Blumenthal: Will the real Colin Powell stand up?

[kskiska]

The White House fears that the former secretary of state will finally tell the truth about planning for the Iraq war.

By Sidney Blumenthal

Aug. 09, 2007 | Every movement, gesture and tic of the Bush administration is shadowed by its past. When National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell was deployed politically to overawe timorous legislators into approving unlimited and warrantless domestic surveillance, he was acting in the shadow of former CIA Director George Tenet, whose presence was used to lend credibility to intelligence being fixed to suit arguments for the invasion of Iraq. As Gen. David Petraeus prepares to deliver his report in September on the "surge" in Iraq, he is elevated into the ultimate reliable source, just as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's sterling reputation was exploited for his delivery of the case for invasion before the United Nations Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003, a date that will live in mendacity, for every statement he made was later revealed to be false; Powell regretted publicly that it was an everlasting "blot" on his good name. Meanwhile, during the dog days of August, the president's aides are preparing the fall public relations campaign to envelop Petraeus' report. On cue, neoconservative organs spew out good news of "progress on the ground" and thrash critics as "defeatist." "Defeatists in Retreat" trumpets William Kristol's latest screed in the Weekly Standard, repackaging old themes once again.

Behind the display of bravado, the West Wing is seized with anxiety. Any rustle in the brush, any sudden noise, upsets the president's aides. As they try to regain their composure and confidence, recalling the glory days when they constituted themselves as the White House Iraq Group, or WHIG, a P.R. juggernaut before the invasion, they know who and what they have buried along the way and fear their return.

The release of a documentary on the administration's failures in Iraq, "No End in Sight," directed by Charles Ferguson, has the White House spooked. Bush's aides are not worried because the film is brilliantly shot and edited, or because it is compelling, but because of what -- or whose appearance -- it might augur to upset their September rollout.

The film features three former administration officials speaking on camera as unreserved critics of prewar and postwar planning: Powell's former chief of staff, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson; Powell's former deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage; and former U.S. ambassador Barbara Bodine, a senior member of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq, closely aligned with Powell.

(snip)

…Hadley and Co. worry that Powell may be secretly writing a memoir that would expose their hidden history…

more…
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/08/09/iraq_powell/

[C_U_L8R]

1. Next presidential news conference....

Helen Thomas should say "Colin Powell said..."
just to see the chimp crap his pants on national TV.

[msongs]

2. the real colin powell stood up before the UN and peddled bushco's war plans nt

[hatrack]

3. Thanks - saved me the effort of posting the same observation

:toast:

[TwilightGardener]

4. And yet, he donated to McCain's campaign. So he still supports the neocons.

[acmavm]

5. How in the hell can anybody delude themselves by thinking that the

man has any decency, or integrity at all??? He knew what he was getting into when he lied. He knew what he was doing when he tried to cover up the My Lai massacre so many years ago.

Even if he were to tell the truth now it would be just like Tenet. Overwhelming disgust would be thrown back at the guy for his selling out the military and the people of this country all for a chance to play with the 'big boys'.