What Did Nancy Know, and When Did She Know It?

Defenders of harsh interrogation techniques like waterboarding have generally been nonplussed by the recent news that the CIA destroyed videotapes of several interrogations. For waterboarding’s harsh critics however, the news has caused some heartburn. In particular, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle (and contributor to the site TruthDig.com) wants to know why Speaker Pelosi didn’t speak up about what she knew:

Pelosi’s press aide Brendan Daly told me that the Washington Post report on her CIA briefing was “overblown” because Pelosi, then the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee thought the techniques described, which the CIA insists included waterboarding, were planned for the future and not yet in use. Pelosi claimed that “several months later” her successor as the ranking Democrat, Rep. Jane Harman of Los Angeles County, was advised the techniques “had in fact been employed” and wrote a classified letter to the CIA in protest, and Pelosi “concurred.” Neither went public with her concerns… Pelosi testified before the commission on May 22, 2003 but uttered not a word of caution about the methods used…. Hopefully I am missing something here, having admired Pelosi for decades, but if she and the others in the know have another version of these events, it’s time to come clean.

Here’s one possible explanation: Speaker Pelosi recognized the importance of getting information from captured enemies in the period after September 11, but changed her mind about it when she sensed political opportunity in criticizing the Bush administration. Based on the Washington Post‘s reporting of the briefing she received on harsh interrogation, it’s even possible that she was among those who wondered whether the methods were tough enough: