Hoekstra considers hearings on Pelosi, interrogations

[kpete]

Source: The Hill

Hoekstra considers hearings on Pelosi, interrogations
By Mike Soraghan and Jeremy P. Jacobs
Posted: 05/08/09 11:31 AM

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is under renewed fire after the Obama administration released documents that critics say contradict her claim that she was never told that U.S. detainees were being waterboarded.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (Mich.), the top Republican on House Intelligence, in an interview Friday said the document proves that Pelosi knew waterboarding occurred but has denied is because of political pressure from the liberal base of her party.

“Clearly her left wing is outraged that waterboarding was used,” Hoekstra said. “The bottom line is she and her key staff, they all knew about it.”

Now that these documents have been released, Hoekstra is calling for additional CIA documents to be made public including some that he has read that provide a more complete account of what was discussed in lawmaker briefings.

Read more: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/pelosi-under-renewed-fire-over-interrogations-2009-05-08.html

[The Magistrate]

1. When He Has a Majority On The Committee, Ma'am, He Can Have Them: He Cannot 'Call' For Anything

"Simple arithmetic is the beginning of political wisdom."

[snowdays]

5. The Minority can hold their own meetings. Recall

Conyers doing it when the Repugs were in power in Congress.???

[The Magistrate]

7. Doubtless, Ma'am, They Can Congregate In Some Basement Rec Room....

And any record they establish can do nothing but establish further the criminal culpability of the Bush administration, since any claim Rep. Pelosi and others were informed of crimes being committed necessarily contains the admission those crimes were in fact committed.

[snowdays]

8. Of couse they were committed -with Dem. knowledge. The truth

needs to come out to move forward. If Dems are involved because of their silence-so be it. Past time to clean house of many of them.

[The Magistrate]

9. That, Ma'am, Is Mere Noise: Large Swathes Of the Populace Knew these Things Were Occuring

This is the sort of logic that maintains that a man who sells snacks in the parking lot of a company that manufactures small-gauge wire that is sold to another company that instals it in servos that direct the movements of the elevators of a jet bomber that is employed to drop a bomb which kills several non-combatants in a village is a damnable murderer....

[Piewhacket]

35. Wouldn't "piffle!" have been a more suscinct? In any event...

This is at present a political matter, and folks can take a
strict view of those in power who knew but did nothing (visible)
to oppose the evil. Nothing wrong with that.

The question is not what sort of logic it is to do that, but whether Pelosi
actually knew anything concrete, which it appears she possibly
didn't due to the customary prevarications and obfuscations
that constitute what the CIA amusingly refers to as "briefings",
that apparently were not videotaped.... awwww.

And the second question is , assuming she was actually told
something definite that indicated criminal activity by the CIA, like
being told prisoners were being tortured, whether there was anything
she could have done with the information without being
charged with a serious crime by the whack-out criminals who were in charge
of justice at the time.

Perhaps those are the questions that should be asked before folks
draw conclusions.

[stlsaxman]

20. Meetings yes, Hearings? no. Conyers did not hold "hearings" when Dems were the minority.

Hell- he couldn't get A ROOM better than a basement closet and he was only allowed to hold "forums"- no subpoena power, no oaths, no record, no shit.

Fuck Hoekstra AND the minority- give 'em a damned closet.

[aquart]

25. Hey, they LIKE being in the closet.

[stlsaxman]

30. that's a good point!

heheh

[RoyGBiv]

2. Someone remind me ...

How is it that this isn't being blown up by the Republicans to distract attention from the master culprits.

Investigate Pelosi, sure ... right after Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Yoo, Rove, etc. ... immediately after.

Did I mention "after"?

I'll say it again, when I see Bush and Cheney under congressional investigation, forced, with handcuffs if necessary, to show up and give live testimony under the scrutiny of the most viscous bastard interrogators Congress can find, *then* I'll listen to this crap about Pelosi and all the "THEY DID IT TOO" nonsense.

[L. Coyote]

10. BUSH lied about torture, but not to Pelosi, right? That's a LOL ridiculous notion.

Anyone who thinks they LIED and LIED to everyone except Pelosi is a frikkin' delusional fool!

[EFerrari]

31. No. I think they did brief Pelosi and others and just enough to dirty them up.

That's what they did with the wiretapping. That's how they move.

[bemildred]

32. An excellent assessment. nt

[RoyGBiv]

34. I think that's about right ...

We err in referring to these bastards as stupid. They've never been stupid. They're bloody brilliant ... and evil.

[bemildred]

21. Perp walk, I like it.

You gotta begin somewhere, might as well begin at the top (or the root, depending on how you care to look at it.)

[larkrake]

3. Why aren't there cries for hearings of Repug politicians who were "informed"?

[snowdays]

6. The Dems are in charge. No leadership coming from them nor

from the WH--who kicked the can down the street.

[frylock]

14. yep

[WestSeattle2]

16. Nothing to see here folks, move along......... n/t

[liberalmuse]

4. Oh please.

Release the CIA documents, but by all means, let's not be selective. Release them ALL. I think the party that is actually responsible for penning the torture memos and then implementing torture needs to be investigated. None of this attempting to railroad the minority party leaders for merely being briefed on Bush policy. 'Pubs are such hypocritical pieces of slime. This is why I detest them. They rubberstamped Bush's crimes, and still do, and yet they want to drag the Dems down. Uh-uh.

[L. Coyote]

11. CIA Has 3,000 Docs on Torture Tapes. That's just on the tapes!!!

There is a wealth of information being covered up, info they told noone about, lied about, and/or destroyed. We got three memos!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5303329

[Algorem]

12. must be a toilet in a sub-basement he could use for his hearings

[madrchsod]

13. we are to believe cheney`s cia?

pete should stop and think what big old can of worms he`s opening...

is pete ready prosecute the republicans that were in charge of those committees?

[iamthebandfanman]

15. punish everyone.

if they wanna help us do our work of proving the bush administration is guilty of multiple crimes, and democrats happened to be involved... so be it.

justice is justice.

political party should not stand in the way of finding the truth.

[Iliyah]

18. I don't think the

GOP want to go this route. Just saying.

[verdalaven]

17. It's stuff like this that drives me crazy

Forget about all the criminal activities the repubs wallowed in for the last eight years re: torture, war profiteering, and on and on it goes. No, let's go after the dems because they knew about it and did nothing......while the republicans, who were in charge and could actually have made a difference, not only did nothing, but cheered those warmongering, Constitution-hating, sociopaths on.

Ugh. Again, Dems are held to a higher standard and punished for having higher standards. Tiresome.

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

19. Hearings?

[stlsaxman]

22. yeah "Hearings"- uh... I don't THINK so!

[onehandle]

23. Nobody cares what one member of this marginal regional party wants.

Sit on the bench and shut up. Congress is ours.

[SalviaBlue]

24. Fuck Hoekstra nt

[sabrina 1]

26. So, 'top Republican' Hoekstra confirms

that war crimes were committed by the Bush administration? That's progress and whether he realizes or not, the most important point he made in his statement.

Now, I think we ought to support him in his call for the release of additional CIA documents and ask for his support in starting the legal process to find out who needs to be prosecuted.

I'm sure he agrees now, having made this public declaration, that starting the legal process is of the utmost importance. Allegations regarding particular people are meaningless and are just delaying the process and everyone, even Cheney and his gang, are innocent until proven guilty. Oh, and that would include Pelosi also. This should not be argued in the media, but in court where it belongs.

I think we ought to call him and thank him for being the first prominent Republican to publicly admit to the Bush administration's illegal torture program.

He can be reached at the following numbers?

District Offices

Holland
184 South River Avenue
Holland, MI 49423
[phone]
Fax: [phone]

Muskegon
900 3rd Street, Suite 203
Muskegon, MI 49440
[phone]
Fax: [phone]

Cadillac
210 1/2 North Mitchell Street
Cadillac, MI 49601
[phone]
Fax: [phone]

Washington, D.C. Office

Washington, D.C.
2234 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
[phone]
Fax: [phone]

He is also on Twitter http://twitter.com/petehoekstra

Lol, and his latest tweet is a link to the WSJ article implicating Nancy Pelosi. He definitely needs help focusing on the main point he made imho. Maybe we can help him with that?

[The Hope Mobile]

33. Hoekstra is the ultimate hypocrite in an area jam packed full of hypocrites.

I grew up there. Scary place.

[Atman]

27. So let me get this straight...he's admitting that war crimes have been committed...

...so he wants to go after a DEMOCRAT simply because she was informed of them, but he does NOT want to go after the people who actually committed the war crimes. Is this man fucking INSANE?

.

[bemildred]

28. Hmm, sounds like this could be used by other people too .... nt

[lsewpershad]

29. Hoekstra

Is proving each passing day that he's a braying jackass. Get past him.