Colin Powell on Meet The Press (May 16)

[mindseye]

In an interview with Tim Russert on Meet The Press yesterday, Colin Powell publicly confirms that he was intentionally misled regarding the WMD's in Iraq:

Russert: In February of 2003, you put your enormous personal reputation on the line before the United Nations and said that you had solid sources for the case against Saddam Hussein. It now appears that an agent called Curveball had misled the CIA by suggesting that Saddam had trucks and trains that were delivering biological and chemical weapons. How concerned are you that some of the information you shared with the world is now inaccurate and discredited?

Powell: I'm very concerned. When I made that presentation in February 2003, it was based on the best information that the Central Intelligence Agency made available to me. We studied it carefully; we looked at the sourcing in the case of the mobile trucks and trains. There was multiple sourcing for that. Unfortunately, that multiple sourcing over time has turned out to be not accurate. And so I'm deeply disappointed. But I'm also comfortable that at the time that I made the presentation, it reflected the collective judgment, the sound judgment of the intelligence community. But it turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and in some cases, deliberately misleading. And for that, I am disappointed and I regret it. (emphasis mine)

This is the first time to my knowledge that Powell has made the case that the misinformation was deliberate.

It is also interesting that as Tim Russert was asking the question the first time, a State Department official, Emily Miller, cut the cameras away in an attempt to end the interview before the question was answered. State Department officials claim that she did so because NBC had exceeded their allotted time.

 

[MisterMark]

Yeah - wasn't that strange?! I couldn't figure out how in the world the State Department official thought she was going to end the interview by pushing the camera away from Powell. It was truly an odd but fascinating moment in the history of TV-news.

 

[jay_too]

Four years ago Colin Powell made a couple of decisions that probably changed the course of American history. First, because of family [health] reasons, he declined the opportunity to be Bush's Vice President. Second, he accepted the cabinet position.

As Vice President, he would have had a substantial say as who would be in the cabinet, particularly in State and Defense. Cheney's friend in the Ford adminsitration was Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld is responsible for bringing into DOD the group that wanted to change American foreign policy. They sure did. Without this group, we might not be in Iraq and dealing with the shame and sorrow of war crimes.

Since day one, Colin has been playing a no-win game. Yea, the administration needs someone with credibility at State; it is a shame his reputation was sullied for carrying the baggage of Bush and Rumsfeld.

On reflection, I think if I were Colin my response to both request would be, "Not no; but hell no!"

jay

 

[KinkGuy]

Somehow, some way the current administration is going to hang Powell out to dry. His career, reputation and standards are being corrupted daily and he is surely going to take the fall.

 

[13788]

Javierdude22: I don't think it'll be that bad...people in general know who he is, and what he stands for. I doubt he will take the fall for anything. If anything, he should continue the non-existence Bush's policy forced him into.

Somehow even the press layed their hands off of him..well...mostly

 

[SpeedoGuy]

Originally posted by Javierdude22@May 18 2004, 07:28 AM
I don't think it'll be that bad...people in general know who he is, and what he stands for.

I sure as hell am never going to vote for him or ever again believe anything he says.

What does he stand for? He's W's apologist to the world.

SG