Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Trip to Syria a Felony?

According to an ABC News article, "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, deflecting White House criticism of her trip to Syria, said Friday she thinks the mission helped President Bush because it showed the U.S. is unified against terrorism despite being divided over Iraq. Pelosi, D-Calif., met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus this week against Bush's wishes." (ABC News article) While the White House insists that Pelosi did not speak for the administration, House Speaker Pelosi asserts that Syrian President Assad now fully understands that while the Bush Administration and the Democrat-controlled congress don't agree on the war in Iraq, they do agree on addressing international terrorism issues and the situation between Syria, Iran, and Israel.

However, the Bush Administration sees Speaker Pelosi's highly visible trip differently. "'There is nothing funny about the impact her trip to Syria has had,' said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe, who is with Bush in Texas. 'On the contrary, these visits have convinced the Assad regime that its actions in support of terrorists have no consequences.'" (ABC News article) While it was true that there were several congressmen in the Middle East, including many Republicans, at the same time that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was there, none conducted such high-level talks nor garnered as much attention as House Speaker Pelosi.

Within the Bush Administration, Speaker Pelosi's actions and statements to Syrian and Israeli leaders received the harshest criticisms from Vice-President Dick Cheney. "Cheney, in an interview on Rush Limbaugh's radio program, said of Pelosi's comment: 'It was a non-statement, nonsensical statement and didn't make any sense at all that she would suggest that those talks could go forward as long as the Syrians conducted themselves as a prime state sponsor of terror.'" (ABC News article) His statements were made in response to Pelosi's assertion that a peace agreement could be reached if Syria would only stop assisting terror organizations.

The question of the legality of Pelosi's actions has been raised due to the fact that it is a felony for government officials such as Pelosi to conduct their own negotiations with other heads of state without the expressed consent of the executive branch. However, the questions raised as a result of her recent trip to the Middle East do not worry Madam Speaker Pelosi. She stated that she doesn't understand how her actions affected anything several thousand miles away back in the United States. This is but the most recent clash between the Democratic held congress and the Bush Administration.