That House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been a disappointing leader for
House Democrats, few serious observers of the congressional condition
will deny. But, now, she appears to be something more troubling: a
serious hindrance to the fight against the use of crudest and most
objectionable torture techniques.

Now, however, comes the news that Pelosi knew as early as 2002 that
the U.S. was using waterboarding and other torture techniques and, far
from objecting, appears to have cheered the tactics on.

The Washington Post reports that Pelosi, who was then a senior member
of the House Intelligence Committee, was were informed by CIA
officials at a secret briefing in September 2002, that waterboarding
and other forms of torture were being used on suspected al-Queda
operatives. That's bad. Even worse is the revelation that Pelosi was
apparently supportive of the initiative.

According to the news reports, Pelosi has no complaint about
waterboarding during a closed-door session she attended with Florida
Congressman Porter Goss, a Republican who would go on to head the
Central Intelligence Agency, Kansas Republican Senator Pat Roberts and
Florida Democratic Senator Bob Graham.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=258258