Democrats on the House intelligence committee said Thursday that CIA officers broke the law in 2002 if they told Nancy Pelosi then that they had not yet engaged in waterboarding.

"If they make a false report, absolutely it's illegal," said Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. "If they fail to make a report when they're obligated to that is also illegal — a violation of the National Security Act."

Said CIA Spokesman George Little: “It is not the policy of the CIA to mislead the United States Congress.”

Schiff said that the "question of recourse [against the CIA] has come up actually a number of times — not just in this context." But he said it's "very difficult because for one thing you can't publicly disclose the information and to actually bring perjury charges or bring an action under the National Security Act without making it public is probably not possible."

The act provides little in the way of recourse, but the committee is seriously looking at revising the law so that there are ramifications for failing to brief Congress on critical intelligence matters, aides said.

At a press briefing Thursday, Pelosi denied that the CIA told her in Sept. 2002 that the United States had waterboarded al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah.

Pelosi was the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee at the time of the 2002 briefing. The current chairman, Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), acknowledged Thursday that the "committee does not keep any records" about briefings that leaders of the committee and Congress receive.

Reyers and other Democrats currently on the committee told reporters Thursday that the GOP is waging a politically motivated attack on the speaker — and that she has received an unfair ride in the press.

"I tell you who you need to get — that's Hoekstra, who is running for governor with irresponsible undertakings, and you tell him I said so," said Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), referring to Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the committee and a leading Pelosi critic.

"The Democrats just don't get it," said Jamal Ware, a spokesman for Hoekstra. "They think this is personal or political when all along Congressman Hoekstra has said this is about congressional oversight. The Democrats have no real answers on this."

The Democrats also defended Pelosi's decision not to raise objections to waterboarding in 2003, when she says she first learned of the practice secondhand from an aide who attended a briefing with Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), then the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee. Harman wrote a letter of protest — a letter with which Pelosi has said she "concurred," although she is not mentioned in it.

"She's away from Intel now, she's not focused on it, it's not her priority," Rep. C.A. Ruppersberger (D-Md.) said of Pelosi in 2003. "We have all these committees we go to, we get briefed on hundreds and hundreds of things. The specialist, though, was the chairman, or the ranking at the time, Jane Harman. And she did what she had to do, and we couldn't get a response back."

In fact, Harman did receive a response from CIA General Counsel Scott W. Muller; it just wasn’t the one she wanted. In a February 2003 letter, Miller wrote: "As we informed both you and the leadership of the intelligence committees last September, a number of executive branch lawyers including lawyers from the Department of Justice participated in the determination that, in the appropriate circumstances, use of these techniques is fully consistent with U.S. law."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22531.html

HMmmmm!!!!

They probably do it all the time

Pelosi vs Panetta.... I wonder who has the support of the administration?

Nah Nah nah nah nah nah hey hey hey Good Bye... madame speaker..

Mrs. Pelosi is lying. You cannot possibly believe her. She has contradicted herself her timeline is way off. She was told about waterboarding numerous times. This is all part of the Extremist Left Marxist agenda and it is terrible for America. I beg you to stop spreading socialism it is hurting the very people you love. This is a dangerous road to go down. Does the Constitution of The United States mean anything at all to you? Please do not do this to America if you think socialism can work youre wrong it never has. This is a Republic and Mrs. Pelosi and MR. Obama have forgotten that they should be representing us not furthering there political agenda. Too many lives are at stake. We cant go on like this why cant you see that you have been lied to. You were saying the same thing about Bush and now you think Nancy and Barack are incapable of being corrupt. That defies youre own logic. Yes Im conservative I have no hate. I do have Love for my country,state,and fellow citzens. Please open youre eyes.

o they were just following orders

thus the blanket pardon idea

oh yeah does anyone remember that

and the soldier from west virgina was just following orders to

hhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

does anyone else see a sacrificial offering here

Prisoners of war do not have Constitutional rights. Therefore there is no issue.

but they do have geneva convention rights

so yes their is an issue

but they were not in uniform

so that give their rights under the geneva convention a gray area

you guessed it

This is just a distraction to keep us from seeing how Obamas soft tyrrany is ruining America. You wanted change now live with it. How much longer will everthing be blamed on the previous administration? While Barack and Nancy are raping the constitution. Many lives will be lost due to the Left wing extremist agenda. We cannot allow this cancer to kill oour country.

the agenda is the same

the puppeteer has not changed

Yeah?
But those holding them have to work within the restraints of the constitution.
It doesnt apply to just the prisoners.

FANTA! DON'T GIVE PELOSI ANY AMMO! We need her gone ASAP

Believe me cloudy. I would like nothing better than to see her gone.
This is an excellent turn of events though which might just work both ways.

It may piss the Dems off enough in their rush to defend her that we actually get an investigation. And, it may just cause enough controversy to force Pelosi to retire or wake up those who continue to vote her into office every 4 yrs!

I have still never figured out who that is!