker’s aide clearly demonstrates that she knew what was going on in 2003, even if Pelosi is disputing exactly what was mentioned in the 2002 briefing.
“Look, the claim that a Pelosi staffer was briefed on these techniques but not Pelosi herself is absurd,” he said. “That’s just not the way the system works. Staff are not briefed on anything a Member wouldn’t be briefed on.”
Rep. Jane Harman (D, Calif.), formerly vice chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has released this letter from early 2003 as proof that she raised objections to waterboarding (the CIA’s response is also included at the link). But the letter does not actually raise any objections to waterboarding, but rather raises questions about whether its use had been considered carefully and at the highest levels of government. The letter states:
“I would like to know whether the most senior levels of the White House have determined that these practices are consistent with the principles and policies of the United States. Have enhanced techniques been authorized and approved by the President?”
The only forthright objection contained in Harman’s letter is to the CIA’s intention to destroy the videotape of Abu Zubaida’s waterboarding.
