Pelosi has been among the most vocal critics of the Bush administration's counter-terrorism measures. On Thursday, she reiterated her call for the creation of a "truth commission" to investigate Bush-era practices.
Republicans have opposed that idea and warned that any such undertaking also would bring scrutiny to Democratic lawmakers. They have focused in particular on Pelosi, accusing her of hypocrisy for failing to attempt to stop the interrogation practices until well after she had learned about them in detail.
Pelosi said no protest would have mattered to Bush administration officials, and she pointed to competing legal opinions within the administration that had been brushed aside. Instead, she said her priority was to help deliver a Democratic majority to Congress as a way of terminating Bush administration policies.
The attacks on Pelosi gained traction last week when the CIA released a chart that showed she and former Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), who were then the top members of the House Intelligence Committee, were the first lawmakers to be told of the CIA's interrogation program.
The table said both members attended a briefing in September 2002 during which the CIA described the particular interrogation techniques "that had been employed." In August of that year, records now show, the CIA used the waterboarding method on Al Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah at least 83 times.
The table did not indicate whether waterboarding was specifically mentioned in 2002, but it did show that a senior aide to Pelosi attended a 2003 briefing in which the method was discussed.
Pelosi acknowledged that she was then informed by the aide that waterboarding was being used but noted that the disclosure came just one month before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. "At the same time," she said, "the administration was misleading the Congress on the weapons of mass destruction."
The CIA did not respond to Pelosi's charges that the agency misled Congress. Agency spokesman George Little said, "The language in the chart . . . is true to the language in the agency's records."
Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee met with reporters Thursday to defend Pelosi and said the CIA routinely withheld key information in classified briefings.
"You have to play 20 questions with them," said Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Menlo Park). "They are not forthcoming with information."
