Former aide: Powell WMD speech 'lowest point in my life'

cnn ^ | 8-19-05

[LouAvul]

A former top aide to Colin Powell says his involvement in the former secretary of state's presentation to the United Nations on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was "the lowest point" in his life.

"I wish I had not been involved in it," says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a longtime Powell adviser who served as his chief of staff from 2002 through 2005. "I look back on it, and I still say it was the lowest point in my life."

Wilkerson is one of several insiders interviewed for the CNN Presents documentary "Dead Wrong -- Inside an Intelligence Meltdown." The program, which airs Sunday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET, pieces together the events leading up to the mistaken WMD intelligence that was presented to the public. A presidential commission that investigated the pre-war WMD intelligence found much of it to be "dead wrong."

Powell's speech, delivered on February 14, 2003, made the case for the war by presenting U.S. intelligence that purported to prove that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Wilkerson says the information in Powell's presentation initially came from a document he described as "sort of a Chinese menu" that was provided by the White House.

[LouAvul]

Of course there were WMDs. We saw the graves of those killed. We didn't find them because the PC crowd wouldn't let us into Iraq in a timely manner. Saddam simply secreted them away.

[ken5050]

FYI..don't fotget...at 9PM and 12PM..after this show, CNN will air a re-run of its much discussed documentary "Tailwind"

[ken5050]

FYI..don't forget...at 9PM and 12PM..after this show, CNN will air a re-run of its much discussed documentary "Tailwind"

[Question_Assumptions]

The point that everyone seems to miss these days is that if Saddam had allowed thorough weapon inspections rather than playing games, as he was required to do by the ceasefire agreement and UN resolutions, there would have been much less uncertainty. Saddam was acting like he was guilty so that everyone assumed that he was. It's like a person pulling a toy gun on a police officer and getting shot. If you pretend to be a threat, don't be surprised if people believe you are a threat and act accordingly.

[GretchenM]

He must live on Everest if that was the lowest point of his life.

[VA_Gentleman]

CNN Presents documentary "Dead Wrong -- Inside an Intelligence Meltdown."

Certainly the unbiased CNN will make a documentary that documents all of Clinton's intelligence failures which precipitated the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

[One Proud Dad]

This is the point MSM purposely overlooks. He used them before and then before we got permission from mommy and daddy he sent them to Syria and Iran.

[in hoc signo vinces]

CNN never fails to disappoint...do they? Hmmmm...and I wonder what their ratings are like....oh yeah...they're bad.

[podkane]

Powell doesn't come off as much of a team player ... if he couldn't get behind his president 100%, he should have resigned... and not let his former underlings snipe at the administration.

[Ann Archy]

What an IDIOT!! Powell's an idiot for having such an idiot on his staff! of COURSE Saddam had weapons of mass destruction....he USED THEM!!

Do liberals live in a different world that has different MEANINGS to words?? geesh.

[Ann Archy]

Powell and Tenet were Bush's WEAKEST LINKS!

[Dont Mention the War]

The point that everyone seems to miss these days is that if Saddam had allowed thorough weapon inspections rather than playing games, as he was required to do by the ceasefire agreement and UN resolutions, there would have been much less uncertainty. Saddam was acting like he was guilty so that everyone assumed that he was. It's like a person pulling a toy gun on a police officer and getting shot. If you pretend to be a threat, don't be surprised if people believe you are a threat and act accordingly.

Agreed. There's also the annoying little fact that we were under no obligation to get permission from the UN in the first place, or even keep them informed. As many of us argued at the time, why even bother? All we were doing was risking that the words would be used against us later. And indeed they are.

(For the record, I never thought WMDs should have been used as the main reason for an attack on Iraq in the first place. Removing Saddam was its own purpose.)

[MikeA]

Cry us a river Wilkinson. You helped to overthrow a tyrannt and end the career of a pig who murdered 2 million people and saved many more from Saddam's murder machine. If this is the lowest point of his life, then he's got one screwed up life. Go talk to the survivors of Halabja and ask them if they think Saddam's overthrow was a low point in world affairs, or should be the low point in the lives of those who helped make it happen. I'd be proud to have this as my legacy.

Allow me to offer you the true lowest moment of your life Colonel: When you offered yourself up to the left wing media conspiracy to undermine America's security policy and made ludicrious comments about Powell's speech to the UN being the low point of your life. THIS SIR, is the low point of your life.

[Lexington Green]

Journalist... what a propagandist calls himself.

[dts32041]

Sounds like a member of Dugout Doug's Bataan Gang.

Powell was an Incompetent general and even worse secretary of state.

[Paradox]

I can understand how he feels, because it does indeed look like they were just wrong about alot of the stuff that speech talked about. There was an intelligence failure, no doubt about it. This guy probably feels pretty exposed by it all.

To call it the lowpoint of his life is rather drastic though.

[paddles]

So Tenet, the former Democratic Staff member from the Senate Intelligence Committee and Clinton appointee to the CIA, was lying to Powell for W?

Right.

[Williams]

The fact that one of Sadaam's sons gave nuclear centrifuges to a scientist and ordered him to bury them until such time as the UN left and Iraq's nuclear program could resume, is the beginning and the end of the story for me.

I just wish we would be as resolute in taking out the Iranian threat.

[ZULU]

Watch for Powell to try to torpedo Bush and the Administration on this. This jerk is just testing the waters.

Bush has made monumental errors of judgment in his key people: Powell, Mineta, Whitman, Tom Kean, Gonzales.

His track record is so bad, I worry about Roberts.

Saddam WAS working on WMD.

Saddam was waiting for sanctions to be lifted to pursue them more aggressively.

Saddam violated the armistice he signed after the First .
Persian Gulf War.

Saddam tried to murder a sitting U.S. President.

Saddam had his military fire on U.S. and British planes trying to enforce the U.N.'s no fly zone rule.

Saddam tried to exterminate the Kurds and was guilty of horrific crimes against his own people.

Saddam actively encouraged, recruited and funded terrorists especially in Israel.

Saddam may have very well been involved in the Oklahoma City Bombing. Thanks to Janet Reno and Bill Clinton, we'll probably never know for sure.

Iraq was a keystone in an archway of terrorist organizations stretching from Pakistan to Libya.

Saddam refused to comply with numerous U.N. sanctions and actively corrupted those involved with enforcing them.

Chinese menu? You bet. Pick any one - they are all good reasons. Put them together and they are most compelling.

The problem here is Bush needs an articulate mouthpiece to answer these charges in an intelligent manner without repeating constantly "religion of peace" and "evildoers
(for God's sake - there are scores of synonyms in English which better express this term, what kind of vocabulary do you need to get into Yale these days???)!!

[Thrusher]

...the events leading up to the mistaken WMD intelligence that was presented to the public.

Notably, the "mistaken WMD intelligence presented to the public" by the MSM neglected to mention the stockpile of 500 tons of yellowcake uranium at the al Tuwaitha nuclear weapons development plant south of Baghdad.