Yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, presented her account at a news conference of when she became aware that the Bush administration used harsh interrogation techniques including waterboarding (a form of torture that requires the victim to lay on his or her back while pouring water over the face and into the breathing passages.)
Pelosi accused the C.I.A of lying as she said that she was mislead by the information provided to her and was not told about the use of such techniques during a 2002 C.I.A. briefing.
According to the New York Times, Pelosi was present at a September 2002 C.IA. briefing in which a C.I.A. account says included a discussion of interrogation techniques.
Supposedly, the briefing was the only one Pelosi attended in person. She asserted during the news conference that waterboarding was only mentioned and was not being used at the time of the briefing but later found out that it was taking place before the briefing even happened.
She went on to say that the first time she had been told about the techniques was five months later and had been provided the information by a staff member. She claim that she did not speak out because she knew that it would not change the administration’s tactics. She knew that the administration had to change and that was her duty (to change the administration in Congress).
This is probably the most backlash Pelosi has received in her tenure as some Republicans are calling her a hypocritic for heavily criticizing an operation she knew about while some Democrats are saying that she should have spoken out.
She also will be weighted down by the possiblity of dragging down President Barck Obama as many will want a “truth” investigation as to: Did members of Congress really know of the techniques? How long did they know? Who told them? etc.
Pelosi stumbled over her words as the press began to eat her alive at the news conference. Her body language suggested that she knew she was in trouble. I applaud the work of CNN’s Dana Bash as she launched question after question to understand Pelosi’s story which seem to contradict itself.
Where in the world was the public relations person who should’ve prepped her for the conference? She should’ve known the media would definitely be on it’s “P’s & Q’s” as usual. The “5W-H” (the who, what, when, why, where and how) should have been worked out in advance with a good clean statement and story. The aide that supposedly ended the conference, should have saved her earlier.
I feel sorry for the PR person or intern that probably got fired after last night’s conference.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Pelosi’s new conference was PR failure at it’s best.
