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TechnoratiOut Damn Blot: A Letter to Colin Powell
Dear Colin,
You have said you regret the "blot" on your record caused by your parroting spurious intelligence at the U.N. to justify war on Iraq. On the chance you may not have noticed, I write to point out that you now have a unique opportunity to do some rehab on your reputation.
If you were blindsided, well, here's an opportunity to try to wipe off some of the blot. There is no need for you to end up like Lady Macbeth, wandering around aimlessly muttering, Out damn spot...or blot.
It has always strained credulity, at least as far as I was concerned, to accept the notion that naiveté prevented you from seeing through the game Vice President Dick Cheney and then-CIA Director George Tenet were playing on Iraq.
And I was particularly suspicious when you chose to ignore the strong dissents of your own State Department intelligence analysts who, as you know, turned out to be far more on target than counterparts in more servile agencies.
It was equally difficult for me to believe that you thought that, by insisting that shameless George Tenet sit behind you on camera, you could ensure a modicum of truth in your speech before the U.N. Security Council. You were far savvier than that.
That is certainly the impression I got from our every-other-morning conversations in the mid-80s, before I went in to brief the President's Daily Brief to your boss, then-Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger, one-on-one.
I saw the street smarts you displayed then. The savvy was familiar to me. I concluded that it came, in part, from the two decades you and I spent growing up in the same neighborhood at the same time in the Bronx.
On those Bronx streets, rough as they were, there was also a strong sense of what was honorable -honorable even among thieves and liars, you might say. And we had words, which I will not repeat here, for sycophants, pimps, and cowards.
Your U.N. speech of Feb. 5, 2003 left me speechless, so to speak - largely because of the measure of respect I had had for you before then.
Outrage is too tame a word for what quickly became my reaction and that of my colleagues in Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), as we watched you perform before the Security Council less than six weeks before the unnecessary, illegal attack on Iraq.
The purpose - as well as the speciousness - of your address were all too transparent and, in a same-day commentary, we VIPS warned President George W. Bush that, if he attacked Iraq, "the unintended consequences are likely to be catastrophic."
That's history. Or, as investigative reporter Ron Suskind would say, "It's all on the record."
You have not yet summoned the courage to admit it, but I think I know you well enough to believe you have a Lady Macbeth-type conscience problem that goes far beyond the spot on your record.
With 4,141 American soldiers - not to mention hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens - dead, and over 30,000 GIs badly wounded, how could you not?
What Did You Know...and When?
Here is what could be good news for you, Colin.
Information that has come to light over the past two years or so could wipe some of the blot fouling your record. It all depends, I guess, on how truthful you are prepared to be now.
Much of the new data comes from former CIA officials who, ironically, have sought to assuage their own consciences by doing talk therapy with authors like Sidney Blumenthal and Ron Suskind.
At first blush, these revelations seem so outlandish that they themselves strain credulity. But they stand up to close scrutiny far better than what you presented in your U.N. speech, for example.
If you now depend on the fawning corporate media (FCM) for your information, you will have missed this very significant, two-pronged story.
In brief, with the help of Allied intelligence services, the CIA recruited your Iraqi counterpart, Saddam Hussein's foreign minister, Naji Sabri, and Tahir Jalil Habbush, the chief of Iraqi intelligence. They were cajoled into remaining in place while giving us critical intelligence well before the war - actually, well before your speech laying the groundwork for war.
In other words, at a time when Saddam Hussein believed that Sabri and Habbush were working for him, we had "turned" them. They were working for us, and much of the information they provided had been evaluated and verified.
Most important, each independently affirmed that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, information that should have prevented you from making a fool of yourself before the U.N. Security Council.
The Iraqi Foreign Minister
The FCM gave almost no coverage (surprise, surprise!) to the reporting from Naji Sabri, which continues to be pretty much lost in the woodwork.
In case you missed it, we now know from former CIA officials that his information on the absence of WMD was concealed from Congress, from our senior military, and from intelligence analysts - including those working on the infamous National Intelligence Estimate of Oct. 1, 2002.
That NIE, titled "Iraq's Continuing Programs for WMD," was the one specifically designed to mislead Congress into authorizing the president to make war on Iraq.
One question is whether it is true that Sabri's reporting was also concealed from you.
Tyler Drumheller, at the time a division chief in CIA's clandestine service, was the first to tell the story of Naji Sabri, who is now living a comfortable retirement in Qatar. On CBS's "60 Minutes" on April 23, 2006, Drumheller disclosed that the CIA had received documentary evidence from Sabri that Iraq had no WMD.
Drumheller added, "We continued to validate him the whole way through."
Then two other former CIA officers confirmed this account to author Sidney Blumenthal, adding that George Tenet briefed this information to President George W. Bush on Sept. 18, 2002, and that Bush dismissed the information as worthless.
Wait. It gets worse. The two former CIA officers told Blumenthal that someone in the agency rewrote the report from Sabri to indicate that Saddam Hussein was "aggressively and covertly developing" nuclear weapons and already had chemical and biological weapons.
That altered report was shown to the likes of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was "duped," according to one of the CIA officers.
Worse still, the former CIA officials reported that George Tenet never shared the unadulterated information from the Iraqi foreign minister with you, the Secretary of State and Naji Sabri's counterpart. Again, whether that is true is a very large outstanding question.
The Chief of Iraqi Intelligence
Again, Colin, I am assuming you take your information from the FCM, so let me brief you, as in the old days, on what else has popped up over the past couple of weeks.
Two other CIA clandestine service officers have told author Ron Suskind that Iraqi intelligence chief Habbush had become one of our secret sources on Iraq, beginning in January 2003.
I hope you are sitting down, Colin, because Habbush also told us Iraq had no WMD. One of the helpful insights he passed along to us was that Saddam Hussein had decided that some ambiguity on the WMD issue would help prevent his main enemy, Iran, from thinking of Iraq as a toothless tiger.
Habbush, part of Saddam's inner circle, had direct access to this kind of information. But when President Bush was first told of Habbush's report that there were no WMD in Iraq, Suskind's sources say the president reacted by saying, "Well, why don't you tell him to give us something we can use to make our case?"
Apparently, Habbush was unable or unwilling to oblige by changing his story.
Nevertheless, later in 2003, when it became clear that he had been telling the unwelcome truth, Habbush was helped to resettle in Jordan and given $5 million to keep his mouth shut.
Suskind also reveals that in the fall of 2003, Habbush was asked to earn his keep by participating in a keystone-cops-type forgery aimed at "proving" that Saddam Hussein did, after all, have a direct hand in the tragedy of 9/11.
This crude forgery was not unlike the one that originally gave us the yarn about yellowcake uranium going from Niger to Iraq.
You will hardly be surprised to hear there is evidence, much of it circumstantial, that Vice President Dick Cheney was the intellectual author of both incredibly inept forgery operations.
Sorry to have to bring this up, but there is something else about Habbush that you need to know. He had actually been in charge of overseeing what was left of the Iraqi biological weapons program after the 1991 Gulf War, and reported that it was stopped in 1996.
Sabri vs. Curveball
Before the attack on Iraq, Tenet's deputy, John McLaughlin, was repeatedly briefed on Sabri's information, but complained that it was at variance with "our best source" - a reference to the infamous "Curveball," the con-man whom German intelligence had warned the CIA not to take seriously.
You may recall hearing that on the evening before your U.N. speech, Drumheller warned Tenet not to use the information from Curveball on mobile biological weapons laboratories; Tenet gave Drumheller the brush-off.
The CIA artists' renderings of those laboratories, to which you called such prominent attention during your speech, were spiffy, but bore no relationship to reality. Tenet and McLaughlin knew this almost as well as Sabri and Habbush did.
"We have firsthand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and rails," you will recall telling the world. Later, you lamented publicly that you had not been warned about Curveball either.
McLaughlin seemed to confirm that this was so, in an interview with the Washington Post in 2006: "If someone had made those doubts clear to me, I would not have permitted the reporting to be used in Secretary Powell's speech."
This is highly disingenuous, even by McLaughlin's and Tenet's standards, since they had deliberately chosen to ignore Drumheller's warning. I know Drumheller; he is a far better bet for truthfulness that the other two.
Outright Lies
Although I am against the death penalty, I can sympathize with the vehement reaction of normally taciturn Carl Ford, head of State Department intelligence at the time. Ford has revealed that both Tenet and McLaughlin went to extraordinary lengths, and even took a personal hand in trying to salvage some credibility for the notorious Curveball.
In an interview for Hubris, a book by Michael Isikoff and David Corn, Carl Ford spared no words, asserting that Tenet's and McLaughlin's analysis "was not just wrong, they lied...they should have been shot."
Though I've been around a while, I am not the best judge of character, Colin, and perhaps I am being too credulous in giving you the benefit of the doubt concerning what you knew - or didn't. It could be, I suppose, that you were fully briefed on Naji Sabri, Habbush, Curveball, and all the rest of it, and have been able to orchestrate plausible denial.
If that is the case, I suppose it would seem safer to you to let sleeping dogs lie.
If, on the other hand, what my former colleagues say about your having been fenced off from this key intelligence is true, your reaction seems a bit ... how shall I describe it? ... understated.
Perhaps you are too long gone from the Bronx. Back there, back then, letting folks use you and make a fool of you without any response was just not done.
It was the equivalent to running away when someone was messing with your sister. And letting oneself be bullied always set a bad precedent, affirming for the bullies that they can push people around - especially understated ones - and risk nothing.
In sum, the CIA had both the Iraqi foreign minister and the Iraqi intelligence chief "turned" and reporting to us in the months before the war (in Naji Sabri's case) and the weeks before your U.N. speech (in the case of Tahir Jalil Habbush).
Both were part of Saddam Hussein's inner circle; both reported that there were no weapons of mass destruction.
But this was not what the president wanted to hear, so Tenet put the kibosh on Habbush and put Sabri on a cutter to Qatar.
So Here's Your Opportunity
Either you knew about Sabri, Habbush and Curveball, or you did not. If you knew, I suppose you will keep hunkering down, licking your blot, and hoping that plausible denial will continue to work for you.
If you were kept in the dark, though, I would think you would want to raise holy hell - if not to hold accountable those of your former superiors and colleagues responsible for the carnage of the past five years, then at least to try to wipe the "blot" off your record.
Granted, it probably strikes you as a highly unwelcome choice - whether to appear complicit or naïve. Here's an idea. Why not just tell the truth?
If House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is any guide, Congress seems quite taken with the explosive revelations in Ron Suskind's book "The Way of the World."
On Thursday, Conyers joined Suskind on Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now," and declared that he is "the third day into the most critical investigation of the entire Bush administration." (He clearly was referring to the Suskind revelations.)
Conyers emphasized that, even though Congress is in recess, "We're starting our work, and ... I'm calling everyone back. We've got a huge amount of work to engage in."
At the same time, though, Conyers said he is "maybe the most frustrated person attempting to exercise the oversight responsibilities that I have on Judiciary."
A good deal of his frustration comes from stonewalling by the Bush/Cheney administration, which will surely cite national security or executive privilege to justify withholding any damaging information.
Bush Visits CIA
It was, no doubt, pure coincidence that President Bush made a highly unusual visit to CIA headquarters, also on Thursday, before leaving for Crawford on vacation.
The official line is that he wanted an update on the situation in Georgia and the Russian role there, but Bush did not need to go to Langley for that
Rather, given the record of the past seven years, it is reasonable to suggest that he also wanted to assure malleable Mike Hayden, the CIA director, and his minions that they will be protected if they continue to stiff-arm appropriate congressional committees, denying them the information they need for a successful investigation.
Pardons dangled as hush money? Not so bizarre at all.
Some will recall that George H.W. Bush, just before leaving the White House, pardoned one of your former bosses, Casper Weinberger, who had been indicted and was about to go to trial for lying about his role in the Iran-Contra fiasco.
If past is precedent, sad to say, Conyers is not likely to get to first base, UNLESS he can get knowledgeable witnesses to come forward.
On Thursday he did not rule out a suggestion that Habbush be asked to come before Congress to testify, but the CIA can easily thwart that kind of thing - or delay it indefinitely.
In any case, your own credibility, though damaged, has got to be greater than Habbush's.
Let me suggest that you offer yourself as a witness to help clear the air on these very important issues. This would seem the responsible, patriotic thing to do in the circumstances and could also have the salutary effect of beginning the atonement process for that day of infamy at the Security Council.
If we hear no peep out of you in the coming weeks, we shall not be able to escape concluding one of two things:
(1) That, as was the case with the White House Situation Room sessions on torture, you were a willing participant in suppressing/falsifying key intelligence on Iraq; or
(2) That you lack the courage to expose the scoundrels who betrayed not only you, but also that segment of our country and our world that still puts a premium on truth telling and the law.
Think about it.
With all due respect,
Ray McGovern
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. During his 27-year career in CIA's analysis ranks, he chaired National Intelligence Estimates and briefed the President's Daily Brief to the most senior national security officials. He is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
© 2008 Consortium News
87 Comments so far
Show Allunfairly rejected. but if ur hard enough to break teeth, ima prolly lucky..
armchair, aren't you concerned you might damage your dentures?
forget politics, i wanna remove yr thong with my teeth thonggirl
Dear Mr. McGovern:
Thanks for another good article and an appeal for truth and ethical backbone. I hope you are doing well and that your health is improving. I hear from Coleen Rowley that you have been undergoing chemotherapy for a large and dangerous tumor, and I respect anyone who can be this productive and on-point, while fighting cancer.
I especially appreciate this article in the larger scope of your long work with Veteran Inteligence Professionals for Sanity.
Sometimes I wonder if all the passion for truth and ethical backbone is worthwhile, or if we should be more "realistic" and consider that for some (Karl Rove and those close to him, for example), truth and ethics don't seem to matter, except when convenient, for show, in a game of winning power. For others, to whom truth and ethics do often seem to matter (perhaps Colin Powell), perhaps there are lapses when truth and ethics are sacrificed (Vietnam, resisting massacre investigations, and the road to the 2003 Iraq invasion as prime examples). Sometimes I wonder if we should simply play the power game their way, against them.
But if we say, with some, that truth is only whatever wins the day, and ethics and justice are whatever you can (and wish to) enforce at the end of a gun, then perhaps we've lost the kind of world we want to live in and should be striving to create.
Thanks for keeping us thinking and hoping, and for helping us imagine that truth, ethics and justice can and should still matter in the kind of world we can and should hope to build out of the chaos it seems history has given us.
We owe the Bushites, including Colin Powell, a debt of gratitude. They have awakened many of us to the stupid, brutal, corrupt, mendacious, thoroughly poisonous nature of capitalism, imperialism and fundamentalist Christianity. Thank you, gentlemen. It was a capital performance. You can go now. We'll call if we need a refresher course.
I listened to the same show with John Conyers, then wrote him a letter telling him that I didn't think much of him or his cohort. I reminded him that the approval rating of Congress - at 9% and diving - is the lowest in history. I reminded him that while he may have an illustrious title, he gets no respect from me as I feel he, along with the rest of Congress, to be bag-men, and women, for this worst human being to hold power. He trots out his notions as if it just occurred to him that what we all have been watching is some sort of epiphany. I see little from the Dems to convince me that they are no better than those who stole the government from under their noses. I see little to respect or even recognize. Far as I'm concerned, we witnessed a coup and we have done not a damn thing about it expect wear our collective keyboards out as the cowards we all are. Shame on us for allowing this government to retain power for one more day.
..and its nice to see ray still has his teeth out and sharpened..havent seen his analysis much lately since his fine, sane brooklyn-stand against the iraq war
ray left out the thrid possible reason colin wont come forward with truth that could set things right: career-selfishness. thats right folks, colin is coming back, by his estimation, as early as the next administration. fuk blots, they can be forgotten, but the CAREER must go on. unfortunately, colin is apparently unaware that we dont want him, as his lies killed thousands. better to fess up like a man from broooooklynnn and stay retired.
To everyone who responded to this article and to those who did not.
The People of the USA can set an example for the world, truly earn a reputation worthy of following, and make their system of Government the absolute envy of the world as well as history.
First they must see to it that their Government is truly in their hands, and not just a few. That the military power they possess will never be used in a fashion that it has for so long now. That the people of the USA are a People who live by their creed; instead of making it a mockery.
They can take the Bush administration----all of them. Bring them to the Hague before the world court to be tried as War Criminals.
Take their fortunes, and deny them to their heirs, instead--- distribute them to the people whim they have injured the most. Wherever they are.
Teach the children in the lowest levels that the USA even though it was founded upon a noble concept, never lived up to that potential until the begining of the 21st century; but at least they did the right thing.
There would be much more work to do, but this is most likely the only first move that should be made. Anything else would be an absolute mockery to justice, and humanity, and the people of the USA could expect nothing else but the disrespect and disgust of the entire world, for the rest of their history-----and for as long as history will be recorded.
In the History of the World there has never been a Nation like the United States of America, the American people are the only ones who can assure that they are the most shining and positive example for the world.
Presently they are light years from that goal.
Today, on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now show which Ray has oft quoted, she states that the CIA abducted and held in a black-ops facility the 7 year-old and 9 year-old sons of a "suspected" leader of Al Qaeda. I doubt this is a first or a last but anyone connected to the CIA then or now is equally guilty in my estimation. Should one of these agents be murdered and should I be selected as a juror for their act, I would have no problem reaching a not guilty verdict. The entire CIA deserves to be incarcerated, possibly at Gitmo after Bush leaves. And, hopefully, the keys to the facility will be handed over to the Cubans for interrogation.
I hope Powell can come clean. If it was done correctly- that is courageously and honestly- with lots of copies of his statement for the WORLD press- and stressing the LIES of BuschCo (for those religious enough among us, and to stick it to Bush's so-called "faith base"- certainly "base" with NO faith!)- he has a chance of a "butterfly effect" that can tie in to other brave whistle-blowers.
In fact, if all the Bush (I and II) whistle blowers did a "Truth Tour" and met every world and progressive and other Journalist- kept THAT message up- even the crappy media MIGHT deal with it- at least more people would have access to truth, and the truth is about all we have- are guns a realistic option? I hope not!
BTW, Woodward's book is titled,
"PLAN OF ATTACK".
It is a must read for any who want to know how Bush 'secretly' planned to insure he would be able to attack Iraq with the Okay and majority support of the public and our Congress. He's smart, but he wasn't smart enough to not tell Bob Woodwar how he planned it, knowing it was "on tape", of how he did it.
`
Powell was the only only in Bush's cabinet who argued with Bush and Bush has said so. Powell fought tooth and nail with Cheney. Powell definently was out of the loop after that. They set him up, The 2002 NIE report should have been read to the Congrss and the UN by George Tenet. Read the "TAPED" interviews that Bob Woodward published. They were the 'taped' words of Bush, Cheney, Powell, Franks, Rice and Rumsfeld. ___ Incredible.
Colin put HIS name on MY Doctrine (the "Powell
Doctrine"). He's not talking because he's 41's
boy.
Powell only speaks through his proxy, Col. Wilkerson, who has been pushing the whole "babe in the woods" picture of Powell - that he was out of the loop.
I think Ray McGovern is being a little ironic in this essay. He's trying to consider Powell as a little better than he is.
The true picture of Powell was painted by journalist Robert Parry at ConsortiumNews.com here. Powell has made his career covering up for the war crimes of his superiors.
Again,
When wondering why Powell didn't resign before the speech, and why he's so conspicuous in not coming forward, think on this:
Dictator Bush and his henchman Cheney have the capability of harming or "offing" people or their family members. There can be no other plausible explanation of why CP will not recant, and why Pelosi took impeachment off the table, and why Brenner is gone from the scene, the weapons inspector "committed suicide", the madam "committed suicide", the quirky anthrax scientist "committed suicide".
Bush lied and has killed over 4100 brave troops to get the guy who threatened "his dad".
What makes anyone think he would stop at silencing anyone who has the truth from the inner sanctum? It's easy. He's the decider err dictator! With lots of money and scumbags to make it happen to CP or his family of he tells the evidence of the lies.
BTW: I am not a conspiracy nut. This is the only plausible explanation for the lack of push-back and truth-telling against Bush.
doodledoo August 16th, 2008 5:41 pm
"Would you settle for democratic socialism? It's working in Venezuela"
And it will "work" for a part of the citizenry as long as the oil money holds out. There is no economy to speak of left and there certainly seems to be a lack of prosperity in the rural areas.
Agreed PK, but don't you feel it a bit disingenuous for anyone who claims not to have known back when he made the speech that he was lying? To say that this is only now coming out is simply wrong.
Powells only purpose was to give the Public the Illusion that some intergity remained inside of its Government.
His mea Culpa is merely his continuing to play that role.
He could have resigned BEFORE giving that speech at the UN. He did not. Now he wants to somehow pretend that his hands were clean of the whole sordid mess.
As far as "character" goes I think these are the worst type. They wait until they see which way the wind blows and then try and take the position that sets them in the best light.
Had the lies of the Iraqi war not have been exposed, but were kept from the public to this day, he would like as not still be in the cabinet playing along with his fellow war criminals. His reputation, impeccable.
Thats the thing about reputations. They very often have nothing to do with truth.
PK
If Mr. McGovern is as smart as he seems, you must know he has plenty on all sorts of corrupted CIA types. I expect that like local cops, these guys have some sort of 'blue wall' which they stupidly believe keeps them from being completely upfront. Our intelligence services have been under attack for years and the fact they are corrupted is not new or exclusive to the handful of blogger types we have here. Under Clinton we heard plenty of talk of disbanding only to be shut down. I expect the level of corruption goes beyond just the CIA and beyond the Justice guys too. It simply isn't enough to pick and choose which guys to out and which to ignore. If credibility is the goal, this is the time to step up and show your true patriotism. We want all the names, places and events that were illegal under our Constitution and we want them now. We want all the proof and we want it now. The Powell story is surely not new or surprising to anyone. We want Tenet ad we want those close to Casey to stand trial and pay the piper. Anything else is a side show.
Do you remember the day when Tenet sat behind Powell as he spoke to the UN? Do you remember the look on Tenet's face? If I live to be 1000 I will always remember the smile pasted on his face, his eyes downcast, his shoulders up around his ears like he was trying to disappear.
For this performance he was awarded the Medal of Freedom.
since1492:
-of course Collin can read...he read the WMD report at the UN and didnt blink did he? was that a samwich cart he mistook for a WMD luancher? humm..
AndChomskyMakesThree 11:38 pm said:
"Democratic socialism in Venezuela is forever teetering on the edge. It's longevity is far from a sure thing."
Of course you're right, Chavez certainly has his hands full, but in the overall picture, for the past 10 years he has been steadily advancing. The saddest of the three examples is the 'reformist, bureaucratic right wing of the Bolivarian movement' that aided in the defeat of the PSUV unification referendum. A classic case of the left eating its own - an activity not exclusively Venezuelan (the US Greens are also guilty of this, as is Ralph Nader). They seem unable to realize that unless egos are suppressed and reasonable compromises made for the sake of unity, real progressive advancement is made extremely difficult if not impossible.
NDNative,
The author's 27 tenure in the CIA makes his writings itself questionable. Maybe he's still getting retirement benefits from the agency for all we know. Of course Colin and Tenet are guilty as sin but they chose to associate themselves with a corrupt system known as the CIA and its misleaders the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld gang who would not have come to power were it not for the existence of the CIA. Federal employees get plenty of retirement benefits long after they've finished, something you won't find with most other kinds of employees.
Most of the comments on this site have a very piss poor understanding of the corrupt system. Ray Mcgovern may have written outstanding articles in the past 2-3 years but ask him to help boost efforts to reform the CIA and he'll refuse. Like Colin and Algore, he chose to be nothing more than a mere puppet under the worst criminal government agency known as the CIA and while he may write outstanding articles, he's done nothing to push for solutions so he's all talk and no play whether LOSERS such as Mister FARTING Chips like it or not.
tumbleweed August 17th, 2008 10:06 am
I have to agree with you. Powell is guilty of association with low hanging fruit and it cost him his reputation, which I'm sure he bitterly regrets.
Remarks of Coward and racist insults are petty at best.
The people you associate with define you seems to be the general attitude here.
Mister Chips,
Please name one accomplishment the CIA has actually done for this country and I know that keeping America safe is not one of them. Otherwise, what is the point of keeping a big government agency as the CIA as FrederickJohnson correctly pointed out?
By the way, Ray Mcgovern may write very "nice" articles but if he's as concerned as he claims on paper, then why isn't he devoting his time and energy towards reforming the CIA or even abolishing it altogether? And why aren't the Democrats or even the so-called "Libertarians" standing up to the uber-corrupt CIA? At times, Mr. Ray Mcgovern reminds me of Algore who'd write and complain about global warming but in the end choose to side with the anti-environmentalists.
This North Dakotan may be sick and tired of conservatives wrecking this country with their own version of big government but until and unless the liberals actually stand up to this nonsense, they can STFU !
I just want to ask Colin Powell one thing: when you made that bogus claim about Saddam Hussein supporting the alleged Al Qaeda backed Al Ansari, were you aware (you had to be!) that Al Ansari was operating in Northern Iraq which is controlled by the US backed Kurds? How could Saddam Hussein supported this? There was a strict no-fly zone at the time. So Colin, when you made that false claim, did you do it thinking the American people were stupid and grossly uninformed? You had to.
I used to have a lot of respect for Colin Powell! Until he chose to become part of the Bush Cabinet. It was obvious then that the rotten apples in that barrel would eventually corrupt any decent man who came close to it. Eventually destroying any good name they might have had. So the biggest mistake I see Colin having made was even choosing to become part of that sad corrupt administration. It's like the old saying goes 'guilty by association'!
How did Colin become one of our heroes anyway? He was in with the Bush crime family from the beginning. It is time that we stop raising war criminals of any kind to any level of respect or legitimacy. People who hold guns or put guns in the hands of others to kill innocent people are nothing more than thugs and murderers. That is what Colin has always been and in my eyes will always be. Patsy that he is, he will never expose the true criminality that has us in Iraq and has millions of innocent Iraqis in their graves.
HA HA HA , Colin Powell has come clean and the world and USA know the invasion was wrong
BUT, BUT, BUT
America is still there and not leaving and killing on a daily bases. If america wanted to do the right thing they would be out of there in a minute. america is there for one reason to control the area just like why they are in Georgia, Poland, etc etc. Wake up bloggers this story is 3 or 4 years old.
Well ~GDE~ the potential that Saddam would indeed use WMDs on our troops, was one reason Powell advised Bush it was a mistake to invade Iraq. He trusted the NIE report as he and Congress should have been able to trust it. Who would have imagned Tenet would commit such a horrific crime?
Now Mondays later of course, we can ALL imagine it. We can imagine anything Bish may do, including declaring martial law and taking over. If he does, King Goerge lives, the War For Independence was for naught.
The point that the CIA, or at least the operational side of it, has done so much harm it should be abolished is a good one.
Powell knew the WMD issue was bogus. The US military would never have committed to the re-invasion of ground troops if Hussein really had WMDs, because he would then have had the obligation to use them while the Army was massing up in Kuwait.
Read ~Bob Woodward's~ book about the lead up events to the invasion of Iraq. It is absolutely incredible, and our "trusty" MSM mocked the book, implying it was only a political effort by Woodward to insure Bush was defeated by Kerry.
Woodward had taped personal interviews with Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, and general Franks, etc. The ONLY person interviewed who displayed a lick of sense, common or uncommon, was Colin Powell. it was published,--- taped,--- comments,--- by those men, political or not is a moot issue. It was their spoken words. ___ No credible arguments.
More than once, Colin Powell advised Bush that an invasion of Iraq was wrong, a stupid error, and to not do it. Bush admitted to Woodward that Powell had advised him so. He ignored Colin Powell, and shortly after Bush replaced him with Rice. Powell is not the PROVEN criminal here, Bush and his gang are.
You beat me to it ~WILMOOR~ 1:49pm.
I personally do believe one thing about all of this. I believe Colin Powell was NOT aware that our then CIA director George Tenet, had altered the 2002 NIE report. Powell was unaware of that most serious crime.
Tenent committed the crime of the last 200+ years in this country. As Powell was reading that report to Congress, Tenent should have stopped him and told __ ALL, EVERYBODY, __"I hate to tell you this Colin, but last month, George Bush and Dick Cheney ORDERED ME to ALTER this NIE report, as to the specific concerns about Saddam WMDs, this NIE report is TOTALLY FALSE."
Tenet then should have added, "Saddanm has no WMDs and he also never purchased uuranium from Africa or anyone else, as President Bush recently publically stated and Bush knows that is a fact and that he lied to the American public and the citizens of the entire world."
Tenet didn't do that, if he had, he would have prevented all of the incredible messes Bush has made and Bush and Cheney would have been inpeached and Tenet would have been a true patriot and his medal would have been appropriate.
Tenet may get away with it, but he has to forever live with what he personally has allowed. Of course he probably does live with it like Cheney and Bush do. NO consciences. They are consumed with evil.
When you get elevated to the Master's House, you play by the rules or else! Powell was a willing patsy, a man whose ambition was much larger than his conscience.
But then there are many like him in the White House.
www.dangerouscreation.com
Thank you Ray for your continued fight against the tyrants running the U.S. government.
Mister Chips took the words right out of my mouth.
Hope your health is well Ray.
Frederick Johnson,
Are you just so frustrated, or are you just spewing shit like some agent-provocateur. Having followed Ray McGovern's efforts for the last 2 or 3 years, I know how frustrating it must be for him to go out every day to confront this beast. So why don't you put up or shut up. Criticism is one thing, but vilely attacking a person who actually has put his life on the line should be a bit embarrassing.
doodledoo,
Democratic socialism in Venezuela is forever teetering on the edge. It's longevity is far from a sure thing.
"...we see the dangers that threaten the Venezuelan revolution: a capitalist state apparatus which has not been destroyed and that is acting to sabotage the revolution, an economy which is still under the control of the oligarchy, which uses it to sabotage the revolution, and a reformist, bureaucratic right wing of the Bolivarian movement which is doing its best to block the revolutionary initiative of the masses and prevent the revolution from being completed and thus undermining its social base of support.
"If these problems remain unsolved, the Bolivarian revolution will be defeated."
Martin, Jorge "Venezuela Six Years after the Coup" 11 April 2008 http://www.marxist.com/venezuela-six-years-after-coup.htm
Dear Ray Mcgovern,
Since you already know how corrupt the CIA is, why don't you just shut up or join Chalmers Johnson in calling for an abolition of the CIA ? The CIA has been nothing but a total menace to America and the rest of this planet. As a matter of fact, the CIA really did nothing to stop the Cold war and has in fact kept it going until enough was enough on both sides. The Bush dynasty wouldn't have come to power without the CIA. Now stop supporting BIG GOVERNMENT and save us taxpayers our money and give us back our security by working on ABOLISHING the CIA or SHUT UP !
Colin could write detailed confessions implicating everyone, record them on videotape, make copies and mail them to every news outlet in the world.
Then, in honor of the dead whose blood is on his hands, He Could Eat His Gun.
Peace.
General Powell, you missed your opportunity to be a patriot like Gen. Smedley Butler, and expose the corruption in our government. However you can redeem your self respect, and expose the corruption, after the fact. it's not too late to honor your oath of office to your nation.
Mordechai like his namesake , Esther's uncle says it all in almost less than twenty-five words or less . The billions of words spoken or written for or against the invasion are just so much window dressing
"Powell is no different than most of the American people: he turned against the debacle in Iraq not because it is a crime but simply because it didn't work out."
It's funny, my sense when Powell gave his UN speech (as I was screaming at my TV about how bogus Powells "facts" were) was that Tenet was sitting right behind him like a captor or security guard...making sure he said "the right thing"...just my sense as I watched the fiasco?? and if I remember correctly there were other US officials there too and my thought was...they've even got the doors covered...!!!
Food for thought there Mr. Powell.
Mr. McGovern has lost his touch. Colin Powell should be charged with treason for his part in fixing intelligence. That phrase should be inserted in every single piece of written material by anyone who loves, or did love, this country. Why he would give Powell an out is suspicious but maybe he is simply playing coy because he knows something that we don't. And when will the cowardice of so many U.S. citizens end? When will people stand up and demand justice for the many crimes of this administration? Is there so many who fear justice? Why is no one in Congress suggesting an offer of clemency with exile to this administration? Not that I recommend we accept it from them, but the tone needs to change from blatant cowardice to in-your-face rude demands for a fast trial and, with a conviction, a rush to select a firing squad. I for one, hope they auction off positions on the many squads they will need to restore justice.
Sipuku is about the only way I see that Powell could regain his honor.
cruz_ctri
The greed of capitalism makes them stupid!
How can anybody like George W. Bush?
PissantNobody 12:00 pm said:
"... but that will never happen this side of communist revolution - which is exactly what we need."
Would you settle for democratic socialism? It's working in Venezuela.
Colin Powell owes the USA and the world a substantial mea culpa for his complicity with the Bush crime family. Powell should follow the example of Scott McClellan and come clean about what he knows before November.
All liars are cowards. This is the reason why Powell will never come forward because it takes bravery to tell the truth after telling so many lies.
Too bad his military dischage status can't be changed to DISHONORABLE.
>>>wilmoor
Good points! I'd forgotten my own disbelief at Pelosi taking "impeachment off the table". What could have possibly driven her to such a statement? The implied threat of personal harm.
Don Siegelman was the gov in Alabama whom Rove and his operatives got railroaded right into jail.
I believe the American people, for the most part being very good human beings, refuse to fathom in their imaginations what Bush and his henchman Cheney are capable of doing to people.
We live under the shadow of a closet fascist president who, with money and power behind him, will do harm to anyone who peeps a word of serious truth about the inner sanctum.
And now he threatens us all with his idiotic rhetoric against Russia and the announcement of the Polish missile defense agreement. Over the last 3-4 days pundits have casually been talking of military engagement of Russia. We must impeach before he gets a message from God to unilaterally free the Russian people with the use of nuclear weapons.
Evidently, Colin Powell got on-the-job training in cover-ups when he was an army major in 1968. He was the officer assigned to "investigate" a letter detailing the My Lai massacre (among others) of March 16, 1968.
"Powell's handling of the assignment was later characterized by some observers as "whitewashing" the atrocities of My Lai." (See Cover-up and Investigations at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre )
George Bush made Powell Secy of State to add wisdom and prestige to a Cabinet comprised of Bush-like sociopaths and fawning bootlickers. Turns out Powell was just as much the bootlicker; he just did it more respectably. Bush also knew Powell would give more credibility to the Iraq invasion by putting on that charade before the U.N. in '03.
Sure, Powell's determination to "do the right thing" could salvage what's left of his reputation and, possibly, that of our country before the world. But he drank the neo-con kool-aid years ago and it appears he still finds it palatable.
..... and CHICKEN (SHIT)
Powell's career has never been a demonstration of either integrity or courage. He learned long ago to get along by going along, and to this day, I don't think he understands where he went wrong.
Oh, to war criminal, coward, also add FOOL to the list.
I laid eyeballs on Powell once in the same room back in the 1980s. I saw a furtive soul with downcast eyes and a secret agenda. I took an immediate scunner to him the same way I felt instantaneous dislike when I first saw Duhhbya and Cheney. But even troubled souls like Powell's, deep in internal histories of making dark arrangements within themselves, can be compelled by sudden realizations that kick them into reversing course. The only way he could ever restore the honor of his family name--and maybe even make a political come-back down the road--is if he truly comes clean now. Otherwise, as the nation descends deeper into fascism driven by illegal war-mongers never held to account by Powell, his profound personal guilt will eat him alive. Tenet fell on his sword to lie and cover for Bush. Powell needs to fall on his sword and tell the truth. I still suspect Powell is a better man than Tenet. It's just a feeling I have and I'm an excellent judge of character.
This Powell is a coward. It's easy to play "hero" as a general of the world's super power invading, on false pretense, defenseless 3rd word countries. everyone can do that.
His performance at the UN exposed him to be a no good, uncle Tom, Oreo COWARD!!!!
But more importantly he is a WAR CRIMINAL.
Let's go back a bit further:
In Cairo, on February 24 2001, Powell said: "He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors."
Before CP starts his "blot" removal process, (blot meaning war crimes and treasonous lying to the America people,) maybe he should explain how, just a few months later, CP was saying shit like, ""With respect to nuclear weapons, we are quite confident that Saddam continues to try to pursue the technology that would allow him to develop a nuclear weapon," and "We know that he has been working hard on developing a means to disseminate those [chemical and biological] weapons," and "And let's just recognize the fact that Saddam has them (chemical/biological weapons,)" and on and on and on.
Here's how to atone for your crimes - er, blots - CP: The Hague. Confess. Spill all the beans. Dedicate the rest of your life to helping others for free.
Or go f**k yourself.
"You have not yet summoned the courage to admit it, but I think I know you well enough to believe you have a Lady Macbeth-type conscience problem that goes far beyond the spot on your record.
With 4,141 American soldiers - not to mention hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens - dead, and over 30,000 GIs badly wounded, how could you not?"
Ok ... I hated the fact that Powell didnt have the cojones to buck the neo-cons then and frankly he's become irrelevant ever since. However, I do think laying the blame on the Iraq war with all the related dead and wounded at his feet is a friggin stretch. So I suppose Bush and his Dick and the other neo-cons can sleep well coz you know its Powells fault. BS (read: Bullshit).
This article is too long, but the personal part at the beginning is compelling and great.
Past and present duplicities of the Bush administration dovetail perfectly. Along
with idiocy, misrepresentation and hypocrisy then and now.
Take Condoleeza Rice's present statement (and the fact that she is black like Colin Powell is totally irrelevant-- Barack Obama is quite black, too).
"If Russia wants to be considered a respected member of the international community," she says, "it needs to honor its committment to a peaceful settlement."
This is about Georgia, of which German premier Angela Merkel has had the good sense to say, "Both sides are probably to blame."
It is one thing to be an idiot. Don't we need peaceful settlement in Iraq, too:
i.e., complete American withdrawal?
But to try and speak for the "international
community?" That is the specious, overweening
rhetoric of this horrible presidency (which John McCain seeks in all ways to continue). One simply wants to throw a pie in somebody's face.
It's one thing to be an idiot. But then not to recognize it in the least? Deportation of all neocons to the Andromeda Galaxy seems the only sensible recourse.
A Black Heart and a Foggy Bottom.
Powell's legacy is his U.N. lie.
We are getting so many Catholics in government now because they make a sacrament of :Sin - Absolution - Repeat (not repent)
Powell was more than happy to take credit for beating the crap out of a third world military. With coalition help!! I forget the words he used to describe the awesome power of the Iraq military. Thank you Ray for taking powell to task.
I'm with You_Decide. This is the only rational that has made any sense to me several times, but especially for the total turn-around of Pelosi, Reid, and other dems after they were elected in '06.
Look what they did to the ex Governor (his name escapes me) down south, just to get their person elected. I don't believe they'd stop at anything to get what they want or to save their sorry a$$es.
Powell, Bush, Cheney, Feith, Addington, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Libby and many others need to be tried in an open and fair trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
BUT as we all should know, only militarily defeated criminals ever pay for their crimes.
Seen any victors on trial lately?
"Only then will "the truth out."
Not with all the paper shredding and tape erases this bunch is known for. I'd bet that even in the four years after they're gone, trying to find anything on them would be harder than finding your ancestors who lived in 208 BC!
"Justice will not come to Athens (read America) until those who are not injured are as indignant as those who are injured."
Thucydides 460-431 BC
Powel needs to be a bit more indignant over how his moral auhtority and reputtaion has been besmirched by the Bush Administration.
We off the block this year
Lied a little and a lot this year
Everybody mad at the lies that I wear
I d ontknow where I'm goin' and I forgot where I'm from
You hear my LIES in your ear
Yea, we're at the Bagdad airport warpigging out
Where every Iraqi air-forced-out
With a new white boss, I'm fresh
Its all phony with us, we make the money, get the mansion, bring the Neocon homies with us
Don't be fooled by the lies that I rock
I'm still, I'm still Colin from the block
Used to lie a little, now I hide a lot
No matter where I am, I know where I'm going (under some rock!)
Don't be fooled by the lies that I rock
I'm still, I'm still Colin from the block
Used to lie a little, now I hide a lot
No matter where I go, I know where I came from (from the Bronx!)
From Gulf War machinations and CIA death scripts
then on to Iran on more "Curveball" tips
Lies unfounded as the oil rolls in
It's unreal, I thought I told you
It's surreal, even on dope yeah.
That's just me
Being phony, don't hate on me
What you get is what you see
Don't be fooled by the lies that I rock
I'm still, I'm still Colin from the block
Used to lie a little, now I hide a lot
No matter where I am, I know where I'm going (under some rock!)
Don't be fooled by the lies that I rock
I'm still, I'm still Colin from the block
Used to lie a little, now I hide a lot
No matter where I go, remember where I came from (from the Bronx!)
I'll help Bush rule the earth like this
Rockin this oily business
I've lied to you so much
Nuts in control and I'm loving it
WMD rumors got me laughing, kid
Screw your life and the public
Put Bush first
Then you can forget what is real
To me lying is like breathing
Don't be fooled by the lies that I rock
I'm still, I'm still Colin from the block
Used to lie a little, now I hide a lot
No matter where I am, I know where I am going (under some rock!)
Don't be fooled by the lies that I rock
I'm still, I'm still Colin from the block
Used to lie a little, now I hide a lot
No matter where I go, remember where I came from (from the Bronx!)
It take hard work to cash Bush checks
So don't be fooled by the lies that I rock, now assets
I get paid back, if I put out
Even if you take the back route
Can't count this hood out
After a while, you know who to fink with
Just keep it real with the Neocons that I came with
Best thing to do is stay low, and hide
Act like I don't know that I lied
Don't be fooled by the lies that I rock
I'm still, I'm still Colin from the block
Used to lie a little, now I hide a lot
No matter where I go, I know where I came from (from the Bronx!)
Don't be fooled by the lies that I rock
I'm still, I'm still Colin from the block
Used to lie a little, now I hide a lot
No matter where I go, remember where I'm going (to Hell)
It looks like what will be needed some time during the next four years is a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission," similar to the one held in South Africa.
Only then will "the truth out."
You rule, Ray. I hope you are doing well.
Gen Powel could change the perspective that History (that is non-revisionist history) will place upon him by being the first of the Bush Administration to surrender himself to the Hague, and "turn evidence" in the following trials of the Bush administration for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity-------
But since I only bet on "whores races I can rig" I'll not be placing any bets on the above scenario
Any takers?
Colin Powell, to my understanding, played an instrumental role in Viet Nam in trying to cover up Phoenix Program atrocities such as My Lai (aka My Lie). So his path was chosen. Powell may or may not have a conscience which is trying to get out--maybe it's not too late. He still comes off as just one of the long line of sycophantic generals who last only as long as they are useful to the psychopathic organgrinders trying to rule the World
General Powell was a soldier who followed orders. Bush expected and got the same from him in the Cabinet. We, the people expected he would serve us, not "him". We, the people, were wrong about that. Too much military habit.
"On Thursday, Conyers joined Suskind on Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now," and declared that he is "the third day into the most critical investigation of the entire Bush administration." (He clearly was referring to the Suskind revelations.)"
Before John Conyers gets too hung-up on past investigations, he might want to consider investigating the current Georgia/Russia/Ukraine issue, since "Cheney's chief foreign policy advisor was working as a lobbyist for Saakashvili".
There seems to be some controversy about this issue; and there might be some revelations here! Check it out: http://newstatesman.com/europe/2008/08/georgia-russia-ukraine-cheney
No redemption for Powell is possible. He can divorce his wife and marry Consolidated Rice-A-Roni and live happily ever after, hanging out with the likes of Henry Kissinger and other great war criminals of yesteryear. Powell is no different than most of the American people: he turned against the debacle in Iraq not because it is a crime but simply because it didn't work out.
How Colin Powell could redeem himself:
Stand on the Whitehouse lawn in full view of the MSM cameras, read a complete *mea culpa* that includes a disclosure of all criminal and traitorous activities and actions committed by the Bush Regime, demand a thorough LEGAL investigation of the events of 9/11, and the immediate arrest and trial of all principles in the Bush Regime for Crimes Against Humanity.
Then draw his service pistol, put the barrel in his mouth, and pull the trigger on live TV.
Powell is a loyal bushie, has been since the cover up of that massacre in Vietnam; tho at that time he was just a loyal warrior, who espoused the view my country right but never wrong.
If the usa were a just society then he, along with bush et al, would spend the rest of their days in a cage waiting for their 'god' to call them to hell.
Right on, Jacob Freeze!
Powell is a mass murderer, and deserves a life behind bars, but that will never happen this side of communist revolution - which is exactly what we need.
Ray,
There is a 3rd conclusion we could draw from CP's lack of coming forward to talk. It is far darker than the 2 you correctly draw, but I believe given the megalomaniacal tendencies of Bush/Cheney we must begin to consider it. So here it is.
3. There exists an implied threat of violence or "accidental" or self-inflicted death against anyone of the inner circle who shines a light on the truth.
Perhaps paranoia is setting in on me, but humor me on a couple of examples of strange deaths over the last few years.
1. David Kelly, the weapons inspector guy in the UK who adamantly stated there were no WMD's and who shortly after returning to the UK "committed suicide".
2. The madam with the black book which allegedly contained names of very high-up administration and other governmental officials, who later "committed suicide".
3. The quirky anthrax scientist who had access to the same genetic anthrax as 100+ other people, and found himself being accused and hung in the FCM without a shred of evidence. After his "suicide" the case was considered closed.
Remember. This is a "president" who lied to take us to war to finish off the guy who threatened his daddy. 4000+ brave soldiers dead. Many thousands horribly hurt. Do we really think he wouldn't find a way to threaten a few people here at home? If only it were a dictatorship it would be easy...
General Powell,
With all due respect, If ever the concept of "patriotic duty, honor and preservation of the United States' Constitution, fought and died for by our greatest historical figures, with full and complete awareness of the consequences", means a damned thing to you, then you MUST step forward in an unabridged attempt to protect the most basic and necessary moral fabric that binds this nation.
We all know you have it in you to "do the right thing". You MUST show the world that these crimes can not stand! The example you can set, during these very precarious times, will have the moral gravity necessary in restoring integrity and credibility to our truly tarnished standing. You know this is true, just as you also know that the best soldiers we've ever fronted . . . wouldn't hesitate in righting such an egregious affront to Democracy. Please help this nation . . . and may God help you!
"They should have been shot."
McGovern's quote from Carl Ford gets it exactly right.
Tenet and McLaughlin should have been shot for treason, and if Colin Powell was a willing participant in the same lies that sent so many of our brave soldiers to die for nothing and less than nothing in Iraq, then stand him up against the wall with Tenet and McLaughlin and shoot him like the miserable traitor that he is. Or...
Let's just put a shit-eating grin on our faces and pretend that it was all politics as usual, and let the liars who put us in Iraq live out long and happy lives just like the gang of liars who put us in Vietnam, and the next gang of liars that sacrifices the lives of our brave soldiers for the sake of some miserable political agenda.
ray ray ray
asking powell to belly up to the bar and tell the truth.....cmon
powell is a coward and a liar - he has no apparent moral fabric and is the intellectual equivalent of bugs bunny
he made his bones covering up the mai lai massacre during the vietnam debacle
he is right wing war scum - and if the best you can do is appeal to his sense of patriotism then we are without the proverbial snowball's chance in hell
you might s well ask bush to confirm that he has never, actually, i mean really, talked to god
good luck with that
Bush, Cheney, Condi and the rest of the neocons who have the blood of our brave and patriotic soldiers on their hands, need to be incarcerated for their war crimes like any other war criminal. Colin would become a hero in my book, if he could testify before a War Crimes Tribunal and put these traitors to America where they belong.
Colin can redeem himself, somewhat, before a War Crimes Tribunal by telling the truth at last.
Powell lost his ability to speak the truth when he became a man.
I hope that Colin can read. And that he wants to do what is right for his country.
Hoa binh