Pelosi defends herself on waterboarding

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought again today to address what she knew and when she knew about waterboarding of terrorist suspects and to fend off any idea that she was complicit.

She was one of four congressional leaders briefed in 2002 about the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. But in the news conference, Pelosi insisted that she was told in the briefing that waterboarding -- a near-drowning interrogation technique -- was not being used, though she was told that administration lawyers had concluded that it would be legal.

"The CIA briefed me only once on enhanced interrogation techniques in September 2002 in my capacity as ranking member of the Intelligence Committee. I was informed then that the Department of Justice opinions had concluded that the use of enhanced interrogation techniques were legal. The only mention of waterboarding at that briefing was that it was not being employed," she said.

She said she was not in a second briefing in 2003 where she said lawmakers learned that waterboarding was being used.

Pelosi said that the CIA misled members of Congress, just as the Bush team misled the country on the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to justify the war.

"We also now know that techniques including waterboarding had already been employed and that those briefing me in September 2002 gave me inaccurate and incomplete information," she added. "At the same time, the Bush administration -- exactly the same time -- September of 2002, the fall of 2002, at the same time, the Bush administration was misleading the American people about the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."

"They didn't tell us everything they were doing," she told reporters. "We had to get a new president to change the policy."

UPDATE: In a written response issued moments after Pelosi spoke, an official at the CIA neither disputed nor accepted the California Democrat's statements, the Associated Press reports.

Instead, George Little, head of the CIA office of public affairs, said it would be up to Congress to determine whether notes made by agency personnel at the time they briefed lawmakers were accurate. He said the notes could be made available at the CIA "for staff review."

The entire controversy over her role is a "diversionary tactic" by Republicans and former Bush administration officials, she asserted. "They don't want the focus on them, so they put the attention on us," she said.

Pelosi renewed her call for a "truth commission" to investigate the Bush administration's interrogation policy, as proposed by Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont

"I have long supported creation of an independent truth commission to determine how intelligence was misused and how controversial and possibly illegal activities like torture were authorized within the executive branch," she said.

"I think the American people want it," she added. "I think they want to know how we got to this place."

Until then, she said, House committees should continue their oversight role.

UPDATE: House Republican leader John Boehner, asked about Pelosi's comments, said they raised more questions than they answered.

"I think the problem the speaker has had way too many stories," he said.

Boehner said Democrats were well aware of the enhanced interrogation techniques that were being used, and also said "it's hard for me to imagine" that intelligence officials would mislead Congress

"I don't know what motive they would have to mislead anyone," Boehner told reporters.

Boehner repeated his opposition to a truth commission, saying it would not be in the national security interests.

But, he added, "If they want to go down that path, let's get everything on the table."

Echoing former Vice President Dick Cheney, among others, he said that reports on the information gleaned from the interrogation should be released as well.

UPDATE: NBC is reporting that the CIA has rejected Cheney's request to declassify and release those memos.

Senator Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, disagreed with Pelosi on both the veracity of intelligence officials and the need for a truth commission.

"You have to have confidence in the CIA. And over the 20 years I've been here, I've been briefed constantly by the CIA and I'd say that they've told me the truth, as they see it," he said on MSNBC this afternoon.

"I also say that all this argument about creating a truth commission to what happened years ago or what did Nancy Pelosi know or not know is all a waste of time. This behavior has now been prohibited by law and President Obama's executive order. Let's get with the challenge before us today and stop fighting each other.”