CNN: Former aide: Powell WMD speech 'lowest point in my life'

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/19/powell.un/index.html

Programming Note: "Dead Wrong -- Inside an Intelligence Meltdown" airs Sunday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET on CNN.

A former top aide to Colin Powell says his involvement in the former secretary of state's presentation to the United Nations on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was "the lowest point" in his life.

"I wish I had not been involved in it," says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a longtime Powell adviser who served as his chief of staff from 2002 through 2005. "I look back on it, and I still say it was the lowest point in my life."

Wilkerson is one of several insiders interviewed for the CNN Presents documentary "Dead Wrong -- Inside an Intelligence Meltdown." The program, which airs Sunday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET, pieces together the events leading up to the mistaken WMD intelligence that was presented to the public. A presidential commission that investigated the pre-war WMD intelligence found much of it to be "dead wrong."

<snip>

"(Powell) came through the door ... and he had in his hands a sheaf of papers, and he said, 'This is what I've got to present at the United Nations according to the White House, and you need to look at it,'" Wilkerson says in the program. "It was anything but an intelligence document. It was, as some people characterized it later, sort of a Chinese menu from which you could pick and choose."

I gotta watch this Sunday night.

[Jim Sagle]

1. The RNC Limbo - How LOW Can You GO??????

[goforit]

24. And what future has he and his pnac pals given to our children?

[deadparrot]

2. Col.? So he's military?

:o

It's not often you see the higher-ups in the military jumping ship on Republicans. Thanks for the reminder.

:popcorn:

[Missy M]

3. When it was all happening Wilkerson and others could have said...

I won't be a part of this fraud and perhaps they could have stopped it. Instead they chose to let it happen and now must live with that decision the rest of their lives.

[noonwitch]

6. If Powell had done that, I would have continued to have respect for him

But he didn't.

[Brotherjohn]

19. Makes you wonder what they have on Powell. He didn't run for prez...

... b/c he didn't want to subject his family to the scrutiny and inevitable attacks (that to me was code for he didn't want to be "Swift-boated").

But then he allegedly said "this is bulls*#$!" in preparing his U.N. speech. Yet he went ahead and gave it anyway.

Why?

It makes me wonder if they don't have something a little more serious on him than the usual attempt at Rovian smears.

[Delphinus]

39. Wasn't he involved in Me Lei?

The massacre in Viet Nam?

[al bupp]

49. According to Wikipedia, he was

Powell's successful career within the military has not been entirely free of controversy, however. During the Vietnam War, Powell, as deputy assistant chief of staff at the Americal (the 23rd Infantry Division) with the rank of Major, was charged with investigating a detailed letter by Tom Glen (a soldier from the 11th Light Infantry Brigade), which backed up rumored allegations of the My Lai massacre. Powell's response was largely seen as a cover-up; he wrote: "In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent."

Another controversial part of his career is that Powell also had an operational role in the illegal Iran-Contra affair, acting as the initial coordinator for selling missiles to Iran in exchange for American hostages.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Powell">Wikipedia

[Benhurst]

53. Thanks, al bupp. People, even people here, tend to forget

what a slime bag Powell has been throughout his career.

[al bupp]

86. No problem, happy to pitch-in, Ben

Powell's largely undeserved "good" reputation even among progressives is testimony to the shallowness of much of the media. Some of us were not too surprised by his willingness to prevaricate for the admin.

The fact that he made enemies among the neocons as well only shows just how fanatical they are.

[MattSWin]

110. what in the heck should Powell have done?

Are you suggesting he knew My Lai occured and said it didn't happen?

[Benhurst]

118. He acted exactly as young man currying favor

to advance his own career would be expected to act.

" ... Six months later a young soldier of the 11th Light Infantry (The Butcher's Brigade) named Tom Glen, wrote a letter accusing the Americal division (and other entire units of the U.S. military, not just individuals) of routine brutality against Vietnamese civilians; the letter was detailed, its allegations horrifying, and its contents echoed complaints received from other soldiers. Colin Powell, then a young US Army Major, was charged with investigating the massacre. Powell wrote: "In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent." Later, Powell's refutation would be called an act of "white-washing" the news of the Massacre, and questions would continue to remain undisclosed to the public ... ."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre

The House of Powell is founded on lies and cover-ups.

[allemand]

123. He was never "charged with investigating the massacre".

This is simply wrong.

[Benhurst]

127. Ah, well. We can only hope this will all be straigntened out

in his war crimes trial before the International Court of Justice.

[allemand]

129. I doubt that the International Court of Justice will confound the

investigation of a letter with the investigation of a massacre. And, no, Tom Glen's letter does neither mention nor describe the massacre at My Lai.

[Benhurst]

132. Yes, why bother with crimes of omission when he has so many

crimes of commission to answer for.

[Trevelyan]

158. This makes you have more respect for Gen. Tabago and his honest report on

the torture which never seemed "to gain traction with the voters" according to MSM. I think that is why Bushco, PNAC, etc. lets the media do so many stories on the torture of innocent Arabs but the MSM doesn't mention the online MK-ULTRA Senate Hearings or the fact that Americans, esp. children have been used for the same kind of torture experiments in mind control, electric shocks to genital area, putting human beings in small cages meant for animals, rape, beatings. See Raven1.net and ACHES and Dr. Hammonds' online Dr. Greenbaum speech of the unspeakable things the Bush Senior CIA has been and continues to do to children.

Look up THE FINDERS, was reported by the Washington Post when the arrests were first made but then they dropped the story. The rest is online.

[hippywife]

161. You mean Taguba? n/t

[chomskysright]

190. more SUBTLE: if you're clear that you will not play ball in orderto advanc

in order to advance.....then they have nothing on you and you can speak authentically.

Same is true of everyone of us. If you have a job that requires you act 'delicately' then you will find yourself in the same kind of debacle as Powell did.

[allemand]

From what I've seen, Tom Glen's letter had nothing to do with My Lai.

Powell's investigation certainly was a cover-up, but not of the My Lai massacre.

[al bupp]

133. While what you say, sir, is apparently true,

I think it misses the point, namely that Mr. Powell did not then do any better telling truth to power than he has done more recently.

I found this old article (from http://www.fair.org/extra/9601/powell.html) which seems to support your assertion about the letter:

Whitewashing My Lai

Another rare case of critical journalism was Charles Lane's article "The Legend of Colin Powell" in The New Republic (4/17/95). Focusing on Powell's second year-long stint in Vietnam, the article highlighted research done by British authors Michael Bilton and Kevin Sim in their book, Four Hours in My Lai (Penguin, 1993). The authors had discovered in the National Archives a letter from specialist fourth class Tom Glen, who was a young soldier in the American Division.

In November 1968, Glen wrote a letter to Gen. Creighton Abrams about the American's extreme abuse of Vietnamese civilians and captured Viet Cong suspects. Glen's overall complaints encompassed some of the atrocities later dubbed the My Lai massacre (which had occurred on March 16, 1968). Though Glen included no specific reference to My Lai, he expressed deep concern about American troops who "without provocation or justification shoot at the people themselves."

In early December 1968, Glen's heart-felt letter landed on the desk of a fast-rising officer in the American's 11th Brigade, which included the unit that had carried out the My Lai slaughter. The officer, Major Colin Powell, conducted a cursory investigation and then -- without even contacting Glen or urging that anyone else do so -- dismissed the young soldier's concerns as unfounded. Powell's memo, dated Dec. 13, 1968, was to serve as the basis for the Army's official dismissive reply to Glen's letter. Powell wrote: "In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent."

In his account of these events, Lane noted that "there is something missing...from the legend of Colin Powell, something epitomized, perhaps, by that long-ago bureaucratic brush-off of Tom Glen."

I think it's reasonable to assume that despite Glen's letter not explicitly mentioning My Lai, that as an officer in the unit responsible, Powell was likely to have at least heard some scuttlebutt about it, if not well aware of it.

In any event the fact remains he down-played Glen's general accusations in a way that history has proven to be very wrong.

Regards, Albert

PS) the link for the Wikipedia article on Powell I posted earlier is screwed-up, here's a correction:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Powell

[allemand]

163. The letter did not encompass any of the atrocities committed in the My Lai

massacre. I find it disturbing how many articles have been written either linking Powell directly to My Lai or to the cover-up of the massacre, while even a quick check of the facts would reveal that there is no direct connection between Glen's letter and My Lai.

I always thought that we don't have to resort to lies and distortions in order to make our point. Kerry never shot a teenager and Powell never was "in charge of investigation My Lai". Accuracy is very important in these matters, as is truth.

[al bupp]

166. I have already conceded the point, sir

I fear that your are replying without actually reading the contents of my post, as it contains the statement:

Though Glen included no specific reference to My Lai, he expressed deep concern about American troops who "without provocation or justification shoot at the people themselves."

Perhaps you are weary of being one of Powell's few defenders in this thread. It seems to me that your responses all pretty much say the same thing.

However, my point was that Powell participated in down-playing the accussations of atrocities he was charged with investigating, not that he was "in charge of investigating My Lai", and that this behavior foreshadowed his willingness to participate in the prevarications which led up to the invasion of Iraq.

[allemand]

168. You don't seem to be aware of the contents of your posts either...

;-)

You quoted an article and there was one sentence which you emphasized:
"Glen's overall complaints encompassed some of the atrocities later dubbed the My Lai massacre".

I felt compelled to answer because the allegations in this sentence are not true.

And, regarding your second quote, there was not only "no specific reference to My Lai" in that letter, there was no reference at all. The letter had nothing to do with My Lai.

And please note that I am not defending Powell, I just dislike smear tactics.

As an avid reader of my posts it shouldn't come as a surprise to you that I fully agree with your conclusions about Powell. As I had already stated in my first post "Powell's investigation certainly was a cover-up". The point I am trying to make here is that it had nothing to do with My Lai. That's all.

[al bupp]

169. I agree with point regarding smear tactics, sir

And I am obviously was aware of the contents of what I posted since I took the trouble to extract and highlight portions of it. I think the problem is that we've been discussing this matter with only references to the Glen letter at our disposal, and these references contain conflicting characterizations of its contents.

It may come down to matter of interpretation. The accounts of the letter I have read, other than yours, all assert that the letter clearly encompassed incidents such as My Lai even without specifically mentioning it. Perhaps this is just a smear tactic, perhaps not, I don't know.

You have been making assertions, but without any references at all. I would like to see a reproduction of the original. I have spent some time Googling for such, but without success. If you have a link please post it.

I am sorry for suggesting that you posted a response without reading what you were responding to. You are clearly a thoughtful correspondent.

[allemand]

172. Robert Parry and Norman Solomon quoted parts of it in their article.

I also would like to see a full transcript.

Behind Colin Powell's Legend -- My Lai
By Robert Parry & Norman Solomon
(...)

"The average GI's attitude toward and treatment of the Vietnamese people all too often is a complete denial of all our country is attempting to accomplish in the realm of human relations," Glen wrote. "Far beyond merely dismissing the Vietnamese as 'slopes' or 'gooks,' in both deed and thought, too many American soldiers seem to discount their very humanity; and with this attitude inflict upon the Vietnamese citizenry humiliations, both psychological and physical, that can have only a debilitating effect upon efforts to unify the people in loyalty to the Saigon government, particularly when such acts are carried out at unit levels and thereby acquire the aspect of sanctioned policy."

Glen's letter contended that many Vietnamese were fleeing from Americans who "for mere pleasure, fire indiscriminately into Vietnamese homes and without provocation or justification shoot at the people themselves." Gratuitous cruelty was also being inflicted on Viet Cong suspects, Glen reported.

"Fired with an emotionalism that belies unconscionable hatred, and armed with a vocabulary consisting of 'You VC,' soldiers commonly 'interrogate' by means of torture that has been presented as the particular habit of the enemy. Severe beatings and torture at knife point are usual means of questioning captives or of convincing a suspect that he is, indeed, a Viet Cong...

"It would indeed be terrible to find it necessary to believe that an American soldier that harbors such racial intolerance and disregard for justice and human feeling is a prototype of all American national character; yet the frequency of such soldiers lends credulity to such beliefs. ... What has been outlined here I have seen not only in my own unit, but also in others we have worked with, and I fear it is universal. If this is indeed the case, it is a problem which cannot be overlooked, but can through a more firm implementation of the codes of MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam) and the Geneva Conventions, perhaps be eradicated."
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin3.html

While these are horrible allegations which were undoubtedly true and should have been investigated properly, the systematic killing of 504 civilians in My Lai, most of them women and children, was even worse.

In Vietnam, Powell declared that "the letter that I received and acted on made no reference to any particular place or any time or any date or any particular unit".

This is consistent with above-quoted passages of Glen's letter.


In Vietnam, Powell Denies Role in My Lai Coverup By David Brunnstrom HANOI - Secretary of State Colin Powell , wrapping up his first trip back to Vietnam since his wartime service, denied Thursday he had any part in covering up the most notorious U.S. massacre of the conflict. Speaking at a news conference in Hanoi, Powell defended his handling of a letter from soldier Tom Glen in 1968 complaining of routine mistreatment of civilians, including murder and torture. Powell was asked whether he felt the My Lai massacre would have become known earlier if he had investigated the letter more thoroughly at the time. ``The...letter has been used over the years to suggest I was responsible in some way for covering up this incident,'' he said. ``I was not there. I came months later. And the letter that I received and acted on made no reference to any particular place or any time or any date or any particular unit and that's the way I handled it...''
http://www.preventgenocide.org/prevent/news-monitor/2001july.htm

[yardwork]

121. Cover ups and enabling of lies characterize Powell's career

I wish I could have more respect for him, but I can't. He is not one of the good guys. Not at all.

[BlueIris]

130. Yikes.

Well, you learn something new everyday, I guess. Sorry, newbie here. I like to think my knowledge of history is better than your average American, but I didn't know about that. Scary.

[Nothing Without Hope]

150. Oh, my. That would explain a lot. Looks like his good repuation wasn't

based on his actual record but was one of those buffed-up veneers this administration specializes in.

[Nothing Without Hope]

149. I agree. Powell had to be forced to destroy his reputation, deliberately

lying the country into a war. He was in a position to know that the "evidence" for WMDs was all faked. They had to have some way to break him, to force him to do what he did. They didn't have enough credibility themselves, so they USED his good name to sell their dirty, murderous lies - and he knew it.

[TankLV]

192. Can you say "My Lai"? It was a village in VIetnam someplace.

I do believe he was connected to this "endeavor".

[PurpleChez]

140. Powell used to be one of the more admirable men

in gov't, but he sold his soul to * just like so many others and now he is complicit in the deaths of tens of thousands. WTF?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

164. Can you point me to this period of "admirability?"

[ironman202]

7. yeah....cry me a river

more loyal to the monkey than to the country. fuck that shit.

[jrthin]

13. Exactly. And fuck Powell too. nt

[mojavekid]

9. Exactly, it was Fraud,

meaning it was not a "Mistake" or series of them, it was intentional, and they (the Colonel & Colin Powell) could have stopped it then. What they did was LIE.

[wli]

15. fraud should be among the charges in addition to war crimes, yes n/t

[mojavekid]

56. Which should include some years,

spent reflecting on their "mistakes" in prison

[ClintonTyree]

117. The blood of our dead will remain on his hands forever.......

though I seriously doubt he or his neo-con masters actually give a shit. They're laughing all the way to the bank, leveraged up to their eyeballs in those companies providing the tools and support of war.
As a soldier, you'd THINK Powell would be a little different. But it's quite apparent that he's sold his soul to the bush devils as well.

[alarcojon]

146. A day late and a dollar short

isn't it?

[pacalo]

4. Thanks for the heads up. I can't believe CNN is airing this!

[pauldavid]

18. Maybe CNN thinks they can turn

thinks they bush's low numbers into higher ratings?

[pacalo]

76. I couldn't have said it better myself. ;)

:eyes:

[zbdent]

30. Maybe CNN is realizing that their ratings loss is not because they are

NOT conservative enough - like what's been drummed into their corporate heads.

Maybe they're trying to see what kinds of ratings they'll get with this - and realize that the bozo who has been whispering into their ears is full of crap . . .

[jobycom]

71. I can. It's pure Republican propaganda. Look closer.

What they are saying is that Powell tried his hardest to make sure the information was correct, but that Tennet and the CIA gave him bad intelligence in a bad format. Powell spent four days trying to straighten it out, because the Secretary of State wouldn't present unsourced information (somehow he did, though, huh?). After the speech Tennet began telling Powell his information was untrue, and Powell was so incensed he ended their friendship over it.

Blame Tennet, nobody lied, it was all a bad mistake based on bad evidence. Bush's intentions were pure and honest, but that Clinton CIA screwed everything up. See how bad Democrats are and how beautiful Republicans are? Who should you vote for next time?

This is nothing but CNN building a myth to counter what the DSM proves: that Bush knew from the beginning that there were no WMDs in Iraq, but fixed the evidence to make a case for it. According to CNN, Powell, and thus Bush, had honest intentions. BS.

[Stil]

75. But

the WH had the info covered up until after the address. Still perpetuating a lie for political gain. Now if that can sink through a few rw skulls.

[pacalo]

79. On second thought, who knows what they're attempting here...

It could be slanted against Colin Powell:

After searching Iraq for several months across the summer of 2003, Kay began e-mailing Tenet to tell him the WMD evidence was falling apart. At one point, Wilkerson says, Tenet called Powell to tell him the claims about mobile bioweapons labs were apparently not true.

"George actually did call the Secretary, and said, 'I'm really sorry to have to tell you. We don't believe there were any mobile labs for making biological weapons,'" Wilkerson says in the documentary. "This was the third or fourth telephone call. And I think it's fair to say the Secretary and Mr. Tenet, at that point, ceased being close. I mean, you can be sincere and you can be honest and you can believe what you're telling the Secretary. But three or four times on substantive issues like that? It's difficult to maintain any warm feelings."

[Supersedeas]

97. most probably that was the 3rd or 4th admission to Powell they were

wrong after the fact

[snot]

141. I love it--

he was SORRY there were no WMD, bec. he knew the Admin would be DISAPPOINTED.

[Kali]

185. That struck me, too.

:mad:

[MattSWin]

112. Powell is not as far left as Nader..

So of course DUers think he's involved in a Bush conspiracy.

Without Powell the neocons would've been completely controling the show.

[ClintonTyree]

120. When HAVEN'T the neo-cons been controlling the show?

In every aspect, from Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz telling the Generals how to prosecute the war right on up to bush who made the final "agonizing" :eyes: decision when to start the war, the neo-cons have been in total control.
Powell wasn't even a speed-bump in their way. He put up as much resistance to this illegal, immoral war as a wet washcloth.
I will not dignify Powell's position in this travesty. He had the chance to go public and tell the American people that this war was a complete sham based on manufactured or flimsy evidence. He chose not to. He's going to have to live with that for the rest of his life, and I'll be one of the people that makes sure he never forgets it.

[jobycom]

137. You weren't here before the invasion. There was a lot of evidence

destroying Powell's speech. This nonsense that they just slowly figured it our after the speech is a lie. People were citing a lot of verified evidence right here after Powell's speech, based on reports that were easily available to Powell or anyone else trying to determine whether the evidence was true.

Powell knew it wasn't true, or else he tried hard to maintain his ignorance. Either way, he knew his boss wanted the war, the evidence didn't support the war, and he was expected to twist the facts to make a case for war. Even if he believed the evidence he quoted in his speech--and I don't believe he did--he still tried to push the war based on an overall image of Iraq that he knew was incorrect.

I don't care if he's left, right or center. He helped push us into a horrific crime. We were predicting here that after the war all the key players would admit how fooled they had been. Now it's coming true. I don't forgive Powell. As for Nader--I haven't forgiven him, either.

[MattSWin]

183. Righties say the same thing about Kerry..

When he believed Iraq had WMDs based on Bush's evidence. These guys aren't going to check on DU before making decisions.

[TankLV]

193. That's not the point. The point is if WE could find out the TRUTH in all

of this way back as soon as they uttered the bullshit, they THEY could have too IF THEY HAD WANTED TO!

THEY DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH! THEY DECIDED EARLY ON (pre-2000 it turns out) TO LIE US INTO AN UNNECESSARY AND COSTLY WAR BASED ON LIES!

It has nothing to do with "DU" have ANY information at all.

But go ahead and continue to make excuses for these criminals just like all the other repukes and moles who come here to try to play that game. Maybe if you actually read a bit of the VOLUMES of FACTS concerning our runnup to BUSH*s ILLEGAL WAR of CHOICE based on LIES, then you'll actually come away with a new perspective. But I won't be holding my breath.

[ClintonTyree]

125. You may very well be right.......

this could be a "but what could a poor pResident do with such faulty intelligence", moment. :eyes: The only faulty intelligence involved was smack-dab between bush's ears. Lack of intelligence, I mean.
I HOPE you're wrong, I really do. It's about time this country is schooled about the truth of the situation. But I have a aching, gnawing feeling you could be correct. This is just an underhanded attempt to counter the DSM and bolster bush's tarnished image.
Only time will tell. Meet you back here after the show and we'll see if you aced it! ;)

[amagusta]

198. The media has mastered softball discolsures

The media has mastered the art of faux-disclosure, that realy obfuscates the underlying issues.

Is it because we already know everything that "Dead Wrong" covered-- and much, much more-- or was this program really a subtle attemp to gloss over the crimes of this administration? Was there any suggestion that the White House falsified documents about yellowcake? No! Was there any mention of Plamegate? No! There was one, rather oblique, reference to DSM, but it wasn't explained very well to a novice audience.

Would a naive CNN crowd be moved by revelations from this program? I doubt it, because the conclusion could easily be made that the whole thing was caused by an honest mistake in perception. Case closed! I wouldn't expect any more from network media.

[BobRossi]

5. Holy Shit! nt

[Warren Stupidity]

8. And then

the miserable coward went out and lied to the UN, lied to the American people, lied to the world, and conspired to commit crimes against humanity. Powell belongs in jail with the rest of the cabal.

[wli]

10. Colin "My Lai" Powell having second thoughts?

Well, it's great if he blows the whistle, but I have doubts.

[mmonk]

59. Me lie, My Lai

it's all the same isn't it?

[MattSWin]

100. The My Lai crap was probably racially motivated...

Pick an up and coming African-American to take the fall for Pentagon screw ups.

[Benhurst]

103. He was "up and coming" because he was

a slime-bag. Powell provided an African-American face for the corrupt Nixon Administration. If he had been a good man, regardless of color, they would not have wanted him. As it was, he fit in perfectly with Nixon and, later, the Bush Crime Family.

[MattSWin]

107. Boy are you wrong...

Powell became an officer in 1957, so that's a bit before Nixon that he was up and coming.

He was up and coming because he was a good soldier especially since he was injured in Vietnam and returned there for a second tour where he earned the medal of bravery.

He was not even in the Nixon administration and the Bush administration picked him not because he was deceptive but to give themselves credibility on foreign policy.

[Lindacooks]

106. Uh, no.

POWELL was the one in charge of covering it up.

[MattSWin]

108. that's true just because you say so I guess....

Actually you're probably wrong. Powell had nothing to do with My Lai, he simply investigated the letter by Tom Glen claiming the massacre happened.

He investigated this after the evidence of the massacre was covered up.

[allemand]

116. In fact, the letter had nothing to do with My Lai.

It describes brutality by US troops in general terms without giving names or dates, and it doesn't describe a massacre.

Reuters 26 July 2001 In Vietnam, Powell Denies Role in My Lai Coverup By David Brunnstrom HANOI - Secretary of State Colin Powell , wrapping up his first trip back to Vietnam since his wartime service, denied Thursday he had any part in covering up the most notorious U.S. massacre of the conflict. Speaking at a news conference in Hanoi, Powell defended his handling of a letter from soldier Tom Glen in 1968 complaining of routine mistreatment of civilians, including murder and torture. Powell was asked whether he felt the My Lai massacre would have become known earlier if he had investigated the letter more thoroughly at the time. ``The...letter has been used over the years to suggest I was responsible in some way for covering up this incident,'' he said. ``I was not there. I came months later. And the letter that I received and acted on made no reference to any particular place or any time or any date or any particular unit and that's the way I handled it...''
http://www.preventgenocide.org/prevent/news-monitor/2001july.htm

[Eloriel]

122. And to what do you attribute his willing and eager participation? n/t

[ClintonTyree]

124. It isn't Powell who's having second thoughts.......

it's one of his aides. Powell could give a shit, apparently, or he'd be screaming about this from the rooftops as well. His silence in this makes him as unfit a human to breathe as the rest of the bush cabal.

[Olney Blue]

139. Actually, the report said Powell's aide is having second thoughts,

not Powell.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[rateyes]

25. I'm standing with you about this documentary...

until I see it and am proven otherwise. This sounds like it might be a "prop-up" story for *.

Edit to add: After reading the story, I might be wrong...still, I'm reserving judgment, and if wrong I will be glad to admit it.

[Im with Rosey]

51. I agree

Waiting to see what actually is presented is important, who knows what propaganda might be aired. I haven't watched CNN since they "mysteriously" changed the outcome of the election, I'm not sure I can stomach what they are calling a "documentary".

[buddha8]

60. Nuremburg Trials for 05'

I beleive it is time to initiate across the world net a series of indictments of psuedo journalists who participated actively as propagandists for the white house turd machine and are therefore complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Instead of the Left constantly whining about these people they need to quite simply be identified,indicted,tried before an international tribunal of humanitarians and,hopefully, convicted. Most of them should receive life sentences. They should know that they are targeted as participating criminals in an illegal war. The Nazi journalists tried at Nuremburg were hung. There must be accountability even if it comes in the guise of mock trials. It is essential that there be vocal accountability. A list of suspects needs to be drawn up and very,very widely publicized so that the hunters and propigators now become the hunted.

Here are some nominees for the list. A large international meeting can take place in Amsterdam this fall to review the subjects and issue indictments in a well publicized event across the net and in those remaining free journals around the world.

Bill O'Reilly,Sean Hannity,Rush Limbaugh and the many cohorts and participants including Rupert Murdoch in the Fox Propaganda War outlet. The slew of warmongering reporters and facemen for Msnbc and Cnn. The heads of the large networks who pose as legitimate but hobnob with warlords and sell war for profit based in lies. The myth must be exploded. Celebrity journalists must be exposed or the myth simply continues unchecked. People like the 'innocuos' Tom Brokaw and the idiot Charlie Rose, smiling villians both of them, would best be indicted.

We had better stop the propaganda machine now from continually packaging and selling war to the masses behind the mask of civility and celebrity. It is one of the most pernicious and odios of the 24/7 American news corporation phenomena.

[rateyes]

74. Welcome to DU, buddha 8..

you've certainly given us something to "chew on."

:hi:

[politick]

83. The only Problem

Is that winners generally prosecute the war crimes trials, and these guys are still the winners. Even if Democrats sweep in 06 and 08, it doesn't seem likely that they'd be willing to, in essence, bring down the entire government, admitting that America is commiting War Crimes. Kicking them out of office is one thing, but it's a lot more to swallow that your government is as bad or worse than the baddest of the bad out there.

[PurpleChez]

142. Yeah, but I think they were suggesting mock trials,

and that's a different animal. Even if it's done only for show, I think it would be of tremendous moral value to be able to say This body of esteemed leaders has determined that george w bush, his lieutenants, complicit media figures, etc., are guilty of the following crimes against the peace of the world. It won't erase the damage they've done, and are still doing, but I want to guarantee that future generations see bush as a rat turd on the dung heap of history. I want to see him discredited -- if not absolutely destroyed -- in his own lifetime, to live every day with the knowledge that the world regards him on the same level as Hitler and Pol Pot (even if his numbers don't quite compare). His belief that he's doing the work of Jee-ya-zuss can only go so far to help him drown out the cries from the millions who see him for what he is -- a psychopathic serial killer.

[Trevelyan]

159. That is a very good idea. Bill Moyers has been fighting for real

accountability for journalists.

Bill Moyers, host of PBS's NOW, delivered a stellar keynote address to a crowd of over 1700. Read it here http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1112-10.htm

Which brings me to the third powerful force – beyond governmental secrecy and megamedia conglomerates – that is shaping what Americans see, read, and hear. I am talking now about that quasi-official partisan press ideologically linked to an authoritarian administration that in turn is the ally and agent of the most powerful interests in the world. This convergence dominates the marketplace of political ideas today in a phenomenon unique in our history. You need not harbor the notion of a vast, right wing conspiracy to think this more collusion more than pure coincidence.

Conspiracy is unnecessary when ideology hungers for power and its many adherents swarm of their own accord to the same pot of honey. Stretching from the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal to the faux news of Rupert Murdoch’s empire to the nattering nabobs of no-nothing radio to a legion of think tanks paid for and bought by conglomerates – the religious, partisan and corporate right have raised a mighty megaphone for sectarian, economic, and political forces that aim to transform the egalitarian and democratic ideals embodied in our founding documents.

Authoritarianism. With no strong opposition party to challenge such triumphalist hegemony, it is left to journalism to be democracy’s best friend. That is why so many journalists joined with you in questioning Michael Powell’s bid – blessed by the White House

– to permit further concentration of media ownership. If free and independent

journalism committed to telling the truth without fear or favor is suffocated, the oxygen goes out of democracy. And there is a surer way to intimidate and then silence mainstream journalism than to be the boss.

****

Published on Wednesday, November 12, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
Keynote Address to the National Conference on Media Reform
by Bill Moyers
Founding Director, Public Affairs Television
President, The Schumann Center for Media and Democracy
November 8, 2003
Madison, Wisconsin

{much more}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mike Whitney: 'War crimes on Nightline?'
Posted on Monday, December 06 @ 10:07:57 EST
By Mike Whitney

Nightline's Dec. 3 program featured a segment with an "embedded" journalist and camera team moving with a Marine unit through Falluja on a routine mission. Doors were kicked down, homes were blown up and insurgents were confronted wherever they were found. In one chilling scene the unit forced their way into a home only to find a dead Iraqi sprawled out on the living room floor. The Marine sergeant made a cynical remark about how the man had been killed because he was a suicide bomber. The dead man had what looked to be a bombers belt
thrown across his waist (unfastened).

The camera panned to the man's face.

There was one single bullet hole in the very center of the man's forehead right above the eyes.

Nightline's reporter made no comment, but it was clear that the man had not been killed in combat; his wounds suggest that he was executed.

Far from what we read in the daily news, there appears to be an epidemic of Iraqis who have met a similar fate. (Do we need to mention that these executions are war crimes?)The News Standards Dahr Jamail has interviewed numerous Iraqis (particularly from Falluja) who give eyewitness testimony of "indiscriminate killings" by American soldiers. "Many refugees tell stories of having witnessed US
troops killing already injured people, including former fighters and noncombatants alike."

[rateyes]

12. I hope it's not one of those..

"the intelligence was flawed--we all believed he had WMD--the intelligence was dead wrong--not *'s fault" kind of stories...I hope it's---"the intelligence was being fixed around the policy" and * was dead wrong kind of stories. Have to wait and see.

[goclark]

165. CNN(Can Never Never tell the truth) will get bush out once again

Mark my words.

If anyone takes the fall it will have to be Powell.
They knew that he was the most popular politician when Bush was going to run.

They didn't want him anywhere near the Presidency so they smeared his wife.

They said that she was "mental" and that is why he didn't run for President which opened the door for * to run.

IMO, Alma Powell was no more "mental" that Laura Bush or any of the other clown like first ladies like Barbara Bush!

So, they cut a deal with Powell and gave him the token job as SOS. They knew they could control him!

Now we have the Brother Powell taking the fall for the entire deal.

It makes me sick that a brilliant African American brother would sell his soul for these crooks. He should have known better but he sold out.

There are lessons to teach your children in this scenario.

Just my humble opinion.

[sabra]

14. Nominated!

This doesn't free him from accountability, but I will give him props for doing this.

[whistle]

16. Low point and also treason....

<snip>
1. Define the crime of treason.

There are certain 'links' in the causal chain that are facts and others that are opinions. The following are facts:

1.1. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land and the Supreme Court is the sole entity with the Constitutional right, responsibility and authority to interpret the Constitution.

1.2. Article III, Section 3. of the United States Constitution defines the crime of treason. Title 18, USCS, (Crimes and Criminal Procedure) Section 2381 of the Federal Statutes which is the Federal Statute implementing Article III, Section 3, of the Constitution, further defines treason as follows:

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or be imprisoned for not less than five years, and fined not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding office under the United States.

1.3. The case of United States v Haupt, D.C.III., 47 Supp. 836, 839 expanded the definition of treason to mean any act which 'strengthens or tends to strengthen the ability of the enemies of the United States or which weakens or tends to weaken the power of the United States to resist such enemies.'

<more>
<link> http://www.constitutionalguardian.com/federalist_papers/fed94.htm

Lying to the American people and going to war under false pretenses as the Bush administration did by invading Iraq most definitely falls within item 1.3 above.

[Mari333]

17. The blood of every dead soldier and dead Iraqi

is on his hands. Regret wont wipe it away.

[goforit]

20. Those who have chosen poorly will be marked for life. SAD

But, hell no tears from these neck of the woods.

[Roland99]

21. Powell got played. He was in the admin for ONE reason and ONE reason only!

To play the credible face to the American public to sell the Propagandist's wares.


But, he could have fought back and refused.


"I Was a Shmuck: My American Journey Part 2"

[Megahurtz]

22. Geh!

x(

[VegasWolf]

23. Powell, your "low point" has led directly to the deaths of thousands

of innocent people. This is not a "low point", this is a
crime against humanity.

[HeeBGBz]

28. It was Powell's lackey, not Powell

Who's low point is described. Wonder if it's Powell's also? Or is he still in denial of any blatent wrong-doing?

[VegasWolf]

57. Powell sold his soul on that fateful day, it had better be his lowest

fucking point too! IMHO.

[maxsolomon]

26. who amongst us bought it at the time?

i said "bullshit" to every sentence during the speech.

[Hissyspit]

33. Same here. (See my post #32)

Hardly met the criteria for probable cause, much less indictment, much less cause for a war and unprecedented change in American policy.

[Chi]

69. I'll admit it, I bought about half of it....

But only because I trusted Powell.
I really didn't think he could betray his country, and his boys in uniform.
:dunce:

[jayfish]

73. This Is Seared In My Memory:

It was a February night before the invasion and I was over to a friends to play card and imbibe. The subject of conversation invariably came around to Iraq and a heated debate broke out. The last thing that was heard during that conversation was me shouting at the top of my lungs, "there are no weapons of mass-destruction in Iraq".

I didn't believe it for a minute.

Jay

[chomskysright]

191. any Bush idea: THE CORRECT COURSE IS 180 DEGREES, OTHER DIRECT.....

Choose ANY Bush issue; spin it 180 degrees and you will come up on the correct position.

Biggest puzzle has been Robert who looked legimately OK in the beginning, providing a test to this notion. However, as the papers from REagan library have indicated (even w/o release of Roberts under Bush I) he has carefully hidden his name from view re: some very retro policies.

[TankLV]

194. Me too. I almost threw a brick at the TV.

I especially "liked" the cartoons and drawings INSTEAD OF ACTUAL PICTURES that were thrown in as "proof" - it was like WTF? why not just have some actors go out and re-inact something on a video, too, while you're at it"?

[berni_mccoy]

27. THIS IS BULLSHIT!!!

While I am glad they are showing this story, I'm MORE upset that they keep FRAMING IT AS "MISTAKEN WMD INTELLIGENCE"!

IT WASN'T MISTAKEN... IT WAS INTENTIONAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sabra]

31. I agree, but there does seem to be an underlying message...

"Chinese menu from which you could pick and choose." - it's a telling statement.

[joeunderdog]

42. "mistaken WMD intelligence"... MISTAKEN???

No mistake.

LIES. Illegal War. Personal Agenda. Treason. Crimes against humanity. NO mistake.

Let's not perpetuate this myth any more. The inspectors said there were none. The world said there was no real threat. We didn't want to hear it. No mistake.

We outed a CIA agent and destroyed the very program that was designed to accurately assess the threat of the proliferation of WMD's. No mistake there either.

These fucken people are criminals. Our intelligence was not allowed to do its job. That's the story.

[mzmolly]

46. Agreed, but the Democratic solution to allow inspections to continue

would have been the solultion if it was bad intel. So, either way they DON'T have an argument.

[Trevelyan]

160. The Valerie Plame story seems to be just that. Even David Swanson

of AfterDowningStreet.com wrote a disgusted paragraph about Plame and Wilson revelling in their celebracy and they posed not only for Vanity Fair but in a very clear picture of Valerie Plame's features at a table at a fundraiser, I didn't realize that by doing so she was continuing to endanger her "team. Swanson also wrote that the bloodstained CIA has been used by most presidents as their own personal mafia.

Citizen Spook has an incredible article in his last post about Plame and Wilson being double agents. I had read about the outing of Khan in a long article a few months ago and bits about Cheney and Rumsfeld being involved in the nuclear blackmark or WMD "Walmart" at the Khan Institute cover in Pakistan being the reason Plame's network was deliberately destroyed rather than the "spin" that it was for revenge of Wilson's yellowcake uranium bunk.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Very long, technical article, these are just excerpts should be read and pondered by every concerned citizen.

http://citizenspook.blogspot.com/

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION, JOSEPH WILSON, ROBERT NOVAK, DAVID CORN,VALERIE PLAME ET ALS HAVE CONSPIRED TO EXPOSE NETWORKS OF GENUINE INTELLIGENCE AGENTS AND THEIR SOURCES WHO WERE CLOSING IN ON TREASONOUS ACTS PERPETRATED BY THE WHITE HOUSE TO FURTHER AN INSIDIOUS AGENDA OF EMPIRE EXPANSION THROUGH STATE SPONSORED TERRORISM DESIGNED TO CREATE A THIRST FOR REVENGE AND JUSTICE IN THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

The meticulous outing of Plame and the media circus that ensued was
designed as a smokescreen to cloud the truth and the law while they
exposed CIA networks operating to stop WMD proliferation. Genuine
agents and sources were left out in the cold while targets were warned
and allowed to escape.

~~~~~
The concept that all of these spook perpetraitors put their faith in was that if Joe Wilson was talking about the IIPA as the controlling law, then the IIPA would be accepted, by the media and the people, as the controlling law, since Joe Wilson, more than anybody, would want to see the evil Bush administration put away for outing his CIA wife. And when Joe Wilson issued statements to the effect that conviction under the IIPA was probably not going to happen, the rest of us could justlet this blow over while a few Bush operatives were given slaps on the wrist.

All the while, Joe Wilson was running protection for the leakers because Wilson and his wife are Bush administration double agent operatives who have something to hide, something big, something towering.

~~~~~~~~~

Once you understand 18 USC 794(b), air tight convictions for the Plame leakers become apparent. There's nothing to argue about. There's no wiggle room. The law was drafted to stop espionage, to stop people from exposing our intelligence assets. Maybe you're familiar with them; the CIA, NSA, FBI, departments of our Government we the people pay hundreds of billions for, to protect us from being attacked here at home, and to protect our soldiers abroad.

18 USC 794 has been used to put traitors away for life.

It's the law of the land.

Their ruse involved spinning the Plame leak as revenge and political payback connecting it to the decision to go to war thereby causing "we the people" to become divided. Then they threw a complicated statute into the mix, the IIPA, which allows convincing arguments, both for and against conviction under these facts, so the political smokescreen expanded to an opaque impenetrable thickness.
Following such a national debate, US citizens will demand to know why the Bush administration risked prosecution under such punishing laws. And they will also demand to know why Joe Wilson hasn't been calling for prosecution under these laws.

Once we the people start asking the right questions, the Government andmedia spin trance fails, they lose control of our minds, and we beginto think for ourselves, to use our minds instead of allowing our mindsbe used by the enemy.
~~~~~~~~~

They created "wiggle room" where there was no wiggle room by guiding
your attention, from both liberal and conservative media sources, to
the irrelevant Intelligence Identities Protection Act.

Violation of 18 USC 794(b) can lead to the death penalty or life in
prison, a much greater punishment than under the IIPA. So you would
expect that those involved with outing a CIA operative and a CIA front
company might think twice about breaking this law. And this leads to
the following questions about motivation which really get to the heart
of this intricate ruse:

1. WOULD THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION VIOLATE 18 USC 794 KNOWING SUCH A
VIOLATION COULD LEAD TO DEATH OR LIFE IN PRISON JUST TO "SMEAR" JOE
WILSON?

No. They aren’t' that stupid. These are intelligent people who have
procured the Executive Branch of the US Government. 18 USC 794 has put
people like Aldrich Ames away for life. This is a very serious law.
Nobody in the Bush administration was going to break it just to bitch
slap Joe Wilson. That's the fecal toast Joe Wilson and David Corn
originally served over two years ago, a meal that has been uniformly
consumed by America, so please don't eat it anymore. It's a lie, and a
rather bad one at that.

Focus on the penalty; death or life in prison. The motivation of a
bitch slap does not fit the crime. The Bush administration must have
had a greater motivation to risk prosecution under 794(b).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's really quite an amazing quote which history may record as being
the smoking dung gun that toppled this administration and put Joe
Wilson and the other co-conspirators behind bars.

USA, you've been hoodwinked big time.

~~~~~~~~~
The law does not provide a motive defense. They can tell the judge and jury at trial, "Yeah, so we outed her network, but we did it to shmeer Joe Wilson, not to cause damage to national security." But the cold hard fact remains,18 USC 794 doesn't care. There's no "motive" requirement. Sorry Joe, this is treason. You said it yourself, "This is the stuff of Aldrich Ames". What an amazing quote.

The cold, made of steel, unbendable law, 18 USC 794, is the reason Wilson has been guiding American attention spans to the IIPA. As long as we were focused on the IIPA, convictions would be very hard to come by.

Wilson was running protection.

repeats the mantra that it was done for revenge, political payback,
etc. But the true motivation was to stop the agents she was working
with from gathering evidence of mass murder; past present and future.
Wilson's book references the IIPA on pages; xxxviii-xxxix, xl, 4, 346,
349, 350-351, 358-360, 384-385, 388, 395-396, and 445. Do you know how
many times 18 USC 793 and 794 are mentioned? None, nada, zero. Why do
you think that is? Because Wilson never heard of these laws? No. This
CIA couple know the law inside out. And they know the carnage that
outing her caused to the operations and operatives she was overseeing,
people that trusted her whose lives were in her hands.

~~~~~~~~~~
Corn was the media ringleader on the left. Novak held that title on theright. And together they pulled the wool over the eyes of the Nation.

Valerie Plame will be the toughest conviction in this treason
conspiracy. I suppose a creative prosecutor, if he establishes that
Plame's likeness was information related to the public defense, could
successfully prosecute her for transmitting that information to the
enemy by agreeing to be photographed for the cover of Vanity Fair. If
Fitzgerald were to bring witnesses from the CIA to testify that they
never would have given her permission to be photographed for the cover
of a major magazine, and those witnesses could bring evidence that her
likeness "might be used", or was used, by the enemy, she could be
prosecuted under 18 USC 793 and 794(b) and (c).

~~~~~~~~~~~
Daithí Mac Lochlainn of Melbourne
Indymedia; first alerted me to the Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan
leak situation. Daithi is organizing a petition to gather support
insisting that the Government investigate this incredible treason.

Justin Raimondo of Antiwar.com; has written a very interesting report on that leak: Who 'Outed' Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan?:

What I'd like to know, however, is who is working as a double agent inside our own government? Because someone has sure sabotaged the hunt for Bin Laden and his cohorts just as effectively as if they'd been working for the Islamists."


There are some very strong indications.

Roger Payne's Blog; of August 5th, 2005, discusses the Khan leak and mentions a very interesting quote by Joe Klein writing for Time Magazine:
"Joe Klein reported; in Time Magazine, June 26, 2004 that Plame 'may have been active in a sting operation involving the trafficking of WMD components.'

A WMD sting? Really? Now, that's interesting."
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wayne Madsen; (an independent investigative journalist who has covered DC politics,national security, and intelligence issues since 1994, has written for The Village Voice, The Progressive, Counterpunch, and more) offered the following commentary for Morphizm.com;in an extensive report about the Asher Karni situation:

"It is no coincidence that FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds uncovered nuclear material and narcotics trafficking involving Turkish intermediaries with ties to Israel at the same time Brewster Jennings and the CIA's Counter Proliferation Division was hot on the trail of nuclear proliferations tied to the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon and the A. Q. Khan network of Pakistan..

It will be interesting to see who decides to cooperate with Patrick
Fitzgerald as heads begin to roll and testimony is traded for immunity.

http://citizenspook.blogspot.com/

[understandinglife]

38. I agree re; "it wasn't mistaken .. it was intentional!" But, if the ...

.... media release is indicative of what the show will contain, it may elicit a much larger discussion of what some of we know than has happened, yet.

Of course, that may just be wishful thinking on my part.


Peace.

[mzmolly]

44. Indeed! THIS WAS BAD LEADERSHIP, not BAD INTELLIGENCE.

The DEMS SAID "let the inspections continue" had we done that and not 'RUSHED TO WAR' we'd not be at war. PERIOD!

[tk2kewl]

29. Program title shoud be...

"Dead Wrong -- Inside an Intelligence Bake-off" instead of "Dead Wrong -- Inside an Intelligence Meltdown"

[underpants]

35. "mistaken WMD intelligence "

There was no mistake.

[rateyes]

36. Maybe by "intelligence meltdown" they are referring to

Bushboy's brain! :)

[Hissyspit]

32. Hey, Colin... No duh.

The 'evidence' would have been thrown out of a legitimate lawsuit in a U.S. court as ridiculously circumstantial.

My first reaction to it as I heard it coming over the radio was "That's it? That's all they've got?"

I was embarassed for America when I became aware that most Americans were buying it.

[mzmolly]

34. Gosh so it seems that allowing the inspections process to continue

THE DEMOCRATIC POLICY suggestion, was the proper course of action the intel was bad?

After searching Iraq for several months across the summer of 2003, Kay began e-mailing Tenet to tell him the WMD evidence was falling apart. At one point, Wilkerson says, Tenet called Powell to tell him the claims about mobile bioweapons labs were apparently not true.

:eyes:

!@#%&*

THIS WAS NOT AN EXAMPLE OF BAD INTELLIGENCE, IT WAS AN EXAMPLE OF BAD LEADERSHIP and a DESIRE to go to war with Iraq + for personal/financial reasons.

[Joey Liberal]

37. Powell let himself be set-up

Since Powell decided to join the Bush evil empire, he's gotten what he deserved.

[BlueJac]

40. Breaking news on CNN?

The missing girl in Aruba must be losing it's attracion to the American public. CNN covering real news will be a switch from their regular worhtless programs full of puppets and air heads! We will all just have to wait and see if they start to cover real stories of interest. :wow:

[TankLV]

195. Naww - it's almost the end of summer - their bosses are all on vacation

It slipped threw.

Sorry.

It won't happen again, they promise.

[Fluffdaddy]

41. Neo-cons you are so............ BUSTED

[daleo]

43. Not "mistaken" - rather, lies

The meme nowadays seems to be things were mistakes rather than lies. I don't believe it.

[Tin Man]

45. Hey, check out these pics!

from the CNN article:

Wilkerson and Powell spent four days and nights in a CIA conference room with then-Director George Tenet and other top officials trying to ensure the accuracy of the presentation, Wilkerson says.

-snip-

After searching Iraq for several months across the summer of 2003, Kay began e-mailing Tenet to tell him the WMD evidence was falling apart. At one point, Wilkerson says, Tenet called Powell to tell him the claims about mobile bioweapons labs were apparently not true.

"George actually did call the Secretary, and said, 'I'm really sorry to have to tell you. We don't believe there were any mobile labs for making biological weapons,'" Wilkerson says in the documentary. "This was the third or fourth telephone call. And I think it's fair to say the Secretary and Mr. Tenet, at that point, ceased being close. I mean, you can be sincere and you can be honest and you can believe what you're telling the Secretary. But three or four times on substantive issues like that? It's difficult to maintain any warm feelings."

CIA Director Tenet - Before


CIA Director Tenet - After


No doubt Powell would have received a medal too, but he bailed-out of the admin after the election and one month prior to the ceremony. At least Powell has a conscience - which would seem to be a unique attribute for a member of the Bush administration.

[daleo]

55. It looks like he is wearing the same tie.

I wonder if that's intentional.

[Tin Man]

85. Obviously Tenet's "speical reception" necktie

...or is that "special deception" necktie?

[AlCzervik]

47. you know i was thinking of skipping the program until now.

i will be watching, hell i might even try and hook up my old vcr and tape it.

[lpbk2713]

48. A fish out of water.

Question: What was someone with an apparent conscience and/or a sense of remorse doing working in the Boosh administration?


Definitely out of his league.



Ed: Corrected typo.

[Autumn Colors]

50. The program title says it all....

"Inside an Intelligence Meltdown"

Sounds to me like they're going to blame it on the CIA. I'm not all that hopeful about this program.

[jean]

136. intel melted down from Cheney's breath from hell blasting all over

the whole intel community. He is the one whose death touch did all of this.

[slutticus]

52. An intelligence meltdown? ummmm....yeah sure.......

[daleo]

54. It looks like they are pinning this on Tenant, more or less

So, someone had flagged Curveball as a liar, but either not passed it on to the CIA, or the CIA had not passed it on to Powell. Some buck passing here, as usual.

"In fact, Secretary Powell was not told that one of the sources he was given as a source of this information had indeed been flagged by the Defense Intelligence Agency as a liar, a fabricator," says David Kay, who served as the CIA's chief weapons inspector in Iraq after the fall of Saddam. That source, an Iraqi defector had never been debriefed by the CIA, was known within the intelligence community as "Curveball."

After searching Iraq for several months across the summer of 2003, Kay began e-mailing Tenet to tell him the WMD evidence was falling apart. At one point, Wilkerson says, Tenet called Powell to tell him the claims about mobile bioweapons labs were apparently not true.

"George actually did call the Secretary, and said, 'I'm really sorry to have to tell you. We don't believe there were any mobile labs for making biological weapons,'" Wilkerson says in the documentary. "This was the third or fourth telephone call. And I think it's fair to say the Secretary and Mr. Tenet, at that point, ceased being close. I mean, you can be sincere and you can be honest and you can believe what you're telling the Secretary. But three or four times on substantive issues like that? It's difficult to maintain any warm feelings."

[FighttheFuture]

63. Mr. pResidential Medal of Freedom? Say is ain't so, George!!!

Crooks, Liars and Assholes. One and all.

[NYC]

104. Powell was staying at the Waldorf the night before his

U.N. appearance, and was meeting with someone. I remember that because a handgun was found in a trashbasket on Lexington Avenue, and that was after some hotel guest had left his briefcase in the lobby, and it was "suspected" of being a bomb.

Was Powell meeting with Tenet that night? I think so, but don't remember.

[CAcyclist]

131. It Does Look Like They Are Going To Blame Tenet

Even though Tenet was the one who insisted the Uranium -Niger issue was not real and needed to be removed from the pile of evidence. The fact that it went back in to Bush's speech later AFTER Tenet asked it to be removed proves the source of the deception is not in the CIA

[Wizard777]

153. Cheney, Powell, and Rumsfeld 3 day excursion to the CIA

This was durring the intelligence gathering phase. The Senior official is always in charge. That would be VP Cheney. Yes it's Tenet's agency. But with the VP and two other Dept. Secretaries there. Tenet's authority is easily over ruled.

[Solly Mack]

58. lies become "mistaken" and the mea culpas get thick

"I look back on it, and I still say it was the lowest point in my life."

At least you can look back on it - thanks to people like you there are thousands that can't...they're dead.



"It was anything but an intelligence document. It was, as some people characterized it later, sort of a Chinese menu from which you could pick and choose."


But that didn't stop you from aiding and abetting did it?

and Powell is STILL responsible for his own actions...he's a WILLING participant and he would be LYING to say otherwise.

[Dr Fate]

61. Kerry needs to talk about this on TV. More proof we were all lied to.

And not just Kerry- but any DEM with media access needs to hammer this home.

I'll hold my breath!!!

[FighttheFuture]

67. Don't hold your breath on "Mr. Capitulation" doing anything.

[Dr Fate]

70. Well, I wont go so far as to say that...

...but I'll be pleasantly suprised if I see some Top Democrats on TV, making political hay of this.

[Warren Stupidity]

77. won't happen

the War Party has gotten over that 'invasion on false pretenses nonsense', that is so 2003. Now they are onto 'but we can't afford to fail' as the reason for why we have to kill lots of Iraqis and occupy the oil fields until the oil runs out.

[Dr Fate]

80. No- supporting the war is what is so last year.

The public is turning against the war- I'm hoping the top DEMs start paying attention to public opinion instead of those "strategists" who lost the last 3 elections for us.

You have a point- but public opinion is turning hard.

[Warren Stupidity]

90. I hope you are right. nt.

[gratuitous]

62. Gee, a "low point" in Wilkerson's life

I wonder what dying in this War of False Pretenses would be for a person? So far, we've got over 1,800 families we can ask, and thousands more who've cashed in their formerly good health for a piece of shrapnel or the loss of a limb or two.

Just nauseating.

[Peace Patriot]

64. Yup, sounds like the Donna Brazile/Terry McAuliffe line about...

the 2004 election: "Machine" errors and anomalies, yes (f.i., 86 out of 88 reports of touchscreens CHANGING votes were a switch from Kerry to Bush), but no fraud, and no altered outcome.

Democratic Party koolaid. As with the corruption in the new billion dollar industry of turning our votes into electrons and 'disappearing' them, we really need to look at stock portfolios, future board memberships and employment, to know how much any given public official betrayed the public interest while in office. (Ex. Former CA Sec of State Bill Jones, and his chief aide Alfie Charles, after authorizing Sequoia and other electronic voting systems in Calif, now WORK FOR Sequoia electronic voting machine company.) Anyone who wants to achieve any public office these days, from which they could curtail the global corporate war machine, even a little bit, must agree to be corrupted, or, either, a) they will kill you (Paul Wellstone), or, b) find some other way to destroy you (i.e., Dem CA Sec of State Kevin Shelley, who, among other things, forbade "revolving door" employment in his office--and sued Diebold). (Or...belong to the wrong political party and act like an opposition, and get anthraxed.)

"Revolving door employment" has been common coin in the global corporate war machine (generals, senators moving on to join private military contractors...), and in regulatory agencies (oil, timber...), and now the Corporate Rulers have invaded the last bastion of democracy, our vote. (Wonder why Democratic Party leaders have been TOTALLY SILENT on Bushite corporations owning and controlling the tabulation of all votes with SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code?*)

What's Powell doing now? Anybody know? Any new board memberships? "Consultantships"? Or is he just clipping Halliburton coupons?

Disgusting.

-----

* For the latest in lavish lobbying and corruption of our election officials by Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia (at the Beverly Hilton, August 2005) see
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

[Pepper32]

65. Powell, don't cry now! You knew exactly what you were doing....

or is this an insanity plea?

[FighttheFuture]

66. Powell was just as bad, if not more so, than the rest because...

he fell so much farther!

The rest were shady retreads and rejects from the Nixon/Reagan era. Powell had a more positive, more upstanding, plain spoken rep and that "Powell Doctrine" hullabaloo around him. He chucked it all being a good little soldier following orders, forgetting that his first duty was to the Constitution and the United States, not to criminals crooks and liar.

Fuck you and fuck your bastard son, Colin.

[Trevelyan]

162. Powell's son Michael is the reason that 6 people/corporations own the

media. Clinton appointed Michael Powell and he got rid of the rule that one individual could not own more than 7 media outlets in a given area. There are charts showing that all of the media is owned by 6 companies. Michael Powell shredded the FCC rules and mission just as Bushco is shredding the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

[Seabiscuit]

68. Powell lost any shred of integrity he ever had at the U.N.

"(Powell) came through the door ... and he had in his hands a sheaf of papers, and he said, 'This is what I've got to present at the United Nations according to the White House, and you need to look at it,'" Wilkerson says in the program. "It was anything but an intelligence document. It was, as some people characterized it later, sort of a Chinese menu from which you could pick and choose."

"this is what I've got to present... according to the White House"???

Why couldn't the bastard just refuse and go public with the "Chinese menu"? Anyone with an ounce of integrity would have done that.

Powell had the opportunity at that moment to be a patriot and a hero and instead he betrayed the American People and the world with his cowardice.

I was so shocked and appalled watching Powell deliver his U.N. speech that I've never had any respect for him since.

[Skidmore]

72. Did it never occur to one of these

people to REFUSE to gin up a war? Powell is a leader, my tush! If that man had any honor, he should have resigned in protest. At the very least, he would have done recompense for his role in covering up the Mei Lai massacre. He might have gained some stature in the global community.

How can these people sleep at night? All that misery and blood...

[Warren Stupidity]

78. by the standards we imposed at nurermburg

the entire cabal should be swinging from a rope.

[glitch]

184. Ambien - which also explains those zombie eyes.

Short-term memory loss, inability to analyze complex issues.
I believe he said a lot of his colleagues used it as well.

[journalist3072]

81. I was just on CNN's website...

And was getting ready to post this! Definitely deserves a kick!

[Dawgs]

82. Right again!!!

Amazing how we have been right on everything, and the freeps are always wrong.

:evilgrin:

When will they ever learn?

[Skittles]

84. WRONG WRONG WRONG

The lowest point in your life Mr. Powell is the moment you decided you would gladly PIMP for BUSH INC after they STOLE THE ELECTION in part by NOT ALLOWING BLACK FOLK TO VOTE. Everything after that sorry moment is just CAKE.

[yellowjacket7]

87. They are just shifting the blame

Now Bushco can claim the intelligence community deceived them. Another lie.

[MattSWin]

88. I like Powell..

The key part of this article which some of the fringe left-wing purists at DU choose to ignore says:

"In fact, Secretary Powell was not told that one of the sources he was given as a source of this information had indeed been flagged by the Defense Intelligence Agency as a liar, a fabricator," says David Kay, who served as the CIA's chief weapons inspector in Iraq after the fall of Saddam. That source, an Iraqi defector had never been debriefed by the CIA, was known within the intelligence community as "Curveball."

Powell wasn't trying to push us to rush into war. He was simply presenting information the DoD was telling him to present. They're the ones who misled him.

How many Secretaries of State would refuse to present information provided by the DoD? Get real, none would.

[Warren Stupidity]

96. So you're saying he is a likable idiot?

'cause I knew it was bullshit and I wasn't privy to any briefings, nor could I pick up the phone and talk to any analyst at the CIA I wanted to. There are other reports that Powell knew full well it was bullshit, in fact that he had a screaming fit prior to his UN performance because the material he was handed to present was so totally and obviously lame. That would make him a co-conspirator, which he obviously was. My opinion is that Powell knew exactly what he was doing but, out of some misguided sense of loyalty, he chose to go along with the cabal and then resign after the election. In doing so he became just as responsible as the rest of them.

[MattSWin]

99. You didn't trust it most likely..

Because you wouldn't trust anything from the Bush administration(nor would I) but I really doubt you had any solid evidence that proved it was bs. Even David Kay couldn't find evidence to refute Bush's claims.

Also there is the fact you and I had nothing to lose if we were wrong about the Iraq WMD claims. But if Powell or Kay just refused to present this evidence to the UN without evidence it was wrong and the claims were true it would've been a disaster.

[Warren Stupidity]

119. I didn't trust it because it was bullshit.

Power point drawings of 'mobile weapons labs'?
Pictures of a truck that moved?
That evidence? :wtf:

They had absolutely nothing concrete. It was clear as a bell. Of course you cannot prove that something doesn't exist, but you cannot go to war on the basis of 'but they could have had WMD' any more than you can shoot innocents on the streets of London because they 'might have been suicide bombers'.

"But if Powell or Kay just refused to present this evidence to the UN without evidence it was wrong and the claims were true it would've been a disaster."

They had no evidence. The stuff they took to the UN? They made that shit up. Some of it was so bogus that they only used it for domestic consumption - the niger connection.

They had Bolton running around threatening anyone who dared to speak up with their jobs. There are lots of ex-CIA analysts who have laid out the case that there was nothing to go on, that the 'evidence' they presented was patently bogus, and worse that there was plenty of evidence that Iraq had dismantled all of their programs. Why do you think they screwed Wilson? What on earth do you think that the Downing Street Memos prove? They were fixing the freaking intelligence and everybody on the inside knew it. Powell included.

[Tin Man]

98. "didn't get a medal" vs. "got a medal"

didn't get a medal:


got a medal:


I have a sneaking suspicion you may be right, and that Powell was deceived by the NeoCabal via Tenet.

[Supersedeas]

89. a Chinese menu to justify a WAR - come one America, wake the F up!!

[rocktivity]

91. The lowest point of HIS life?

May I point, out, Colonel, that you still HAVE your life???



:mad:
rocknation

[RamboLiberal]

128. "Chinese Menu provided by the White House"

If you get bad Kung Pao Chicken and Mongolian Beef - then you ought to blame the restaurant where you got ordered from the menu!

Let's see if CNN has the balls to blame the White House, Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the PNAC'ers!

[mpendragon]

92. what about penance?

He obviously feels guilty about it or he wouldn't have said anything but he doesn't want to either:

A. admit that it wasn't really a mistake and he knew it
or
B. admit that he was duped by people that wanted to go to war
or
C. admit that he didn't have the courage to stop the lie

Feeling bad about lying to our trusted allies isn't enough.
Feeling bad about weakening our fight against terrorists by promoting a war in Iraq isn't enough.
Feeling bad because we can't defend our nation like we could because our troops are tied up in Iraq isn't enough.
Feeling bad because we can't recruit enough kids to go fight in this dumb war isn't good enough.

He has to DO something about it. Be a man damn it.

[Orion The Hunter]

93. Lowest point in his life

Not exactly a high point for the country as a whole either....

[emr]

94. it should be

after he sat there and listened to powell lie so his pals could cash in on iraqi oil......

[CountAllVotes]

95. Powell = just ONE MORE SHILL FOR THE BFEE

:hi: and welcome to the DU!

:dem: :kick:

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

101. It's so obvious...

...that this was not an intelligence meltdown, but fraud, pure and simple. Exposing the Bushco regime's criminal deeds has the downside of making them all the more desperate to make certain Christo-republifascists remain in power. Otherwise, they could be held criminally liable. What this means is that election fraud is going to continue unabated. They simply won't risk being voted out of power with fair and honest elections. I know of no historical example of a well entrenched, fascist regime being displaced by an opposition party working within the system. Maybe we'll take our country back one day, and maybe not, but one thing I've reluctantly come to accept over the past couple years is that it surely won't happen without a revolution.

[rocktivity]

113. Welcome to DU, Mr. Jefferson!

:hi:
and how right you are!

At the risk of judging a book by its cover, I am highly suspicious of this program. CNN's use of "meltdown" and "mistaken intelligence" suggest that Bush was the "innocent" victim of incompetent subordinates, and the Powell should have stopped them. The intelligence was FABRICATED--or, at the very least, there's enough circumstantial evidence to make a case for reasonable doubt. Will this show mention DSM, the Office of Special Plans, or feature statements from any of the UN inspectors? Or have they churned out a propaganda piece designed to divert guilt from Bush and make Powell and the CIA the fall guys?

:headbang:
rocknation

[winston61]

102. CNN says the INTELLIGENCE was wrong?

What a crock of shit. Anyone who still thinks that is true is a fool or is selling something. A hand picked presidential commission determines that the president was mis-led. Truth is lies, lies is truth. As for Powell, fuck him. He lent his integrity to scum. Maybe he is a dumb ass after all.

[Maggie_May]

105. This makes me crazy

Powell new that the intelligence was bullshit. He was just doing what Dick wanted him do and that was to LIE!!!

[MattSWin]

109. you obviously didn't read the article..

It never says Powell knew the evidence was bs.

[Maggie_May]

111. No intelligence document

"(Powell) came through the door ... and he had in his hands a sheaf of papers, and he said, 'This is what I've got to present at the United Nations according to the White House, and you need to look at it,'" Wilkerson says in the program. "It was anything but an intelligence document. It was, as some people characterized it later, sort of a Chinese menu from which you could pick and choose."
They had no solid evidence.

[MattSWin]

114. read my earlier response...

#88

How many Secretary of States would refuse to present info the President said was accurate without evidence that it was false.

[Maggie_May]

126. I guess we will

have to watch the show. I believe this is not the end to this more will come out in time. Truth always prevails.

[Warren Stupidity]

135. the secretary of state who had thrown an earlier draft on the floor

screaming "this is bullshit". That secretary of state. Instead he should go to jail with the rest of them.

[ClintonTyree]

115. Interesting title; DEAD Wrong!

How many of our young men and women are now DEAD because bush fabricated the intelligence to begin this war of choice?
This entire war has been based on bush's Oedipal quest to finish what his Father started, what his Father had the intelligence to avoid. And I don't mean intelligence in a strategic sense, I mean it in a personal sense. Junior is a fucking idiot. This guy would run a 7-11 into the ground with his mismanagement, and the people (or Diebold) trusted HIM to run this country? :eyes:
That sounds like a must see program, even if it is coming from CNN, the most mistrusted name in news (other than Faux, which is strictly a propaganda instrument).

[EVDebs]

134. #2 low-point is trashing your own Powell doctrine

In order to curry favor with Chimpy & Co. Shame on you.

"Essentially, the Doctrine expresses that military action should be used only as a last resort and only if there is a clear risk to national security by the intended target; the force, when used, should be overwhelming and disproportionate to the force used by the enemy; there must be strong support for the campaign by the general public; and there must be a clear exit strategy from the conflict in which the military is engaged."


www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/iraq/powelldoctrine_short.html

Apparently Powell wants his honor back. Work harder, Colin. How's about visiting Camp Casey ?

[LiberalAmerican]

138. why now, and not when it would have mattered? eom

[Bumblebee]

143. Just saw a clip on Newsnight and was pleasantly surprised

Definitely worth watching!

[Hailtothechimp]

144. Boo F'in Hoo. He could have resigned instead.

But no, he went ahead and shattered his credibility with the whole world instead. I have no pity for him.

[siztnarf]

145. Powell caved.

Colin Powell caved at a historically huge moment. He knew the evidence was bogus. But he and everyone else thought they'd find something there that at least related to WMD. Anything. Some chemical components, precursors, evidense of a lab would have fully justified our occupation of Iraq in the minds of the majority of Americans. Had they found something WMD realted there, scrutiny of the Bushies speeches including Powell's would have been shouted down viciously.

[Maccagirl]

147. We have a winner!

Welcome to DU! History will judge this MISadministration harshly.

[siztnarf]

148. CNN sucks even more now.

I agree with the other posters who are disgusted with the way CNN and other MSM continue to validate this canard that high level Bushies were merely missled by bad intel. Sorry, but you'd have to be a moron to look at the evidence in its entirity and come to that conclusion. I truly believe that high-ups in the MSM media themselves don't believe the B.S. that they are spewing.
Why do they continue to disseminate these lies and half truths? They never really questioned the leadup to the Iraq War and the Administration's case for it. That runs exactly counter to the definition of what their job is. They helped sell this war, and they are culpable for it. It's much better for the MSM (especially the ones who haven't made an apology to their viewers and readers for not challenging White House claims as the NYTimes did) if America doesn't get the entire ugly truth about his war. The truth is going to make people angry and these people are going to demand answers as to why this happened. This human discrace couldn't have happened without the MSM's tacit acquiescence.

I feel better now.

[Carolab]

151. Hmmm. That's not what CNN was reporting LAST year.

Powell on WMD existence: 'This game is still unfolding'
Author: Political pressure influenced intelligence before war

Thursday, January 8, 2004 Posted: 7:13 PM EST (0013 GMT)


Powell said the Saddam Hussein regime "was a danger we had to worry about."


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell Thursday defended the Bush administration's position that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction programs and defended his speech on the matter to the United Nations last February. "This game is still unfolding," he told reporters.

He was responding to a study that found Iraq had ended its programs by the mid-1990s and did not pose an immediate threat to the United States before the 2003 war. Powell said he had not read the report but read news reports about it.

The study, released Thursday, was conducted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a nonpartisan, respected group that opposed the war in Iraq. The United States used the threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction as a justification for launching the war against the regime of Saddam Hussein, according to the report.

The report follows a nine-month search in Iraq for WMD -- nuclear, biological and chemical -- the key reason the administration cited in its decision to invade Iraq. "We looked at the intelligence assessment process, and we've come to the conclusion that it is broken," author Joseph Cirincione said Thursday on CNN's "American Morning. It is very likely that intelligence officials were pressured by senior administration officials to conform their threat assessments to pre-existing policies."

(more)

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/01/08/sprj.nirq.wmd.report/

[siztnarf]

152. re: Hmmm. That wasn't what CNN was reporting LAST year.

Carolab, I remember that Carnegie report last year. It was a very important report. So important that even Fox had to at least mention its findings a few times. Any news medium that was self-conscious about trying to appear fair and balanced would do the same. At this time, CNN certainly wasn't challenging in any way the administration's justifications for war in light of the report done by the respected CEIP. On the contrary. CNN was giving a defiant Powell the opportunity to refute the claims of the report.
Your quote on the bottom of the page isn't CNN's views on the matter. It's the author of the report's view. Again, CNN was not questioning Powell's WMD assertions in this segment. They were reporting that the CEIP was. There's a big difference.
You might say that a news medium's responsibilty is to allow for both sides of the argument to be heard. I would agree but add that it alone is insufficient. CNN and others must question whether the information they are broadcasting is factual. That requires research, critical thinking and investigative reporting. They did no such thing in the leadup to the Iraq war. Instead CNN and almost all the other American MSM amplified whatever the White House, Pentegon etc., was saying.
I'm afraid that if you tune in Sunday night you'll see more of the same from CNN. It'll be CNN telling you that the intel was bad and that Powell only deserves blame for not questioning the intel. As I've said in a previous post, I believe that the main players including Powell knew the intel was fabricated and I think CNN knew it then as it does now.
I guess your point is that CNN has challenged Powell's claims. I see that article that you've linked to as weak if not contradictory evidence of it.

[Carolab]

175. You got it all wrong. The point is that CNN reported the truth last year.

And now, even though the study mentioned in last year's article stated the administration had essentially forced the intelligence community to "fit facts to policy", CNN would now try to have us believe that it WAS the fault of the intelligence community...that they fed Powell "bad intel"...

My point is that they are contradicting the study they themselves reported on last year.

[siztnarf]

187. re: You got it wrong...

Every major news medium had to report on that study including CNN. It was big news. Explaining Carnegie's findings does not mean that CNN espoused Carnegie's viewpoints in any way.
You seem to be saying that because CNN aired a report on a group that has a certain view about a certain subject, then CNN would preclude itself from reporting opposite views in the future. That's not how it works. For example, in the months from 9/11 to "Shock and Awe", CNN devoted countless hours amplifying the propaganda that Iraq posed a mortal danger to the U.S. The pro-war propaganda from CNN far outweighed the critical analysis even though there was plenty of evidence to question the war. That tells me that CNN had a pro-war agenda. And yet, during that time they surely reported on a few experts that had contradictory views.
Giving some airtime on a few occasions to views that dont jive with your agenda isn't a problem for CNN or anybody else. It happens all the time. In fact it's pretty much a necessity.

[Carolab]

188. But the point is that this was the truth and what they are doing now isn't

So why produce a show that contradicts the truth?

CNN's lack of credibility and responsibility to the public is showing big time here by NOT saying directly that the "intel was cooked" by Cheney & Rice and instead making Powell/Tenet the fall guys.

[siztnarf]

196. I think we've been talking past each other

My personal opinion is that CNN for whatever reason (and that's a topic for a different discussion that I really don't want to get into now) hasn't been too concerned with digging at the truth for a long time now. As far as I'm concerned they lost their credibility long ago.
I did not watch the special. In my original "CNN sucks" post, I was speculating that CNN would not come out hard and conclude that the administration pressured the community to fix the intel to their policy. That's just my gut feeling based on the their abysmal track record. I can't explain their lack of initial coverage of the Downing Street Memo, for example, any other way.
Maybe I was wrong about the piece. Maybe they are getting more aggressive in question the Bushies. But if they are, I'll wager that it's due to Bush's and the war's declining popularity as well as their lack of credibility that is showing as you've stated above.
Maybe they've self-consciously shifted their agenda somewhat. But I wouldn't mistaken that for a renewed desire to report the truth. It reeks of a cynical strategy to exploit growing discontent with the war to gain viewership.
That pretty much sums up what I think about CNN, Carolab. I hope it helps you to understand where I'm coming from. We're probably a lot more in agreement on this thing than we realize. :pals:

[gasperc]

157. another spot to tell Powell and Wilkerson to go Fuck themselves

They had the intelligence and there was nothing there but they couldn't go back to their frothing, frightened, lunatic supporters and tell them, Look there really isn't anything that bad in Iraq except that he's threatening to sell oil in Euro dollars which could spike the price $.20 or $.30/gallon and weaken the value of the US dollar slightly. Gee, I wonder if they are pissed now that gas has spiked $1 since last year?

[JackDragna]

154. I have no sympathy for Powell..

..ever since he helped try to cover up the My Lai massacre. I hope that son of a bitch burns in hell for all his crimes.

[mrsadm]

155. Good!

I am so glad this is finally making prime time television

[gasperc]

156. you know what, FUCK YOU, Wilkerson

walk into a DC courtroom and plead guilty for your crimes. 10,000 of thousands have died needlessly, over 6billion people were told BY THE PRESIDNET OF THE UNITED STATES, that hundreds of thousands of gallons of poisons were in Iraq and needed to be accounted for.

FUCK YOU Wilkerson, spend a lifetime in jail
Low point in your life? How about being dead? How about not having a mom or dad anymore?

Fuck You Wilkerson!!!

[Along the Red Ledge]

167. CALL YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS & DEMAND OUR TROOPS PULL OUT NOW!

[Neocondriac]

170. Something juicy this way comes......

Powell went into this White House with good intentions. He , like most of us, just couldn't believe that the intent of the Bushies was going to be this arrogant and fascist.But, the day he sat before the U.N. and fed us that crap it made me realize that they had something on him, "something juicy".I'll be waiting for that career killing morsel to come hither this up coming week. Who will leak it to whom?????????.....Remember he was the "Construction Worker" from the Village People in the Homophobic Class Capers Revue.

[sunyasi]

171. Powell sucks, but remember...

It was after he testified to the grand jury in the Plame thing that Fitzgerald was able to get the judges to put Judy patooty in the slammer. I think that he gave Fitzgerald what he needed to proceed against the administration.

Fuck me? No, fuck you!!! - Colin Powell

[europegirl4jfk]

173. I'm watching it right now on CNN International !

Not bad at all! They were just talking about the Office of Special Plans as well as the DSM and the "intelligence fixed around the policies".

[europegirl4jfk]

174. You should all watch it! It's really GOOD!!

Well, they stop short calling the Bush administration liars but there are implications all over the program! They've interviewed several former intelligence experts (including McLaughlin, David Kay, Carl Ford) who talk about the pressure the CIA got from Bush, Cheney etc.

[rocktivity]

179. Glad to hear it, Europegirl

Because I raised this question yesterday:

...The intelligence was FABRICATED (by the Bush White House)--or, at the very least, there's enough circumstantial evidence to make a case for reasonable doubt. Will this show mention DSM, the Office of Special Plans, or feature statements from any of the UN inspectors? Or have they churned out a propaganda piece designed to divert guilt from Bush and make Powell and the CIA the fall guys?

:headbang:
rocknation

[depakid]

176. Powell dishonered himself

Pretty sad, really. He betrayed everything that he once stood for.

[jurassicpork]

178. True, but

the GOP betrayed him and eveything that he stood for, as well, because he was the only one in the administration with unimpeachable credibility. Now he's lucky if he can sell Amway in Bakersfield. His retirement before Bush even began his second stolen term didn't surprise me at all.

JP
http://jurassicpork.blogspot.com

[jurassicpork]

177. I'd love to read

what Powell had to say about that turd-fest of a speech to the UN Security Council.

JP
http://jurassicpork.blogspot.com

[volitionx]

180. Fuck Powell

I never really like Powell. He's too uptight. Anyway, he LIED to the U.N., and he knew he was lying. Or, if not, he's so fucking stupid that he didn't check his fact. And since he's not stupid, that proves that he was LYING.

He should be brought up on war crimes charges like Bush, Cheney, Wolfy, Rummy, Rice, and the rest of them. Powell had his chance, his defining moment to be that "man of integrity" that people think he is, and he FAILED.

So he can just fry in hell.

Think of the thousands and thousands of people who have been murdered because of this war, the immeasurable suffering...HE BEARS RESPONSIBILITY.

[Hekate]

181. So why the hell did Powell do it then?

It was kind of the lowest point for a lot of us!

I didn't know about his My Lai "service" until later so I'd always sort of admired the guy, and that feeling was shot to smithereens by his presentation at the UN. I just couldn't believe an honorable man would carry that pack of lies to the UN -- I knew then that the Bushies had dragged him down to their own level.

As for My Lai, it was some of my vet friends in the peace movement who told me that, and the ones who remember have not forgotten or forgiven Powell for his part in the cover-up.

And his service to the Bushies? As we've all observed, they use and discard people with some regularity. Bush/Rove apparently asked "What have you done for us lately?" and encouraged him to depart.

Hekate

[PurpleChez]

182. I certainly hope that this cretin doesn't expect sympathy from anybody.

Tens of thousands are dead because he didn't want to risk his job. He's gonna have to live with that for the rest of his life...damn good. How many died before he developed a conscience?

[sellitman]

186. Thousands of GI's are lower...by about 6 Feet.

Fuck you Powell!!!

[Nothing Without Hope]

189. The CNN documentary “Dead Wrong” is now viewable ONLINE – here’s where:

For those of you who, like me, don’t have cable TV, you can watch this important documentary ONLINE in its entirety. Links to the documentary video, in 10 parts, are posted in this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2025050
Thread title: CNN - "DEAD WRONG" documentary on Iraq intelligence is posted ONLINE!!!

[amagusta]

197. Was this show a softball?

Is it because I already know everything that "Dead Wrong" covered-- and much, much more-- or was this program really a subtle attemp to gloss over the crimes of this administration?

Was there any suggestion that the White House falsified documents about yellowcake? No! Was there any mention of Plamegate? No! There was one, rather oblique, reference to DSM, but it wasn't explained very well to a novice audience.

Would a naive CNN crowd be moved by revelations from this program? I doubt it, because the conclusion could easily be made that the whole thing was caused by an honest mistake in perception. Case closed! I wouldn't expect any more from network media.