In Courting Disaster, I present new evidence that Nancy Pelosi lied when she claimed in a March 14, 2009, press conference that she did not object to CIA waterboarding because she thought she was powerless to stop it. During an interview for my book, a former top intelligence official told me he was shocked when Pelosi made this claim, because, he said, in the same time frame that she admits she was briefed on waterboarding, she stopped a different covert operation by going to the White House to complain. The White House actually pulled back the top-secret document authorizing the action that had already been signed by President Bush, and revised it to meet Pelosi’s demands.

What this means is that, when Pelosi stood before a packed Capitol Hill press conference and claimed there was nothing she could do about waterboarding, she was lying. She knew full well that she was not powerless to stop the CIA from “doing what they are going to do” because she had done it herself in a different covert operation — in the very same time frame she admits she knew about waterboarding.

I lay out the evidence in today’s Washington Post and in even greater detail in Courting Disaster. To learn more go to: www.courtingdisaster.com