10 September 2005

It was painful…terrible…devastating

Colin Powell says his 2003 U.N. speech where he described fictional Iraqi weapons programs was painful for him and a permanent "blot" on his record:
There were some people in the intelligence community who knew at that time that some of these sources were not good, and shouldn't be relied upon, and they didn't speak up. That devastated me.


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More "blots" on Powells record:

* As President Reagan’s national security adviser, Powell was a key operator in U.S. efforts to overthrow the elected government of Nicaragua. When he traveled to Central America in January 1988, Powell threatened a cutoff of U.S. aid to any country in the region that refused to go along with continued warfare by the contra guerrillas, who were in the midst of killing thousands of Nicaraguan civilians. Powell worked to prevent the success of a peace process initiated by Costa Rica’s president, Oscar Arias.

* When U.S. troops invaded Panama on December 20, 1989, Powell was chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He had “emerged as the crucial figure in the decision to invade,” according to British newspaper reporter Martin Walker. Hundreds of civilians died in the first hours of the invasion. Powell declared on that day: “We have to put a shingle outside our door saying, ‘Superpower lives here’.”

http://zmagsite.zmag.org/oc...

The My Lai massacre:

Colin Powell, then a young US Army Major, was charged with investigating the massacre. 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 the Massacre, and questions would continue to remain undisclosed to the public.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...