CIA: Pelosi briefed on use of techniques

WASHINGTON, May 7 (UPI) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was briefed on the use of harsh techniques for interrogating suspected terrorists, the CIA said in a newly released memo.

Documents released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence indicate Pelosi was briefed in September 2002 -- just before the first anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks -- about the use of EITs, an acronym for enhanced interrogation techniques, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

The 10-page memo provides information on classified briefings dating back almost seven years, the newspaper said. It indicates that Pelosi and former Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., were the first two members of Congress to receive briefings in the matter.

Goss subsequently left Congress to serve for a time as CIA director.

Pelosi told MSNBC in February the September 2002 briefing included information on techniques that were available for interrogators, but she said "they never told us that these enhanced interrogation techniques were being used."

The memo reported by the Post indicates the Pelosi-Goss briefing covered "the use of EITs" on al-Qaida suspect Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, better known as Abu Zubaida.

"The briefers described these techniques, said they were legal, but said that waterboarding had not yet been used," Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Pelosi, told the newspaper.