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Friday, June 5, 2009

Democrats Try To Stonewall Info that Enhanced Interrogation WORKED


When I start to blast all those Congressional Democrats, its time to step back and realize that its just the bad 99% who makes the rest of them look bad. Yesterday there was a closed door hearing of the Intelligence Committee hearing on the interrogation of terrorism suspects.

The purpose of these hearing was to get to the bottom of whether the enhanced interrogation techniques were successful in preventing terrorist attacks .
GOP members on the Intelligence Committee on Thursday told The Hill in on-the-record interviews that they were informed that the controversial methods have led to information that prevented terrorist attacks.

Immediately after the GOP statement the democrats had a cow.

When told of the GOP claims, Democrats strongly criticized the members who revealed information that was provided at the closed House Intelligence Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing. Democrats on the panel said they could not respond substantively, pointing out that the hearing was closed.
....Despite the weeks-long furor over how the CIA came to use enhanced interrogation techniques, and what members of Congress were told about their development and implementation, the committee’s first hearing on the issue during the 111th Congress almost came and went without notice. The hearing was announced publicly but was not open to the public.
According to Republicans, the Democrat majority kept the meeting under wraps because they were afraid the findings may make President Obama and especially Nancy Pelosi look bad:
“Democrats weren’t sure what they were going to get,” said Rep. Pete Hoekstra (Mich.), ranking Republican on the Intelligence panel, referring to information on the merits of enhanced interrogation techniques. “Now that they know what they’ve got, they don’t want to talk about it.”
....But Republicans on the panel said that not only did the use of interrogation techniques come up Thursday, but that the data shared about those techniques proved they had led to valuable information that in some instances prevented terrorist attacks.

Hoekstra did not attend the hearing, but said he later spoke with Republicans on the subcommittee who did. He said he came away with even more proof that the enhanced interrogation techniques employed by the CIA proved effective.

“I think the people who were at the hearing, in my opinion, clearly indicated that the enhanced interrogation techniques worked,” Hoekstra said.

Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), a member of the subcommittee who attended the hearing, concurred with Hoekstra.

“The hearing did address the enhanced interrogation techniques that have been much in the news lately,” Kline said, noting that he was intentionally choosing his words carefully in observance of the committee rules and the nature of the information presented.

“Based on what I heard and the documents I have seen, I came away with a very clear impression that we did gather information that did disrupt terrorist plots,” Kline said.

Neither Hoekstra nor Kline revealed details about the specifics of what they were told Thursday or the identity of the briefers.
Democrats didn't argue with the GOP facts, only with the fact that they told the US public some truth:
“I am absolutely shocked that members of the Intelligence committee who attended a closed-door hearing … then walked out that hearing — early, by the way — and characterized anything that happened in that hearing,” said Intelligence Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairwoman Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). “My understanding is that’s a violation of the rules. It may be more than that.”

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) said, “Members on both sides need to watch what they say.”

Both Schakowsky and Reyes accused GOP members of playing politics with national security.
Excuse me Jan, but that is what the Democratic party has been doing for years. It is interesting how the Democrats in congress keep talking about openness and transparency but that transparency does not count if the information makes the previous administration look good, and makes Nancy Pelosi look bad.

1 comment:

Angie Lee said...

For the life of me, I cannot fathom how it is Schakowsky's constituents can feel not even a twinge of guilt for voting for her...