In Japan - Powell Points Finger Directly At Bush Admin (including himself)

[kpete]

CLAIM: �Evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program�Iraq could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year.� - President Bush, 10/7/02

CLAIM: � is actively pursuing nuclear weapons at this time.�- VP Cheney, 3/24/02

CLAIM: �We believe Saddam has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.� - VP Cheney, 3/16/03

CLAIM: �We do know that is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon.�- National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 9/10/02

CLAIM: �Iraqis were actively trying to pursue a nuclear weapons program.� - National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 7/11/03

.........................

We have not uncovered evidence that Iraq
undertook significant post-1998 steps to
actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material.

- Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
http://www.americanprogress.org/kf/priraqclaimfact1029.htm

Yes, Colin Powell, tell us WHO
by Charles in AL
Tue Sep 07, 2010 at 11:39:17 AM PDT
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/9/7/14339/59152

In an August 24 interview, "former US Secretary of State Colin Powell has told the Mainichi he believes the Iraq War - which began while he was in office in 2003 - could have been averted."

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/...

"It was the intelligence that was wrong. I did not make up this information; I did not invent it; I did not pull it out of the air. It was information that our intelligence community stood behind," he stated.

In November 2002, the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution demanding Iraq submit to WMD inspections. Powell made his famous WMD speech at the U.N. in February 2003, and the United States launched its attack on the country on the 20th the following month. However, by 2005 the U.S. intelligence community had concluded that the WMD intelligence had been almost entirely false.

Before his execution in 2006, Saddam Hussein stated that he refused to submit to the inspections even with war looming because he "didn't want to show weakness to Iran."

Had it been proven that Iraq had no WMD before the outbreak of hostilities, "My own judgment is that the United States would not have gone to war because it was WMD that was the basis of the resolution we got from the United Nations; IT WAS THE BASIS that President Bush took to the American people," said Powell. The former secretary also stated that as he, President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress all acted in the belief the intelligence was valid, the invasion of Iraq was legal.

more:
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/international/news/20100902p2a00m0na005000c.html
THE HUMAN COST
http://web.mit.edu/cis/human-cost-war-101106.pdf

Another American War Crime in the Making
by Paul Craig Roberts

The US Congress, the US media, the American people, and the United Nations, are looking the other way as Cheney prepares his attack on Iran.

If only America had an independent media and an opposition party. If there were a shred of integrity left in American political life, perhaps a third act of naked aggression – a third war crime under the Nuremberg standard – by the Bush Regime could be prevented.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts241.html


http://www.the-rule-of-law.com/

[BeyondGeography]

1. It was a steaming pile of manufactured bullshit, and Powell knew it

Threw his reputation away just to keep the job. Fool.

[WhiteTara]

9. yep. He did have precedent however

when he whitewashed Mai Lai

[SusanaMontana41]

59. Powell has his fingers in several war crimes

If he had any decency, he'd shut up and fade into the background, and thank his lucky stars he isn't in prison for what he's done.

[defendandprotect]

42. Agree . . . outrageous . . . Colin Powell and Condi Rice on video ... "we'd have to invent enemies"

That's what they said as W administration took over -!!

And they did -- they invented "terrorism" as the successor to

"The Russians are coming!" and they did that because they couldn't

yet float "The Chinese ae coming!" which Newt Gingrich did try to do -- !

Powell is a disagrace to the nation and his uniform -- and amazed the

COVERED painting of "Guernica" by Picasso didn't fall off the UN wall!!


We also forced UN inspectors out of Iraq because we were ready to bomb - -

This was a premeptive attack on a sovereign nation -- one we had been

bombing for 20 years already!!

[Cal33]

52. We seem to forget that much of the time Powell was the only odd man out among

people like Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice....... I think Bush Jr. offered him the job of
Sec'y of State because he needed someone with a big name. And Powell accepted,
partly out of the depth of gratitude he felt towards Bush, Sr., who had helped
him in his military career.

I've often felt that Bush, Jr. was a jinx. Whatever and whomever he touched became
plain dirt or a pariah.

[Swamp Rat]

2. Time for war crimes trials

[gratuitous]

3. Maybe it will dent the public consciousness this time

But somehow I doubt it. Powell's discomfort with what he presented to the UN has long been reported, and apparently even bothered him before he did the Powerpoint presentation of crayon drawings:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/jun/02/usa.iraq

Much of the initial information for Mr Powell's speech to the UN was provided by the Pentagon, where Paul Wolfowitz, the US deputy defence secretary, set up a special unit, the Office of Special Plans, to counter the uncertainty of the CIA's intelligence on Iraq.

Mr Powell's team removed dozens of pages of alleged evidence about Iraq's banned weapons and ties to terrorists from a draft of his speech, US News and World Report says today. At one point, he became so angry at the lack of adequate sourcing to intelligence claims that he declared: "I'm not reading this. This is bullshit," according to the magazine.

Presented with a script for his speech, Mr Powell suspected that Washington hawks were "cherry picking", the US magazine Newsweek also reports today. Greg Theilmann, a recently retired state department intelligence analyst directly involved in assessing the Iraqi threat, says that inside the Bush administration "there is a lot of sorrow and anger at the way intelligence was misused".

Naturally, damn little of this was reported stateside (which is why I liked to a UK source). After all, the popular media would rather have gargled ground glass than breathe a word against Bush's excellent invasion. Can Americans own up to their failures, as we demand of other countries? Or are we exceptional that way, too?

[molly77]

20. Don't think the American people can be blamed

when the protests drew thousands and MSM would not even cover them. OR the world wide protests. Contrast that fact with Fox News , CNN and all covering so many little tea party rallies today..inflating numbers...Also MSM would not allow any dissent prior to the Iraq war...Cancelling Phil Donahue comes to mind. Remember..it was said his ratings were too low? In actuality , he opposed the war.That is why he was cancelled.

[defendandprotect]

44. Actually . . .

Phil Donahue was NBC's number one show --

But, you know, if the public hasn't yet figured out that much of TV is right wing

propaganda, then we need to help get their BS meters set waaaaay higher!!

[defendandprotect]

43. Powell also had to have known that Cheney was regularly visiting CIA ---

and pressuring the intelligence analysts --

sometimes with Tenet in attendance!!

Come on, Powell -- if you want to come clean -- come clean!!

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. Indeed. It COULD have been averted

For instance, Bush could've listened to the much maligned UN Weapons Inspectors whom were actually IN Iraq right before our invasion/occupation. Bush (and Powell) could've listened more to the countries whom weren't part of the so-called "Coalition of the Willing" and why they felt the way they did about NOT supporting an invasion/occupation. Instead, Bush, Cheney, and the RW attack hounds attacked, criticized, and otherwise maligned ANYBODY and EVERYBODY whom disagreed about the need to immediately invade/occupy Iraq.
:banghead:

[Enthusiast]

12. It was the Republican misinformation

crew that much maligned the UN Weapons Inspectors. They were the ones that did it. Because their agenda was to invade Iraq.

[glitch]

23. the Supreme Court could have refused to hear Bush v. Gore.

That's the only way the war on Iraq could have been averted, IMO.

[defendandprotect]

45. Biden could have proceeded honestly in the Clarence Thomas hearings ....

rather than agreeing to put a pervert on our court!!

Biden did everything he could to NOT present witnesses who would have testified

to Clarence Thomas' perversions at EEOC!

But his friends did testify to his perversions re hard core porn and brutal sexual language!!

[Hannah Bell]

5. gee, looking after your legacy, colin? too late. you already murdered a million people.

over a lie.

[Rex]

6. So Powell admits to criminal activity, he should know all about cover ups

and fabrications...he is the master of lies and deciet. Thanks Powell for taking a GIANT SHIT in the room and letting us all smell it! Thanks buddy! Fucking asshole war criminal. I don't care if you try to make amends...you are just another fake piece of shit that needs to be BEHIND BARS.

Fuck the war lovers...they can all go to Hell.

[Hawkowl]

18. +100 .nt

[Raster]

26. Powell should know all about cover ups....

...he had My Lai to practice on.

[sabrina 1]

7. They are all tryiing to rewrite history.

I remember his UN speech very well. It wasn't even convincing to ordinary people and for him to claim now that he believed it, contradicts what his hid aide, Wilkerson, said. Powell fought with the administration before that speech. He did not believe what they wanted him to say that day.

He got a few things removed, airc, but then went ahead with the speech that gave them what they needed to start a war.

There were two reports. Democrats like Hillary eg, who voted for the war, never looked at the full report even though it was available to them. I remember one Dem. Senator cannot remember who it was now, who initially had believed the 'intelligence' but then read the full report and begged his colleagues to do so also before they voted. Some of them did not. That is why I could never support Hillary Clinton.

They wanted NOT to know the facts, even though they could have and all of them are responsible for that war and the hundreds of thousands of deaths, the torture and the financial cost to this country.

[Supersedeas]

19. a museum full of shiny turds waxed over by Conservative think-tanks

[rhett o rick]

8. I believe that the intellegence people got rewarded for doing as told. nm

[Enthusiast]

13. And punished if they

didn't report the "correct" intelligence.

[defendandprotect]

46. Cheney, in unprecedented behavior, was at the CIA almost daily . . .

and pressuring the intelligence analysts --

sometimes even with Tenet in attendance!!

You get the message quickly but fortunately many analysts continued to resist!!

[lark]

54. That's not the Cheney way

I'd put money on being blackmailed - like you will be fired and never work in this business again if you don't produce intelligence showing that Sadaam was involved with the 9/11 hijackers. That's the Cheney way - once a dick, always a dick.

[old mark]

10. Bush wanted war and used every excuse he could think up to get it. nt

[Raster]

16. Long before cheney*/bush* stole the White House via Selection 2000, plans were already being made

for the Iraq invasion and occupation. The cheney* secret energy meetings were considered uber-classified for two reasons: (1) the identities of the participants; and (2) the agenda for discussion. The agenda was "how are we going to divide up Iraq's petroleum fields/reserves after we invade and occupy." This meeting--at least the one(s) acknowledged--took place well before 9/11, which was the original impetus for invasion. The PNAC had been openly advocating invading Iraq since Clinton. Saddam Hussein tried several ditch efforts to halt the upcoming invasion and was rebuked at every turn. Once the SCOTUS handed the White House to cheney*/bush* the wheels were set firmly in motion.

[glitch]

24. I should have read all the way through the thread before posting. Like minds anyway, :) nt

[defendandprotect]

47. Thom Hartmann was reporting the "carving up of the oil fields planning afterwards"

as part of Cheney's "Energy Meetings" - - just the other day --

Hadn't heard about that before! And thanks for letting everyone here know!!

We should have held Scalia upside down until the ducks came flying out of his mouth!!

[defendandprotect]

48. Also keep in mind the fiasco which put ...

Clarence Thomas on the court -- giving the rw their "Gang of 5" --

and much of that was the doing of Biden.

[Enthusiast]

11. I don't believe

they thought the intelligence was valid. They knew full well it was a lie all along.

[lark]

55. I partially agree

They knew the intelligence was totally invalid because it was their creation. They paid for 9/11 to get the "war presidency" so they could use that to totally ramp up military spending to favored vendors (remember the Carlyle Group that Shrub papa and the binLadens were both involved with) use fear to control the populace, gain riches and power for themselves, get control of the oil in Iraq and the oil conduit that's long been a dream for Afghanistan, controlled by us. They didn't buy false intelligence, they manufactured the false intelligence.

[otohara]

14. "The United States Would Not Have Gone to War"

if only Al Gore were the President.

[Raster]

29. Probably not. Gore was not champing at the bit for an opportunity to make his bones

and settle his daddy issues by invading Iraq. bush* was so manipulated--told basically he was doing the lord's work by invading.

[defendandprotect]

49. How long before Gore would have been gone and Lieberman would

have been president?

Interesting Trojan Horse there!!

However, Gore also had lifetime career backing from an oil company --

Gore was DLC -- corporate --

AND, it was Gore who encouraged Clinton to overturn 60 years of Welfare guarantees!

[wiggs]

15. BS, for many reasons. Outrageous, actually. Almost every other sentence in the

original Mainichi article is false...Powell is continuing to lie and mislead people. The Daily Kos article scratches the surface in terms of debunking what the article says but captures the spirit of how disgusting Powell's posturing continues to be.

[Raster]

17. I suspect Powell is trying to rewrite history to soften the perception of his participation.

Unfortunately, if there was one sane individual in the cheney*/bush* cabal who KNEW that Iraq as not a threat nor possessed WMDs, it was Powell. He knew and yet went before the United Nations to sell an illegal invasion of a sovereign nation solely based on lies. By his own admission, Powell knew the evidence was doctored. Powell was an accomplice.

[molly77]

21. I remember the speech

He looked like he knew he was lying.

[Raster]

22. That he did.

[lutefisk]

41. Junior wasn't good at anything, including lying.

Condi, Dick, and Rummy were terrible liars, too. Condi was the worst, imho.

It was so obvious they were lying, but it just didn't matter- they just went through the motions and didn't really give a shit what people thought.

[glitch]

25. His son has resurfaced on a 'bi-partisan' anti-net neutrality ad as well.

Why can't they all just move to Dubai?

[defendandprotect]

50. Powell's son led the great communications heist and deregulation at FCC ....

FCC Chairman
As the chairman of the FCC, Powell led from his long-stated libertarian philosophy of deregulation of communications. Powell saw excessive regulation as stifling to technological innovation, and led the charge to open up markets in VoIP, Wi-Fi, and Broadband over Powerline (BPL). His Chicago School approach believed that these new communications technologies would allow small companies to take on established corporations, and that regulations often stood in the way of progress.

Powell began his tenure at the FCC with a controversial comment comparing the digital divide to a Mercedes divide (""I think there's a Mercedes divide," Powell told the press. "I'd like to have one, but I can't afford one"). His libertarian deregulatory policy coincided with a period of significant consolidation in the communications market. He advocated an updating of media ownership rules to reflect new communications technologies such as the Internet, a move that critics derided as increasing rampant media consolidation. He opposed applying telephone-era regulations to new Internet technologies, a move critics charged would deny open access to communications facilities. He articulated a policy of network neutrality, and in March 2005 fined Madison River Communications for blocking voice over IP applications, the first-ever government action of its kind.<1>

More . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Powell_(politician)


---------------

... and presumably Michael Powell was the best candidate for the FCC job --

nothing to do with nepotism!!

[madrchsod]

27. anyone who had a half assed understanding of iraq...

knew he did`t have shit. the house and senate bought the pile of shit sight unseen. it was their failure to question.

[Raster]

28. Unfortunately, I believe that many, if not most, of the House and Senate KNEW Iraq did not have

WMDs, nor the ability to construct them or ressurrect their WMD program. The United Nations had pretty much dis-armed Iraq of any WMD after the first Iraq War. Further, we knew what he had and didn't have: we sold most of them to him.

I think Congress pretty much realized that cheney*/bush* were going to invade Iraq come hell or high water. And with the 9/11 horror so fresh in everyone's mind, no one in Congress wanted to be branded antipatriotic or a terrorist sympathizer. They basically rolled over and let it happen. In addition, cheney*/bush* heavily floated the lie that the expenses would all be paid by Iraq's oil. That's the jist of it. Congress allowed the illegal and immoral war mongers in the White House to invade because of greed.

[RufusTFirefly]

30. Perhaps. But I think some were shown bogus "top-secret" intelligence

Wasn't it former Sen. Bob Graham who said that in a closed-door intelligence briefing, he was told that Saddam Hussein had the capability of launching drones that could reach the Eastern U.S.?

Lies upon lies upon lies.

But the consequences of blowing the whistle could be deadly. Witness David Kelly.

[Raster]

31. I concur. "But the consequences of blowing the whistle could be deadly. Witness David Kelly."

That about sums it up. And let's face it, there's more than just a few dead bodies associated with bushco.

Some members of Congress may have been shown ginned-up intelligence. Others...I have my doubts.

[The Wizard]

32. That's it in a nutshell

political maneuvering by the cartel cause opponents to look past the truth for political expediency.

[defendandprotect]

51. PLUS we'd been bombing them for 20 years -- !!

[Solly Mack]

33. blah blah blah goes the war criminal

[Time for change]

34. Yeah, right

Like the intelligence they got from the al-Libi, the guy they tortured into "admitting" that Sadam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda. If Powell actually believed that nonsense he's an incompetent fool. Otherwise he's a liar. Everyone in the administration knew that Bush/Cheney were doing everything they could to twist the intelligence into what they wanted it to say.

[Raster]

35. The "people" that backed cheney*/bush* were going to attack Iraq. Period.

All they needed was an administration in power that would facilitate it. *POOF!* Selection 2000.

The next thing they needed was something to terrorize the American public into abandoning their critical thinking skills and let fear and mob mentality take over. *POOF!* September 11, 2001.

[bulloney]

36. When you let Cheney cherry pick raw, unvetted intelligence to make the case for war,

what do you expect?

Sy Hersh wrote a piece on that very thing several years ago. He called it "stovepiping." Cheney circumvented the whole procedure of how intelligence is acted upon by taking all of the raw intelligence and cherry picked the stuff he wanted to make the case to invade Iraq. Facts be damned.

Powell's remarks come across as disingenuous at best.

[ecstatic]

37. That's a good first step. I'm sure he'll become even more

forthcoming in the future. I predict that at some point he will come out swinging against the Bush admin and the role he played.

[swilton]

38. Lack of Intelligence? Pure BS

You hear this myth also from the hawks in the Democratic Party. Millions upon millions of people marching in the world's streets saw through this charade....

They have forgotten history - a la Vietnam, and other imperialist debacles.

[SmileyRose]

39. Hey Colin - Fuck you eom

[Bluebear]

57. +

[sakabatou]

40. Everyone in that admin was complicit

[bertman]

53. kick, but too late to rec.

[Hekate]

56. Name names, Sir. And while you're in a confessional mood, clear up My Lai.

Get it all off that chest full of medals.

Hekate

[feslen]

58. as much as I despise bush and his cronies

Sorry Powell,

this is cowardly, you should point your finger at him while he was IN OFFICE...you should have STOOD UP to a TYRANT. not now in JAPAN. blech.