"I didn't need Wilson to tell me that there wasn't a Niger connection"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Report: Powell says Bush took 'misleading' Cheney advice, ignored State Department

RAW STORY
Published: Wednesday April 12, 2006



On Monday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell told me that he and his department's top experts never believed that Iraq posed an imminent nuclear threat, but that the president followed the misleading advice of Vice President Dick Cheney and the CIA in making the claim. Now he tells us.

The harsh truth is that this president cherry-picked the intelligence data in making his case for invading Iraq and deliberately kept the public in the dark as to the countervailing analysis at the highest level of the intelligence community. While the president and his top Cabinet officials were fear-mongering with stark images of a "mushroom cloud" over American cities, the leading experts on nuclear weaponry at the Department of Energy (the agency in charge of the U.S. nuclear-weapons program) and the State Department thought the claim of a near-term Iraqi nuclear threat was absurd.

...

"The CIA was pushing the aluminum tube argument heavily and Cheney went with that instead of what our guys wrote," Powell said. And the Niger reference in Bush's State of the Union speech? "That was a big mistake," he said. "It should never have been in the speech. I didn't need Wilson to tell me that there wasn't a Niger connection. He didn't tell us anything we didn't already know. I never believed it."

When I pressed further as to why the president played up the Iraq nuclear threat, Powell said it wasn't the president: "That was all Cheney." A convenient response for a Bush family loyalist, perhaps, but it begs the question of how the president came to be a captive of his vice president's fantasies.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Report_Powell_hits_Cheney_on_manupulation_0412.html

[babylonsister]

1. So Powell wasn't deluded? That makes his actions seem

even worse.

[Jacobin]

2. Of course he knew he was lying when he did the UN thingy

He's utterly complicit in the entire debacle.

[babylonsister]

3. I would love to know why. He shot his reputation down the tubes. nt

[katmondoo]

4. Could the Bushies be using Powell to get rid of Cheney?

I believe Powell is still loyal to the Bush team. He may be blaming Cheney to get Bush off the hook and to rid themselves of Cheney's bad rep.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

5. Saying "That was all Cheney"...

...certainly positions Bush as an "innocent victim," regardless of Powell's motivation for saying it.

[Jacobin]

7. He shot his 'reputation' after his My Lai cover up

He's never had a reputation other than someone who would be the 'good soldier' and protect the asses of those in power.

Then, later, of course, he whines about how he knew it was all wrong but someone 'made him do it'

Big hero.

:eyes:

[Supersedeas]

9. maybe he is finally coming to terms with...'guilt'

[Vickers]

6. Wow, Colin, that changes you from a simple dumbass to a mass-murderer!

Way to go, you cowardly fuck! :patriot:

[Chomp]

8. I think Powell's remarks

are quite sensational - I haven't heard them before - and am very surprised they are not getting more comment.