Lawrence Wilkerson: What A Guy!

I'm really starting to like this guy..In a purely hetero, punch-you-in-the-shoulder, entirely platonic sort of way ;)

Yesterday, in an interview with the BBC, Wilkerson(Colin Powell's chief of staff until they both said sayonara to the Bushies), used the phrase "International Crime" when describing the atmosphere that Richard B. Cheney had engendered in post 9/11 US foreign policy.

Directly from the BBC transcript:

[snip...]If what you say is correct, in your view, is Dick Cheney then guilty of a war crime?

Well, that's an interesting question - it was certainly a domestic crime to advocate terror and I would suspect that it is - for whatever it's worth - an international crime as well.

You've got also John Kerry recently accusing President Bush of orchestrating one of the great acts of deception in American history, and saying that flawed intelligence was manipulated to fit a political agenda. Now Colin Powell would be tarred with that same brush wouldn't he? Did he feel that he had correct information about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction when he outlined the case against Saddam?

He certainly did and so did I. I was intimately involved in that process and to this point I have more or less defended the administration.

I have basically been supportive of the administration's point that it was simply fooled - that the intelligence community, including the UK, Germany, France, Jordan - other countries that confirmed what we had in our intelligence package, yet we were all just fooled.

Lately, I'm growing increasingly concerned because two things have just happened here that really make me wonder.

And the one is the questioning of Sheikh al-Libby where his confessions were obtained through interrogation techniques other than those authorised by Geneva.

It led Colin Powell to say at the UN on 5 February 2003 that there were some pretty substantive contacts between al-Qaeda and Baghdad. And we now know that al-Libby's forced confession has been recanted and we know - we're pretty sure that it was invalid.

But more important than that, we know that there was a defence intelligence agency dissent on that testimony even before Colin Powell made his presentation. We never heard about that.

Follow that up with Curveball, and the fact that the Germans now say they told our CIA well before Colin Powell gave his presentation that Curveball - the source to the biological mobile laboratories - was lying and was not a trustworthy source. And then you begin to speculate, you begin to wonder was this intelligence spun; was it politicised; was it cherry-picked; did in fact the American people get fooled - I am beginning to have my concerns...[/snip]

(you know the drill, follow the link for all the action)

I have my concerns as well.

I found this transcript while doing my early morning round-up at the UK's Independent. The above link is to an article that merely condenses the entirety of the Wilkerson interview for the reader.

Add'l: I'll add much more in the way of useless commentary once I arrive back from my morning activities..And begin work. ;) That should be around 11:00AM EST -5 GMT. I'll leave this update info. here, just in case there is anyone reading that thinks I tried to dupe them. Remember, I am not out to dupe you, but there are those that have that very thing as a part of their agenda. Caveat Lector.

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Well, this is either going to a cause for great joy, or at worst a flat affect, but I am going to unable to provide a timely update on this story.

Simply read the two pieces. They pretty much speak for themselves. I can add no great insights into this matter. I think Wilkerson's own words can certainly stand on their own.

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On a more serious note, I think that I have the evidence that I need to affirm my agnosticism. If Julia Roberts is Hollywoood's highest paid actress, it does not bode well for the existence of the Christian God ;)