What Colin Powell saw but didn't say

[maddezmom]

What Colin Powell saw but didn't say

The rush to war in Iraq echoes Reagan's Iran-contra scandal

Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday April 22, 2004
The Guardian

"History? We won't know," George Bush tells Bob Woodward. "We'll all be dead." But in his book, Plan of Attack, Woodward's facts move the past from the shadows, adding significant new documentation to the story of the rush to war in Iraq.
The serious constitutional issues and governmental abuses, the methods and even the continuity of some personnel that Woodward catalogues evoke memories of the Reagan Iran-contra scandal. That involved a network of aides outsourcing US foreign policy to circumvent the separation of powers - selling missiles to Iran to fund the Nicaraguan contras. The Iraq war was conceived by the president and his war cabinet in an apparent effort to evade constitutional checks and balances. In Iran-contra, the national security council, CIA and Pentagon were stealthily exploited from within; in Iraq, they were abused from the top.

When the Iran-contra scandal was revealed, the Reagan administration was placed into receivership by the old Republican establishment. Neoconservatives and adventurers, criminal or not, were purged, from Elliott Abrams to Richard Perle. Now they are at the centre of power.

Woodward reports that in July 2002 Bush ordered the use of $700m to prepare for the invasion of Iraq, funds that had not been specifically appropriated by Congress, which alone holds that constitutional authority. No adequate explanation has been offered for what, strictly speaking, might well be an impeachable offence.

Woodward also reports that the battle plan was unfurled for Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the US. On its top, it was stamped "Top Secret: Noforn" - "No Foreign", not to be seen by anyone but Americans with the highest security clearance. Following Bush's instructions, the vice-president, Cheney, and the secretary of defence, Rumsfeld, briefed Bandar, who responded by promising to lower oil prices just before the election. As we can now see, prices have skyrocketed, giving oil-producers windfall profits upfront, and ultimately exaggerating the political effect of any subsequent drop in prices.

~snip~
much more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1200413,00.html

[searchingforlight]

1. In my opinion Powell is one of the biggest whores in Washington.

He sold out to the position and used the position to give credence to the lies of BushCo and sell them. When this fiasco started, he was the only bright spot on a very dark stage. No the entire stage is dark and business continues to go on behind a curtain of distain for America and the people who are paying the price.

[dfong63]

2. not a bright spot,

at best a little less-dim.

at worst, he played the "good cop" to the Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz "bad cop".