So which is it?

I don't watch TV, so it's hard for me to definitively know. Is Pelosi sending mixed messages? Is she being mischaracterized?

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States appears to be illegally torturing terror suspects contrary to denials by President George W. Bush, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday.


The country's highest ranking Democrat also said that she still hoped to get most US troops out of Iraq by the end of 2008, despite the party's repeated failure to win over enough Republicans in Congress to an exit strategy.

Interviewed on Fox News Sunday, Pelosi said reported interrogation tactics such as simulated drowning, head slapping and exposure to extreme temperatures all amounted to banned torture.

"There is a legal definition of torture that I believe this would fit. The president says it is not," she said.

But the House speaker said she had received only limited briefings from the Bush administration on its interrogation tactics, and had not seen a controversial memo issued in 2005 by the Justice Department.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071007/ts_alt_afp/uspoliticstortureiraqbushpelosi

The admin says she was. But hey, it's not just Pelosi saying, no, we weren't. The public is left to wonder though.

And I'm sooo tired that I won't argue with you even if you say that the earth is flat...Please

help me...

instead of unequivocally stating the obvious.

Doing so opens her up to all sorts of criticism. It's as if she's learned nothing from the past- e.g. John Kerry: "if you knew now what you knew then."

Yes, Madam Speaker- waterboarding and other things you've doubtlessly seen ARE torture- and you missed another opportunity to seize the issue(s).

She's being cautious, and not seizing the opportunity to hit hard.

It's simply a matter of saying what everyone already knows.

Kerry played that game too- and more than any other single moment, it defined the 2004 campaign between he and Bush.

Her comment isn't as definitive as some would like, but she's clear in her opinion.

WALLACE: So let me ask you directly. Do you think that the interrogation techniques that have been reported -- let's not talk about what's in the memo, but what's been reported -- in combination, head slapping, water boarding, exposure to extreme temperatures. Torture?

PELOSI: There is a legal definition of torture that I believe this would fit. The president says it is not. Again, we have to see the degree and what he is talking about, because again, to answer on the basis of something that's been reported in the press that the president has deemed is not torture, it's just not -- I just can't give you an informative answer on that.

WTF is that?

Lame is how it sounds- to damn near anyone who hears it, regardless of their political bent.

Simple question- easy answer (actually, that's one she really could have run with- hell, most high school debaters could have run with that).

Baffles the mind.

We all know how abominably inaccurate the press is. Pelosi is stating her opinion that as far as what's in the news reports, she considers it torture. However, she also acknowledges that the President states we do not torture. Until she sees the actual documents herself, she's holding out the possibility that the reports may be inaccurate.

and reports from NGO's and credible sources abroad, tons of others have too!

Particularly the Speaker of the House.

In any event- the question explicitly wasn't asking whether the reports are accurate- it asked directly what she thought about those methods. A simple: "yes, I deplore those methods and George Bush should too," isn't a lot to expect from a leader of the opposition party.

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act. She is giving herself cover for her inaction.

Deniability Regardless, as Speaker Of The House, she is responsibile for what happens on her watch!
.

What are you suggesting that she do? How is it she's not hewing to that oath?