Westmoreland Condemns Cover-up on Pelosi Charges

5/21/09 U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland today condemned House Democrats’ attempt to sweep Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s allegations against the CIA under the rug.

“Speaker Pelosi has made serious charges against the CIA, saying point blank that the agency misled her and other members of Congress,” Westmoreland said. “I think she needs to produce evidence to support her claims or she needs to apologize to the agents at the CIA charged with collecting information vital to safeguarding our nation.”

House Democrats today voted down a motion to create bipartisan Select Intelligence Subcommittee to investigate the allegation that Central Intelligence Agency professionals lied to the speaker of the House during a Sept. 4, 2002, briefing on its interrogation program.

“The speaker promised the American people the most open and honest Congress in American history and now she’s stonewalling a bipartisan investigation,” Westmoreland said. “How can Nancy Pelosi say she wants a truth commission to look into torture allegations and then quash a probe into her own involvement? The speaker seems to think this is all about her. This isn’t just about Nancy. If the CIA lied to members of Congress, that’s a big deal, and members of Congress need to act on that. If the CIA can prove that it did fully brief her on enhanced interrogation techniques, on the other hand, that presents another problem for Congress. Either way, we need to do something, and it appears the Democrats are doing everything they can to protect their speaker by covering this up.”

Note: A Gallup poll shows that Americans don’t believe the speaker’s claims that the CIA lied to her. The poll asked: “Do you approve or disapprove of how each of the following has handled the matter of interrogation techniques used against terrorism suspects?”

Pelosi:

30%   Approve
63%   Disapprove

CIA:

63%   Approve
33%   Disapprove

Gallup; conducted May 19, 2009; Survey of 997 Adults Nationwide.