Democrats Focusing on Powell's Speech; Who Fed Him False Info?

[sabra]

Source: ABC News Blotter

The long-awaited testimony of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former CIA Director George Tenet on prewar intelligence on Iraq has been postponed while the members continue to interview key players in the events leading up to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell's infamous 2003 speech at the United Nations.

Congressman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, sent letters to both Rice and Tenet yesterday to inform them of the delay, saying it was "to allow additional time for the Committee to conduct interviews and review documents relating to the White House's use of prewar intelligence."

The committee's letter stated the committee has been conducting interviews and depositions of "senior government officials with knowledge of prewar intelligence about Iraq's nuclear program," including John McLaughlin, former deputy director of the CIA, and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell.

McLaughlin and Wilkerson were both in the room with then-CIA Director Tenet and then-Secretary of State Powell when drafting and rehearsing Powell's February 2003 speech, in which he claimed Iraq had ongoing nuclear and biological weapons programs.

Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/06/rice_and_tenet_.html

[seemslikeadream]

1. YES - Who Fed Him False Info?

WHO?

[aquart]

8. Must have been Mary Poppins.

It went down so smooth.

[niyad]

2. hearing that lying POS powell the other day makes me despise him even more--he STILL refuses to take

responsibility for the fact that he LIED to us, to the UN, mouthing what he KNEW was false information, and blaming it on the intelligence community. everyone around the world knew saddam didn't have wmd's, wasn't involved with al-qaeda or 9-11--everyone except the warmongering thugs and liars in this maladministration.

powell hinting that he would be happy to be a part of a new administration--even a democratic one? any democrat who would take him on loses my vote instantly. this man has lied from the beginning of his career--let us remind anyone who talks about him with respect that one of his first acts in the military was the attempt to cover up MyLai.

[rcdean]

5. Can you document that?

>"...one of his first acts in the military was the attempt to cover up MyLai."

I thought he became a whore on the day of his UN speech. It would be surprising to learn that he was one all along.

[UpInArms]

6. here you go!

http://www.answers.com/topic/my-lai-massacre

The My Lai Massacre (pronounced mee-lye) (Vietnamese: thảm sát Mỹ Lai) was the massacre of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians, mostly women and children, by U.S. soldiers on March 16, 1968, in the hamlet of My Lai, during the Vietnam War. It prompted widespread outrage around the world and reduced American support at home for the war in Vietnam. The massacre is also known as the Son My Massacre (Vietnamese: thảm sát Sơn Mỹ) or sometimes as the Song My Massacre.<1>

<snip>

Cover-up

Initial investigations of the My Lai incident were undertaken by the 11th Light Infantry Brigade's Commanding Officer, Colonel Oran Henderson, under orders from Americal Division Assistant Commanding Officer, Brigadier General Young. Henderson interviewed several soldiers involved in the incident, then issued a written report in late April claiming that approximately 22 civilians were inadvertently killed during the military operation in My Lai. The army at this time was still describing the event as a military victory resulting in the deaths of 128 enemies.

Six months later, a 21 year old soldier of the 11th Light Infantry named Tom Glen wrote a letter accusing the Americal Division (and other entire units of the US 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, charged with investigating the letter, which did not specifically reference My Lai (Glen had no knowledge of the events there). 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 My Lai, and questions would continue to remain undisclosed to the public. On 4 May 2004, Powell, then United States Secretary of State, said to Larry King, "I mean, I was in a unit that was responsible for My Lai. I got there after My Lai happened. So, in war, these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they are still to be deplored."<7>

...more...

[EFerrari]

15. Well done. n /t

[UpInArms]

16. I didn't even go into his links to the Iran-Contra affair

Behind Colin Powell's Legend -- Iran-Contra Amnesia

In 1984-85, as the Iran-contra storm clouds began to build, one-star Gen. Colin Powell was the "filter" for information flowing to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. It would be what knowledge flowed through that "filter" that investigators would try to determine years later -- a mystery still relevant as Powell's political star rises and his importance to Bob Dole's 1996 campaign grows.

When Iran-contra broke in 1986-87, Powell would claim to know next to nothing about unlawful 1985 shipments of U.S. weapons from Israel to Iran -- or about illegal third-country financing of the Nicaraguan contra rebels. But was the general lying? The documentary record made clear certainly that his boss, Weinberger, knew a great deal.

Weinberger, a close adviser to President Reagan, was one of the first officials outside the White House to learn that Reagan had put the arm on Saudi Arabia to give the contras $1 million a month in 1984, as Congress cut off aid. Like Weinberger, Powell was a very close friend to Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador who handled that transaction. Powell and Bandar, who had met in the 1970s, were frequent tennis partners.

But exactly when Weinberger learned of the Saudi contributions and what he told Powell are still not clear. On June 20, 1984, Weinberger attended a State Department meeting on the contras, and his scribbled notes cited the need to "plan for other sources for $." But secrecy would be vital, the defense secretary understood. "Keep US fingerprints off," he wrote.

...more...

does this tie into those Bandar bribes?

[EFerrari]

17. Powell: "I was nowhere near here, right now."

lol

[DemoTex]

18. Don't forget Powell's involvement in Iran-Contra in the Reagan years.

Colin Powell makes Lady Macbeth look like Mother Theresa.


Out, damned spot!

[Rydz777]

3. I thought I detected an inconsistency in Powell's interview. First,

he said that there were some people in the room who knew the intelligence was wrong but they didn't speak up. Later he said that he didn't think he was deliberately deceived. I thought at the time: why isn't he asked the names of those who didn't speak up?

[Solly Mack]

4. Powell didn't eat anything he didn't want to eat

and he didn't spew back anything he didn't want to spew back

[StarryNite]

7. Powell has blood on his hands.

[Solly Mack]

10. Yes he does

[gratuitous]

9. Better late than never, I guess

Though if one of your loved ones has been killed or maimed in this little exercise in American imperialism, it sucks to be you.

A little investigation into whether the rationales for launching the invasion of Iraq probably should have been done in 2002 and 2003, but the suddenly repentant Republicans who hitched their wagons to George W. Bush's shit train wouldn't hear of it at the time, preferring to label dissent as treason and skepticism as disloyalty. I wonder if the major media players are beginning to have pangs of their nascent little consciences? Does Judith Miller ever reflect on her own sins?

[BigDDem]

11. Maybe he told Obama

in one of their meetings.

[Supersedeas]

12. When will the network media outlets begin to get curious...

[EFerrari]

13. What a crock. He went for it and he knew it was bs.

Mr. Powell, how do you sleep at night?

[trashcanistanista]

14. Yes, he did

He knew it was phoney. He did it to himself. Disgusting that he is trying to put blame on someone else. He has blood coming out of his pores.

[ryanmuegge]

19. It's the same people that you knew gave him the false info. years ago when you voted for

the blank check invasion...............