Maybe She Just, You Know, Forgot . . .

Pelosi lied, and people di . . . uh . . .got really wet.

Oh, and American lives were saved.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly was told in February 2003 by her intelligence aide, Michael Sheehy, that waterboarding was used on CIA terror detainee Abu Zubaydah, directly contradicting Pelosi's account that she had never been informed of the technique's use.

A CIA document made public last week shows that Pelosi received a briefing in September 2002 on the tactics used on Zubaydah, an Al Qaeda leader and one of three prisoners subjected to waterboarding. Pelosi said she was told the agency was discussing its legal right to use the tactic in the future.

"We were not -- I repeat -- were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used," said Pelosi, D-Calif.

Pelosi is a liar - but who hasn't known that? And what's more, her constituents don't care - I daresay for most of the liberals in the Bay Area, truth is a "relative" thing anyway.

Besides, according to the New York Times, this issue - as well as global warming, Hurrican Katrina, and the demise of original thought in Hollywood, is Bush's fault.

JUST four members of Congress were notified in 2002 when the Central Intelligence Agency’s “enhanced interrogation techniques” program was first approved and carried out, according to documents released by the agency last week. They were Senators Bob Graham and Richard Shelby and Representatives Porter Goss and Nancy Pelosi, then the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate and House intelligence committees — the so-called “Gang of Four.” Each was briefed orally and it was understood that they were not to speak about the program with anyone, including their colleagues on the committees.

It’s logical to ask, so what if it was only four members? If they objected to the program, why didn’t they take steps to change it or stop it? Maybe they should have tried. But as a practical matter, there was very little, if anything, the Gang of Four could have done to affect the Bush administration’s decision on the enhanced interrogation techniques program. To stop it, they needed the whole Congress.

It is unlawful for the executive branch to limit notification, as it did here, to the Gang of Four. There is no such entity recognized in the National Security Act. Federal law does provide, however, for notification of fewer lawmakers than the full intelligence committees, but only when “extraordinary circumstances affecting vital interests of the United States” are at stake. Under those very limited situations, the notification may be to the “Gang of Eight,” which includes the majority and minority leadership of the House and Senate, in addition to the intelligence committee leaders.

Here is my take. The bad guys of the world are very bad. And reluctant to talk. I believe certain techniques can and should be allowed to collect intelligence . . . our survival depends on it.

I am not bothered by waterboarding. I don't care if you want to call it torture. It's not in the same league as connecting electrical wires to a person's genitals and turning on the juice, or plunging their hand into boiling water, or sodomizing them. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, torture is defined as something causing "anguish of body or mind." Given that, a huge variety of actions - including being handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car - is torture.

I am curious to know what interrogation techniques were employed before the Bush Administration. I think the Dems are elevating waterboarding to an unwarranted level to find justification for war crimes.

They are in power now, and the witch hunt is on. Let's see if they burn one of their own at the stake.