House Republicans on Thursday will call for a bipartisan investigation of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s charge that the CIA lied to her about the Bush administration’s interrogation policies of terror suspects.
A senior House Republican aide confirmed the move, but declined to say exactly what form it would take — whether by an amendment or resolution on the House floor — but said he expects it to be a broad-based investigation.
“It will not focus on one specific date, but the broad claim Speaker Pelosi made that the CIA was repeatedly dishonest,” said Rob Collins, deputy chief of staff to House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican.
Mrs. Pelosi made the charge in a press briefing last week, saying CIA employees “mislead us all the time.”
Since then, Republicans have repeatedly demanded she back up her charges that the CIA concealed its interrogation techniques and lied to her in 2002, that it lied in the run-up to the Iraq war and that it is lying now when it says she was briefed.
The day after her press conference, CIA Director Leon Panetta sent a memo to employees defending their honesty and asking for Washington to tone down the rhetoric. Mrs. Pelosi sent out her own statement saying she did not intend to disparage the CIA, but rather the Bush administration officials who oversaw the spy agency and set its policies.
Mrs. Pelosi has challenged CIA records that say she was briefed on enhanced interrogation techniques on Sept. 4, 2002, though she has acknowledged she learned they were being used from her top intelligence aide after he was briefed on Feb. 5, 2003.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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