McClatchy Misleads Readers To Help Pelosi

McClatchy’s David Lightman today reports on Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s claims yesterday that the CIA lied to her and misleads Congress and the American people “all the time.”

McClatchy’s miamiherald.com posts Lightman’s story under the headline:

”Pelosi says CIA misled lawmakers on torture”

But the story reads more like:

“A Bouquet For Nancy”

Here’s one very important reason why I say that:

A few paragraphs into the story Lightman and his editors tell readers:

In short, the House leader said, "The CIA was misleading the Congress. And at the same time, the administration was misleading the Congress on the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, to which I said the intelligence does not support the imminent threat."

In an opinion piece April 25 in The Washington Post, former Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., who was the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee from 1997 to 2004, wrote that "the techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed," which appears to suggest that the CIA briefers didn't tell congressional leaders that the "enhanced interrogation techniques" were already in use.

But when you examine Lightman’s claim Goss “appears to suggest that the CIA briefers didn't tell congressional leaders that the ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ were already in use” by reading Goss’ op-ed – “Security Before Politics” - what do you find?

Goss was very clear:

… A disturbing epidemic of amnesia seems to be plaguing my former colleagues on Capitol Hill. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, members of the committees charged with overseeing our nation's intelligence services had no higher priority than stopping al-Qaeda.

In the fall of 2002, while I was chairman of the House intelligence committee, senior members of Congress were briefed on the CIA's "High Value Terrorist Program," including the development of "enhanced interrogation techniques" and what those techniques were.

This was not a one-time briefing but an ongoing subject with lots of back and forth between those members and the briefers.

Today, I am slack-jawed to read that members claim to have not understood that the techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed; or that specific techniques such as "waterboarding" were never mentioned.

It must be hard for most Americans of common sense to imagine how a member of Congress can forget being told about the interrogations of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. In that case, though, perhaps it is not amnesia but political expedience.

Let me be clear. It is my recollection that:

-- The chairs and the ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, known as the Gang of Four, were briefed that the CIA was holding and interrogating high-value terrorists.

-- We understood what the CIA was doing.

-- We gave the CIA our bipartisan support.

-- We gave the CIA funding to carry out its activities.

-- On a bipartisan basis, we asked if the CIA needed more support from Congress to carry out its mission against al-Qaeda.

I do not recall a single objection from my colleagues….

Given Goss’ unmistakable intent, the facts he provides and his biting commentary directed at Pelosi and other Congressional Dems with “amnesia,” how could McClatchy’s Lightman and his editors tell readers Goss’ op-ed:

“appears to suggest that the CIA briefers didn't tell congressional leaders that the ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ were already in use?”

They could do it because:

1) - - - They were willing to be disingenuous.

2) - - - They know very few McClatchy readers will ever catch on to what they did.

3) - - - They know the McClatchy Company will never hold them to account for their deception because it was done to help a leading liberal/leftist Democrat.

The entire McClatchy story’s here; Goss' WaPo op-ed's here.