“Ms. Pelosi was present at a C.I.A. briefing in September 2002 that a recently released C.I.A. account says included discussion of techniques that “had been used” against a terrorism suspect.
That briefing was the only one that Ms. Pelosi attended in person, and on Thursday, she repeated her assertion that the only mention of waterboarding during the session was that while it was deemed to be legal, the technique was not being used.
Source: New York Times
So, on one end we have Nancy Pelosi lying about when she knew about waterboarding, or the CIA lied to Pelosi about their interrogation methods. It doesn’t really matter where the truth lies, because it means that one of the parties is lying. I’m not sure which is worse, the Central Intelligence Agency, or the Speaker of the House. I think I’d prefer if it was Pelosi who was lying, since that is an individual’s mistake, not an entire organization.
The truth is, I don’t trust either one. I’m not trying to disparage either entity with that remark, but I’ve learned that people will lie about anything. It seems that most people lack honesty as a quality.
For example, someone at work will make a mistake, an honest mistake. I’ll correct that mistake and let them know. It’s rare that I’ll get a straight thanks. Normally, I’ll get a thanks and then some insane excuse – “I don’t know how that happened” – “That’s really weird, right?” – “It wasn’t like that when I did it”.
Here’s the thing, it doesn’t matter. Something happened, it’s fixed, let’s move on. Instead, it gets blamed on computer magic or some problem gnome that runs around the office changing things.
These little lies, or refusal to accept responsibility, occur in the most mundane environments. I’m on a softball team that is in one of the lowest levels of the league and I still hear crazy excuses. It has only been two games and I’ve heard players from different teams blame fielding miscues on a bad hop or the sun in their eyes. The truth is, it’s a low-level softball league. I would expect these miscues to occur regardless of the elements. If they didn’t, I’d hope you would be in a better league. I find it refreshing when someone simply states, “I should have gotten that one”.
Honesty is pretty much one of my only qualities that I’ll actively promote as being positive. I have no problem admitting to a mistake. I’ll try my best to prevent it in the future and correct any issue it might have caused. This also means that I’m a bit caustic to people at times. I’m not very good at feigning interest or holding back criticism. On the flip side, any compliment I give is in complete sincerity.
So, what should Nancy Pelosi do? If she did know about waterboarding in 2002, then she should just admit it and apologize for not acting on it. If the CIA did indeed lie to her, then she should stick to her guns and continue to call them out on it.
All I know is this wouldn’t be an issue if both sides were being honest. This is why I think honesty is a valuable commodity.
In the Court of the Crimson King – King Crimson
