Former CIA Official: Pelosi, Feinstein, Rockefeller All Briefed and Didn't Object to Waterboarding

 

On "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace," Jose Rodriguez, the former director of the National Clandestine Service of the CIA said members of Congress where briefed dozens of times on the enhanced interrogation techniques including Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and they did not voice any objection.

Rodriguez said, "I remember very clearly briefing Nancy Pelosi in September of 2002. The Congress had been on break, as soon as they got back from break in September, the first thing I did is I went to brief her and the Chairman of the House Select Committee on intelligence at the time. We briefed her, and I was not the only one who came from the agency. I had my lawyers with her. We briefed her specifically on the use of the enhanced interrogation techniques on Abu Zubeta. She knew back in September of 2002 every one of our enhanced interrogation [techniques]."

When asked specifically, "Did you tell her about waterboarding, about sleep deprivation?" Rodriguez said, "Yes, yes, we did. Yes, I did." Adding, "I briefed her on all of the techniques. These people were fully aware of all the techniques that were given to us and approved by the Office of Legal Counsel of Justice."

He added "The only one that ever objected to any of this, and it was more of a caution, was Jane Harman in 2003 when she said, 'be careful because the perception will be in the future that you did this to hide something.' But that was -- she was the only person who ever objected to anything."

On Rockefeller, who was the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Rodriguez said, "You know, it's interesting because I can remember going back to hearings and meetings with the Congress back in 2002. And their biggest -- their biggest thing they told me was, 'you know, your problem is that you guys are risk averse. You have to go out and use the authorities that you're given to protect America.' All of these people were briefed, Rockefeller in particular."

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Former CIA Official: Pelosi, Feinstein, Rockefeller All Briefed and Didn't Object to Waterboarding
Sun, 14 Dec 2014 16:32:00 GMT