1115.org

Three Democrats have now come out and declared that they were not fully briefed about the secret torture memos we learned about last week.

First was John Rockefeller on Friday:

“The administration can’t have it both ways. I’m tired of these games,” said Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “They can’t say that Congress has been fully briefed while refusing to turn over key documents used to justify the legality of the program.”

Saturday it was Rep. Jane Harman’s turn (she was the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee when the secret memos were produced in 2005):

We were not fully briefed. We were told about operational details but not these memos. Jay Rockefeller said the same thing, and I associate myself with his remarks. And we want to see these memos.

Then we heard from Nancy Pelosi on Fox News Sunday:

WALLACE: You were never briefed about these secret memos in 2005?

PELOSI: No, not about the secret memos.

All very puzzling, because we have it on the highest authority that all the relevant people in Congress were fully briefed. It came straight from the White House, from the duly authorized public voice of George Bush himself. And we heard Dana Perino say this repeatedly. So we better go back to the transcript. As Dana herself would say, the transcripts are provided for a reason.

MS. PERINO: What I can tell you is I have been assured that they have been fully briefed.

Q Fully briefed on the actual memos?

MS. PERINO: Yes.

Q And, okay, so then why are people like Senator Jay Rockefeller, who’s the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, saying, I’m getting more information from The New York Times than the White House?

MS. PERINO: I don’t know — I don’t know, but I checked and I am confident that the members were briefed.

Q When you say they’re briefed, Dana, do you mean they are shown the techniques, they have the techniques explained to them, they understand what the techniques are?

MS. PERINO: I don’t know. These are held in a classified setting. They’re classified for a reason. And I — so I don’t know what they are shown.

Q And when you say they were briefed on the memos, did they see those memos, or were they just –

MS. PERINO: I don’t know. I don’t know. I have been told they were fully briefed. And we have — we feel confident that the information they were provided gives them the information that they need.

Clever girl! She wasn’t going to take any personal responsibility for what she knew was a lie. They want me to say everyone was fully briefed? Fine! I’ll say that I was told to say that.