House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried Friday to quell the controversy over her comments about the CIA, but Republicans aren’t ready to turn down the volume just yet.

Pelosi said Thursday that the CIA had lied to her in 2002 about its waterboarding of a detainee.

Responding to the firestorm of criticism that followed, the California Democrat issued a statement late Friday in which she said that her criticism of the way in which the “Bush administration did not appropriately inform Congress” about its use of waterboarding is “separate from my respect for those in the intelligence community who work to keep our country safe.”

“What is important now is to be united in our commitment to ensuring the security of our country,” Pelosi said. “That, and how Congress exercises its oversight responsibilities, will continue to be my focus as we move forward.”

But that wasn’t the focus of Republicans appearing on Sunday’s news shows.
“Nancy Pelosi has stepped in it big time,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“She has put the Democratic Party in a position where the question for me is does the president support Nancy Pelosi’s version of what happened or the CIA director’s version of what happened,” Steele added. “You have the speaker of the House saying that she wasn’t told, that she doesn’t have a clue, and the evidence contradicts that.”

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) also had Pelosi in his sights Sunday.

“Lying to the Congress of the United States is a crime, and if the speaker is accusing the CIA and other intelligence officials of lying or misleading the Congress, then they should come forward with evidence,” Boehner said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I think she ought to apologize to our intelligence professionals around the world. Instead of criticizing them, instead of accusing them of lying, we ought to be patting them on the back and telling them, ‘Job well done.’”

Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) tried to push back against the Pelosi attacks on ABC’s “This Week,” telling host George Stephanopoulos that the dust-up was not a big deal.

“I think this will resolve itself,” he said. “I don’t think it’s that big a deal.”

Webb went on to accuse Republicans of pushing the story in order to avoid the “issues of accountability in terms of the last administration.”

Pelosi has called on the CIA to release documents showing what she was told by the agency, even suggesting that she would be open to an examination of her own claim as part of a so-called truth commission investigation.

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he does not want the conflict to go that far.
While McConnell said that there’s unquestionably a “dispute” between Pelosi and the CIA, he said he’d prefer to see the disagreement settled by the House and Senate intelligence committees and not through a broader truth commission investigation — one that would focus on the action of Bush administration officials as well.

“My own view is, what is the point of going back and trying to figure out who knew what when?” he said. “I think the best way to resolve the dispute, if it’s to be resolved, is through the intelligence committees.”

Although Pelosi said in her statement Friday that she has “great respect for the dedicated men and women of the intelligence community,” she did not back away from her claim that she she wasn’t told in September 2002 that the United States had waterboarded Abu Zubaydah.

In fact, as POLITICO reported Friday, Democratic insiders say that, before Pelosi claimed Thursday that the CIA had misled her, her office dispatched an aide to CIA headquarters to independently verify what she was told during the 2002 briefing based upon notes from the meeting.

Pelosi “wouldn’t say what she did without checking it first,” said a Pelosi ally.

CIA director Leon Panetta — another California Democrat — said last week that the agency’s “contemporaneous records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing ‘the enhanced techniques that had been employed.’”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090518/pl_politico/22627;_ylt=
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Just a matter of word play.

They didn't tell her they tortured, because they don't view it as torture. Just enhanced techinques.

of course, when the Japanese waterboarded Americans in WWII, THEN it was torture and they were tried for War crimes.

"America is the home of the hypocrite" - The Violent Femmes

I find these statements contradictory.
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Pelosi has called on the CIA to release documents showing what she was told by the agency, even suggesting that she would be open to an examination of her own claim as part of a so-called truth commission investigation.
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But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he does not want the conflict to go that far.
While McConnell said that there’s unquestionably a “dispute” between Pelosi and the CIA, he said he’d prefer to see the disagreement settled by the House and Senate intelligence committees and not through a broader truth commission investigation — one that would focus on the action of Bush administration officials as well.

Why does the accused want an independent investigation but the accusers dont want it going beyond the senate?
Doesn't add up.

good point The CIA has been caught lying before

Smoke and mirrors my friend, smoke and mirrors.

They've also been known to perform assinations.

What constitutes an independent investigation?

Was the Warren Commission independent? 9-11 Commission? Were they independent? I think the answer is, NO they weren't.

This is as ridiculous as having members of the House and Senate on the "ethics" committees. It's absurd.

Ridiculous, no criminal, would be to do nothing!