John Boehner Admits the CIA Lied to Pete Hoekstra
By Heather Thursday May 21, 2009 4:30am
On The Situation Room John Boehner again calls for Nancy Pelosi to apologize for her statement that the CIA lied to her and that she should "come forward with documents" that support her. When confronted with the fact that Nancy Pelosi has no authority to declassify those documents Boehner admits that she does not but thinks the documents will not support her.
If John Boehner hasn't seen those documents either, how would he know if they would support her or not? Boehner is then asked about Pete Hoekstra's similar claims that the CIA also lied to him.
Blitzer: Last year the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, he said this in response to a case that he was watching very closely, an American citizen who was killed in a plane crash, the cover up he alleged involving the CIA, he said these words--"We cannot have an intelligence community that covers up what it does and then lies to Congress". That's what Pete Hoekstra said in 2008.
Boehner: Pete Hoekstra did say that. And the Inspector General at the CIA did an investigation and it became clear that some CIA operatives did in fact cover this up. This is not, we’re talking about two different issues here. All the facts in this case are on the table and the truth is now known to all of... to everyone.
BLITZER: So, based on what you know on that case involving Hoekstra, the case he was interested in, do you agree that the CIA then lied to Congress?
Boehner: I know as much about this case as Pete Hoekstra does and the Inspector General did in fact do an investigation, produced a report and frankly supported, I think, Pete’s claims. And all we're trying to do here in both cases is to get to the bottom, get to the truth, and the truth is what we want here. And the fact is that CIA Director Panetta issued a very strong letter to Speaker Pelosi making it clear that in his opinion they did not mislead her or lie to her. And so I either want to see the documents or I'd like to see the Speaker apologize.
So...Republicans saying the CIA lied to them...no problem. Nancy Pelosi...not so much. John Boehner tried to say that his questioning of the NIE on Iran was not the same as Nancy Pelosi saying the CIA lied. Now he asserts that Pete Hoekstra saying the CIA lied to him is not the same as Nancy Pelosi saying the CIA lied to her. The hypocrisy here is stunning.
As our own Jon Perr noted:
That House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has badly bungled the imbroglio over what she knew and when about the Bush administration's regime of detainee torture is hard to dispute. Seemingly snatching PR defeat from the jaws of victory, Pelosi should have instead simply called the Republicans' bluff and insisted on investigations of torture architects, perpetrators and "accomplices" alike, letting the bipartisan chips fall where they may. But by savaging Pelosi for her statement that the CIA "misled" Congress, Bush's Republican water carriers are again exhibiting selective amnesia. After all, just two years ago it was the same raging right which insisted the CIA was an "anti-Bush cabal" seeking to "undermine" the President.
You can read the rest of his post here: GOP in 2007: CIA "Misleading" and an "Anti-Bush Cabal".
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--Boehner admits the CIA lied to Pete Hoekstra
--Boehner admits Nancy Pelosi does not have the authority to declassify the documents that could support her version of events
--Boehner admits that the CIA would have to declassify the relevant documents
--Boehner demands Pelosi provide proof for her claim or else apologize for her statement even after admitting to the previous three facts.
Hmm.......... I don't know John; any reasonable person is going to have a tough time accepting your demand for the speaker. Are you stupid or do you just think most of the viewers are stupid?
I'd guess the second choice you offered is the correct one. Trouble is, there appear to be people in the house who are not as smart as a lot of the viewers.
who know the MSM will never hold them to account for their lies.They also want to be able to torture and kill more innocent people in the future.
IMO this makes the MSM owners/talking heads as guilty of warcrimes,tortur,murder,treason and obstruction of justice as any politician.Is there no way we can hold the MSM to account for this?
Are you stupid or do you just think most of the viewers are stupid?
It's more of a matter of KNOWING his viewers on the right are stupid, as opposed to thinking or having a strong suspicion.
He did point out that Leon Penetta issued a "very strong letter making it clear that in his opinion the CIA" did not lie to Pelosi. So, that about wraps it up right? Penetta wouldn't issue a "very strong letter" if he weren't telling the truth.
It's like they are all seven year-olds.
Well, tan his hide!
Leave Orangeman Boehner alone!
(Doesn't he know pink and orange don't go together?)
Does he use QT?
I thought it was Kiwi?
Torture is a crime. Bush and company committed crimes by torturing. Let's go after the torturers
So what's new, the Repugs thrive on hypocrisy. It has seemed that the American public was starting to wake up to their b.s. But maybe not. A new CNN poll show Cheney's favorables increasing. Scare, scare, fear, fear, hide under your bed (as you wet your pants) or the towel heads will get you! It seems to be working again.
for weeks MSNBC has chided Cheney for being so visible and vocal re the new administration yet they seem to have no scruples when it comes to giving him air time...if in fact his unprecedented behaivor is so contrary to history why are they encouraging him by airing his so called speech/rant. as for CNN and their poll...c'mon...this sensational journalism has really gone too far..
Good morning all. Up and at it early today, eh? It's getting to be bedtime here. I haven't been around much because I can't keep up with it all. It all looks mostly bad.
That there is even a debate on torture and so many people approve has fried my circuitry. I won't grow any more brain cells after 49, will I?
Really. We're having a debate on TORTURE?
So, we're supposed to hew to a dusty tome packed full of religious claptrap for our moral stance on homosexuality, but somehow, we've achieved 'moral clarity' on war crimes.
Shorter version: "La-la-la-la-la, it's not a war crime, la-la-la-la-la."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnFZsrs32Co
The follow up question to Boehner would be: So in your outrage over Pelosi saying the CIA is lying, you're calling the Speaker of the House a liar?
1. Are you saying Speaker Pelosi is a liar?
2. If you believe Speaker Pelosi should step down as a result, do you believe ANY member of Congress who is caught in a lie should step down?
What is it with republicans always calling for someone to apologize? When was the last time one of them apologized to anyone....except Rush.
... and the Democrats always take the hand to the river card, then fold, even if they've got a Royal Flush on the table.
On the gitmo closure funds from what I take from this article the dems may have had valid reasons to withold funds.They simply want to know what Obama is going to do with the detainees before (OKing the funds).I can see why they would want to do that,Remember who is Obama's brain
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/us/politics...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56HI0Luy_kQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwBRBa5AyKY
It's because Reid and Pelosi are the proverbial whipped dogs.
I think Reid is all about his next election. As for the others, who the hell knows.
Disband the CIA and replace the Congress Corporate lackeys with…
whatever!
If the CIA are anything like the Who, they'll keep announcing their final tours before they disband for the next 29 years.
as the CIA guys are the ones who report directly to the Powers that Be. They're the ones who do the enforcing for the oligarchs - have been since the end of WWII. And, the Bushistas, who've owned the CIA for decades, would never allow their demise.
Google anything about it and you'll find many of the same actors, all of the same atrocities and lack of accountability, and the general appetite for denial. Both wars were started based on lies and no one was ever held accountable. It'll be the same next war I'd imagine.
It's not so much Vietnam as it is the low lifes that worked in the Nixon administration at that time, Cheney and Rumsfeld in particular. This is one of the many reasons why it is so critical that these folks be prosecuted for war crimes. Allowing these types to go free in the name of political expediency is just setting up the next outrage for when they and their acolytes manage to worm their way back into power.
It is precisely because these cowardly warmongers were hiding from service in college that they were available to the Nixon "serve" the administration.
That would be true for old 5-deferments Cheney, but not for Rumsfeld. Check out his Wikipedia entry for his military service.
Glad you could read through my obvious mental hiccup. Look at the entire Bush administration. MBAs, PhDs, Law degrees all, and as you point out, political experience as far back as, curiously, the Vietnam years. And they still expect the government to defer to them.
I do know about Rumsfeld.
Vote Torture
Vote Republican
Only COWARDS TORTURE
If the Dems did it then it's wrong! If the repugs did it then it's A-OK!
And there is no end to these assholes "I don't believe the documents will support her claim" - sorry Boehner but you and your sorry ass party have zero credibility. And until the republican criminals apologize and take responsiblity for their actions, then just shut the fuck up crying johnny!
Because of the double standard, and because of the presumed rules of the game, they sincerely believe "Pelosi didn't object" settles the debate. If you can prove that Pelosi was involved, then let's convict her too!
As a citizen and observer of this sausage manufacturing that we call political discourse, I do not know who is being honest with us. A lie is not a lie when some element of a statement is partially true.
For every political opinion there are varying degrees of standards of honesty or lack of honesty.
Obfuscations cloud over any attempt at reaching an honest assessment of who is pulling who,s leg.
Repugs want to subjugate the huddled masses under the flag of industry rather than freedom. This is what the Federalist Society desires. Democracy is a scary thing, just look at Roberts rulings on Scotus.
Boehner is not interested in getting to the bottom of anything. He is all about slowing down any attempt to investigate who were the parties that authorized the torture techniques.
The same economic elites that pay off the Repugs also pay off the Dems.
Honesty is unattainable and as a citizen observer you have to learn to sift through the garbage to find a degree of honesty that you can live with.
Boehner doesn’t care about slowing down any investigation. He doesn’t care about the huddled masses, nor any degrees of honesty. Boehner cares about Boehner – and he is regurgitating his talking points on cue.
The Pelosi bashing is scripted, timed, and intentional. It’s a gambit to seem relevant by those who are not. The strategy is also painting them into a corner (Torture good, Pelosi knew, therefore Pelosi bad). This strategy is idiotic in its inception, but true to course, these idiots will stay on script no matter what – until the next talking point is penned.
....you have to admit that he tans well.
Yup, pretty skin. He should sell soap.
All I want to know from Boehner though, is how much he paid for his last haircut?
http://www.sliderule.ca/saddle-soap.jpg
... isn't it illegal to sell soap containing LIE?
beautiful!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqe_LVp1iUY
After all the research I've done since Obama became president, certain key points keep coming up.
As to key issues we didn't like regarding the Bush Administration, Obama, so far, is truly Bush Lite.
It seems he's ratcheting up military action in Afghanistan and there are serious doubts that we will be "pulling out" of Iraq when Obama wants. Things do change.
He even named Cheney's key "torture" general to head up operations in Afghanistan!!!:
http://www.alternet.org/story/140068
Obama has stood up for many troubling Bush/Cheney programs that we all deplore. Where is the "Change" we can all believe in?
Here are a few examples:
Obama did an about face on the torture photos after a scolding by Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman. I don't believe this is because it will inflame Muslim hatred toward us. You can only "hate" somebody so much. I think it is because the photos will inflame the American People. Especially the ones of U.S. Army translators sodomizing/raping teenage boys:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/05/us-off...
Bush's military tribunals? Check.
The Holder Justice Dept. invoked our state secrets privilege to try to get that lawsuit on torture and rendition dismissed. And here's more. This particular "Signing Statement" (yeah, the same "Signing Statements" Obama said he was against using), certainly isn't going to help the whistleblower Sybil Edmonds.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/oba...
Are we seeing any move toward an Independent Special Prosecutor to ferret out the truth regarding torture? No. All we hear is, "We need to move on."
Bush's secret incursions into Pakistan have been extended.
At the little sit down with Bibi Netanyahu the other day it became clear that Israel still rules the agenda. Definitely no change here. Bibi even called Israel a "JEWISH State"!! (It's not):
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com...
Think about it. Cheney disappears for 8 years into his bunker. Obama gets elected and suddenly Cheney is EVERYWHERE!!! He is so bold that even as the entire world is labeling him a war criminal who should be indicted (the evidence is all around us), here he is being given air time practically every day (not to mention his daughter), to try to defend himself!
Now today the MSM is hawking their "dueling speeches". Cheney is in Obama's face and Obama is bowing and kissing Cheney's ring.
Something stinks here to high heaven.
As long as Obama continues to tow the Bush/Cheney line, and as long as Cheney remains in the limelight and out of his bunker, I have to wonder how all this appears to the rest of the world.
Even Maureen Dowd is hawking this meme in her column today with the headline, "Dick and Rummy's Third Term".
It appears to me that Cheney/Graham/Lieberman are acting as POTUS and Obama is just the Prime Minister.
Sorry, but that's the way things look to me.
Nobody should trust anything the CIA under Bush and Dickhead says. Paid to lie.
If the CIA does not lie to Democrats, but is willing to lie to Republicans would it not seem appropriate that, in terms of national security, you'd want a cooperative CIA with the party currently holding the power?
The last thing you want is the CIA lying to Republicans resulting in some sort of catastrophic attack. You need honesty in your communications in order to properly handle those sorts of situations.
Awesomeness! You win teh intertubes for that!
John Boehner is so typical of the spin & confusion that exists in todays GOP leadership. And Newt? Newt is actually declaring that Pelosi is not fit to be Speaker of the House?! OH PLEEEASE! What position was he booted from because of corruption again? All John Boehner had to say (immediately after stating he wanted facts before he makes a decision) is that he "believes" the CIA did not lie... and then ADMITS the CIA has lied before to congress... it is enough to make one want to scream! How did this nation EVER allow the likes of these jokers into public office? I know we can produce better men and women than this!
oxymoron.....or maybe just morons.
I've come to the semi conclusion that a lot of people go into politics because they couldn't be successful at anything else. Some are well educated good intentioned people, but I fear they are in the minority.
... attracts those who like that kind of authority/power.
... is the fact that we EXPECT our political figures to be liars, corrupt, and immoral. We acknowledge that they are people we wouldn't trust to babysit our children.
But we elect them and re-elect them and then elect more just like them because you apparently have to be tough to weather D.C. ... but then we're constantly complaining that they're liars, corrupt, and immoral.
I'v had several preachers say to me "They (politicians)are supposed to lie to you"
And they get paid to say that google "religious confidence games" the oldest and most sucessful con game ever invented.The victims or "Marks" as they are called never figure out they been robbed
Until someone proves me wrong.
Being a republican is a mental illness!
How else can you explain blatant lying, the total lack of understanding, and the absolute amoral behavior of almost every person in the GOP and the corporate owned media?
Mass stupidity? Mass insanity? maybe they have had their heads up bush/chenny's asses so long the lack of oxygen has killed what few brain cells they had to start with?
I can think of not one republican in the house or senate that I consider to be anything less the totally insane!
republicanism is a mental illness!
because he wants the freedom to drive a gas hog. Cheney tells Leahy "Go fuck yourself." It goes on and on. It is the sort of stuff one might vaguely recall saying after a night of way too much drinking. However, these characters say this stuff all the time when they're supposed to be sober. If they're not mentally ill, maybe they're just hosed.
Not Pelosi, not Boner, not the CIA.
In DC, nothing ever even remotely resembling "the truth" is EVER spoken.
Everything is propaganda. Every word, every image, every "press release," ever public statement is part of the propaganda process by which the "modern" state appeases, mollifies, and misleads its citizens.
The State CANNOT do otherwise. It is part of the very structural DNA of the institution...
Kind of like Mark Twain's three kinds of lies, "Lies, damn lies, and statistics."
Could be woist
Could be asbestosed truth.
Bumper sticker idea : No, no, I changed my mind ; SONG idea, hmmm, let's see --to the tune of the patriotic Song "America, The Beautiful"
Please click on this link to hear the tune and so be fully moved by my amazing lyrics (written in 15 minutes just now)
http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/america.htm
OK, now you have to sing loudly :
Oh beautiful for spacious skies
We torture who we want
Persecute left-wing thinking
Above the fruited plain
America America
God shed His grace on thee,
Start injust wars just anywhere
petroleum is there
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Let's suck Rush Limbaugh's rod
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Dick Cheney is our God
America! America!
Fear, hatred is our law
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Fuck international law
O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
Fuck foreign human life.
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine.
O beautiful for Newt Gingrich
That sees beyond the years
Middle Eastern Cities destroyed
Where are the American tears?
America ! America !
Hegemony are We
And fuck good fuck brotherhood
From Sea to Shining Sea
Nicely done.
(Unlike the person on Huffington Post who tried to cram in too many syllables, making his parodies unsingable.)
"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them...well, I have others." G. Marx
Thanks for the praise. I was really focused for 15 minutes. I wish the lyrics could be about optomism and hope (;_;)
How can Boehner possibly look into a camera, with a straight face, and admit that he believes Hoekstra was lied to by the CIA yet continue his rant about Pelosi's audacity to make the same charge. BTW, Mr. Boehner, saying that you belive the facts supported Hoekstra is the exact same thing as saying the CIA lied to him. So...let me get this straight - "I believe the CIA lied to Pete Hoekstra but there is no possible way they lied to Nancy Pelosi." Does he even realize how ridiculous he sounds? He then goes further to throw out Panetta, who's been CIA director for 15 minutes, to support his argument. I have to laugh at that! If Panetta had come out in support of Pelosi I can pretty much guarantee that he would have questioned his credibility on the issue since he wasn't in that position at the time.
Am I missing something here?
... leading the charge AGAINST Panetta, when the complainers were saying he didn't have the chops for the job?
Boehner checks to see which way the wind is blowing before he opens his mouth.
Kneeling behind rush at an all-you-can-eat Tex-Mex buffet?
Luckily for Boner, the type of people he's trying to reach with his character assassination of Pelosi don't possess the intellectual capacity or reasoning ability in order to process that simple turn of logic.
And the Orange Boner Man strikes again.
No one disputes the fact that the CIA's entire mission is clandestine. They engage in espionage and other covert, even lethal, activities worldwide. Virtually everything they do is beyond the bounds of civil law. And yet we are supposed to be SHOCKED that they might be less than forthcoming when describing those activities to Congress.
If so...he has to cry a lot at night. What a total dufus. Just to look at him and hear his stammering voice is enough to drive one to drink. But once you actually listen to his words...evasive and pointless....he has to be near suicide.
What a total buffoon. Glad he's not from my state. Jesus, help us!! With idiots like this leading our country, it's an uphill climb ALL THE WAY!
..doncha' know. Pelosi was briefed by the cia. She could take no notes. They used words that were not "torture" but were in reality were the "enhanced techniques" (my, how that rolls off the tongue)that are torture. So, Pelosi didn't hear the word and can say, they didn't say they were and the cia can say we told her. Ultimately, she will probably be voted out of office. I can't vote for her but I'd be willing to bet there are way too many people in her district pissed that she "took impeachment off the table". Couple that with eventually finding out about torture and not doing anything..Bye-bye Nancy!
The Republicans continue to change the debate from torture to what Pelosi knew and when she knew it and who is lying about it. Just like they did with Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame. Joe Wilson went public with the fact that Saddam Hussein did not acquire yellow cake uranium from Niger. Wilson went public with the fact that Bush had lied to the American public about acquiring yellow cake uranium. What did the Cheney administration do? They changed the debate. They changed it from lying to Americans to lying about Joe Wilson. They said that Wilson's wife sent her husband to Niger to check the facts. They leaked the fact that she was a CIA operative to ruin her career. Instead of the conversation being about lying to Americans about the reason to go to war with Iraq it was now about Valerie Wilson and Joe Wilson and leaks and the CIA and who knew what when and who was lying about it. Do you see the similarity here? The conversation is now NOT about torture but about Nancy Pelosi and what she knew and when she knew it and who is lying about it.
Just like with Joe Wilson these scoundrels will lose in the end because it is being revealed that the CIA DID lie and the Republicans trying to change the debate are having the spotlight redirected to them and it is showing that they are the ones who are the hypocrite liars. Will these fools never learn?
That is why they admitted knowing about and approving the torture themselves.In other words they could/should be prosecuted with their own words.
who goes out to the bar every night, get's completely and utterly wasted, and then drives home.
This person will never stop their routine, and will actually find some comfort in the familiarity of doing it, regardless of how reckless it is. Because that's all they know how to do, and the alcoholism is a disease. Just like the stupidity and reckless disregard for truth and ethics is a disease for republicans.
The media is the metaphorical police officer that needs to pull this jackass over... And they never do... always somewhere else.
And the alcoholic is supposed to stop driving drunk on their own? With absolutely no motivation to do otherwise? WHY would we expect them to do otherwise? Who in their right mind would ever even begin to imagine that happening?
Very well said. Required reading.
Why is this man still being given a platform? He's a liar. His entire administration lied to the American people. Why can't they shut this man up? We had an election and we are tired of the lies being reiterated. Cheney needs to be prosecuted and imprisoned. When is this going to happen?
most of the MSM (Fox/CNN Murdoch etc.) are just as guilty of warcrimes,torture and treason as he is.
In republican bizzaro world, they think it doesn't matter if a lie is told to a republican because they always lie. Every republican expexts to be lied to by another republican.
But if a dem says a republican lied because a dem said it you have to fain insult even if you know for sure the repub lied to the dem.
republicanism is a mental illness.
...um, let's see...this is the same CIA that the Bush Administration threw under the bus after 9/11....and blamed that didn't give them the correct 'actionable intelligence' for the run-up to the illegal invasion of Iraq...
sheesh....like Paul Thompson says in "9/11: Press For Truth"...'how many (specific) warnings did you need?"!!!!!!!
and yet, Cheney is now the 'champion' of the CIA....
priceless.
I'm shocked I tell you, shocked.
People or organizations don't lie to republicans. Republicans lie to them, Dammit........
What about those WMD's in Iraq? Or are they willing to say that lie belongs to Cheney and Bush specifically?
Boehner displays to the rest of the world why the Republicans have no credibility, accept to that moronic 27% who'll believe the moon is made of green cheese if they are told so by messers Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, Beck, etc. This idiot isn't smart enough to understand what Wolf is getting at. The issue is; how can they attack Pelosi for doing what Hoekstra did only a few months earlier. Of course this would go over his head, after all you have to be able to think critically and logically to understand this. They truly are the party of anti-intellectuals and stupid people.
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