HappySqurriel said:
txrattlesnake said:
HappySqurriel said:
txrattlesnake said:
HappySqurriel said:
Realistically, Nancy Pelosi has put herself into an impossible position because either:
- The CIA mislead her, which is an impossible accusation to prove and any attempt to do so will (likely) result in her looking paranoid; and she would also make a lot of powerful enemies in the process.
- Nancy Pelosi is incompetent being that she was given briefings and was unwilling to pay attention or unable to understand them.
- Nancy Pelosi is lying.
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Why doesn't she just say the Republicans ordered her not to talk about it because of the negative PR it would bring them especiallly with George W.'s reelection campaign not being that far off and that there was a cabal of secrecy during the Bush years, so she just made the best decision that was right for her party at the time and that proved to be the best decision later on when Barak was elected?
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Right ...
An extremely partisan Democrat leader would stay quiet about something that would have a negative impact on a Bush re-election simply because George W. Bush asked her to ... Did he say it nicely and finsh with "Pretty please, with sugar on top"?
The reason why it is an issue that Nancy Pelosi knew about the waterboarding a long time ago was that she was trying to use it in such a politically partisan way today. It would be a lot like a republican senator who voted for the stimulus bill today who was amazingly critical of Barack Obama in 6 years because he started to run up such high deficits.
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Of course if the Cheney directed CIA had said "if you do this, then we'll do this", then I feel anyone would have been reluctant to talk.
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And what if a unicorn nuzzled Nancy Pelosi with its nose and asked her not to discuss the waterboarding incident?
Its about as likely as your scenario, and it is meaningless because Nancy Pelosi claimed to have no knowledge of Waterboarding until it was demonstrated that she did; and she never claimed that she was asked not to share her information, that it was classified, or that she was threatened not to release information ... She claimed she was mislead, and any hypothetical situation you come up with doesn't change this.
The CIA either mislead her, she is incompetent, or she is lying.
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There can be severe consequences for whistleblowing on things like this. The government made the guy who leaked the federal wiretapping program life a living hell. The Bush Administration was willing to crucify anyone who went against its authority.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/174601/page/2
Still, Tamm is haunted by the consequences of what he did—and what could yet happen to him. He is no longer employed at Justice and has been struggling to make a living practicing law. He does occasional work for a local public defender's office, handles a few wills and estates—and is more than $30,000 in debt. (To cover legal costs, he recently set up a defense fund.) He says he has suffered from depression. He also realizes he made what he calls "stupid" mistakes along the way, including sending out a seemingly innocuous but fateful e-mail from his Justice Department computer that may have first put the FBI on his scent. Soft-spoken and self-effacing, Tamm has an impish smile and a wry sense of humor. "I guess I'm not a very good criminal," he jokes.
At times during his interviews with NEWSWEEK, Tamm would stare into space for minutes, silently wrestling with how to answer questions. One of the most difficult concerned the personal ramifications of his choice. "I didn't think through what this could do to my family," he says.
Tamm's story is in part a cautionary tale about the perils that can face all whistleblowers, especially those involved in national-security programs. Some Americans will view him as a hero who (like Daniel Ellsberg and perhaps Mark Felt, the FBI official since identified as Deep Throat) risked his career and livelihood to expose wrongdoing at the highest levels of government. Others—including some of his former colleagues—will deride Tamm as a renegade who took the law into his own hands and violated solemn obligations to protect the nation's secrets. "You can't have runoffs deciding they're going to be the white knight and running to the press," says Frances Fragos Townsend, who once headed the unit where Tamm worked and later served as President Bush's chief counterterrorism adviser. Townsend made clear that she had no knowledge of Tamm's particular case, but added: "There are legal processes in place [for whistle-blowers' complaints]. This is one where I'm a hawk. It offends me, and I find it incredibly dangerous."
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
