Powell: U.S. will stay in Iraq for years

[sabra]

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/13431788.htm

Powell: U.S. will stay in Iraq for years
Associated Press

LONDON - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday that the United States will have a military presence in Iraqi for years, although a gradual withdrawal likely will start in 2006.

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., Powell said a massive, rapid pullout would be a "tragic mistake."

He also insisted that U.S. intelligence services had not revealed their doubts to the Bush administration about the reliability of information on Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction.

"What really upset me more than anything else was that there were people in the intelligence community that had doubts about some of this sourcing, but those doubts never surfaced up to us," Powell said, according to a transcript of the BBC interview.

[orwell]

1. Liar Liar

Powell's on fire.

[mhr]

2. Yes - The Convenient Lie Absolves All Sins

This man has no integrity left.

[Faygo Kid]

3. He knows these neocons wanted bad intel to carry out their plans.

Colin Powell could blow these guys out of the water if he told all he knows. Can't respect the man for being a Good Soldier. His loyalty lays with his nation, not a corrupt and dishonest Commander in Chief.

[goclark]

4. Pleeese, why does he keep on lying?!

Liar, liar pants on fire!


"What really upset me more than anything else was that there were people in the intelligence community that had doubts about some of this sourcing, but those doubts never surfaced up to us," Powell said, according to a transcript of the BBC interview.

[bahrbearian]

5. He should go to Arlington Cemetery and give that speech.

[KoKo]

6. Suck Up Colin.....Suck it up! And, who are YOU working for these days?

I must have missed the great Defense Corporatist Company or the Board appointment to some MEGA Wall Street Conglomerate....

Whatever....Colin...YOU SUCKED IT UP and your Shill SON MICHAEL contintued to GIVE AWAY our MEDIA as FCC HEAD...Rot in Hell Colin..........Rot in Hell.....

[Solly Mack]

7. Wonder how he gets the taste of shit out of his mouth?

Maybe he doesn't notice anymore... you spout shit, you taste shit... you must like shit....or you don't know the difference.

[Voltaire99]

8. Unfortunately, he's on the same page as Hillary, Lieberman, Kerry, et al.

They all envisage a US "presence" in Iraq. And they're all ready to sacrifice US blood and treasure for it.

As Cindy Sheehan says, no votes for war supporters!

[cantstandbush]

9. Not going to leave Iraq for years? Tell that to the Iraqis who just voted

I bet they will love to hear this.

[cal04]

10. White House 'never told' of WMD doubts:Powell

THE US administration was never told of doubts about the secret intelligence used to justify war with Iraq, former secretary of state Colin Powell told the BBC in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday night. Mr Powell, who argued the case for military action against Saddam Hussein in the UN in 2003, told BBC News 24 television he was "deeply disappointed in what the intelligence community had presented to me and to the rest of us."

"What really upset me more than anything else was that there were people in the intelligence community that had doubts about some of this sourcing, but those doubts never surfaced to us," he said. Mr Powell's comments follow US President George W. Bush's acceptance earlier this week of responsibility for going to war on intelligence, much of which "turned out to be wrong". US involvement in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion has led to the loss of 2,140 of its troops and badly hit the Republican president's popularity. The opposition Democrats have increased calls for a timetable for a military withdrawal.

But ahead of this week's parliamentary elections in Iraq, President Bush insisted he was still right to order the invasion and argued a hurried withdrawal would be "a recipe for disaster". The British government, Washington's key allies in the invasion, has similarly refused to give a withdrawal date for its 8,000 or so troops in Iraq's four southern states, although has said it could happen next year. For his part, Mr Powell considered the US military could not be deployed in Iraq at its current strength for years to come, raising the possibility of withdrawal from next year.

But he told the BBC that "essentially just to walk away, to say that we're taking all of our troops out as fast as we can, would be a tragic mistake". A US presence would be required in Iraq for "years", he added. "We've invested a great deal in this country, and the Iraqi people deserve democracy and the freedom that they were promised when we got rid of Saddam Hussein and we have to stay with them... until they decide that they can get it now on their own, they don't need us any longer," he added. "And even then, I suspect, there will be a continuing relationship and presence of some significance for some years to come." In the interview, Mr Powell confirmed that White House "hawks" US Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had bypassed him and other colleagues on occasions. Mr Powell's former chief-of-staff Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson made the damning allegations last month, accusing Cheney and Rumsfeld of running a "cabal" and hijacking US military and foreign policy. Discussions with Rumsfeld about dealing with the aftermath of the Iraq invasion were "not pleasant", Mr Powell admitted in the interview.


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17603142%255E1702,00.html

what a bunch of crap

[HereSince1628]

11. Oh, Colin! Still carrying water for the boss?

Like you have _any_ credibility with America you sleazy sack of gun grease.

[Straight Shooter]

12. To think I would have voted for him if he had run for president.

:puke:

[speedoo]

13. Go fuck yourself, Colon.

You're a fucking traitor. To your country and to the soldiers who have died or been maimed in Iraq, and those who will be as well.

[DELUSIONAL]

34. yea -- what speedoo said!

[Hardrada]

54. Same sentiment here!

[Jade Fox]

14. Of course, Powell was kept out of the loop....

and just brought out for show because of his race and his (former) popularity with Americans.

Cheney hated him. Bush was jealous of him. HE HAS NO IDEA WHAT THEY KNEW.

[Wordie]

52. That, sadly, was my thought too. :( (Another casualty of the war.)

[bpilgrim]

61. DU was in the loop

as was most of the rest of the world.

peace

[Caretha]

62. Yep

Amazing! Even little ol' me was in the loop. I seemed to remember others that were in the loop too. Hmmm, let's see....the UN, governments that warned us our "intelligence" was wrong, Ritter, Joseph Wilson, I'm sure I'm leaving out a few insignificant others.

Me thinks the Colin bitch "doth protest too much".

[Fovea]

15. I think this is sad, to pimp for **

after all they did to you. They sent you to lie to the world, Colin. What makes you think you have *any* credibility?

That was what you traded for a seat at the Bush table. Then they stabbed you in the back when you weren't useful.

Now please write your memoirs and enjoy your retirement from public life.

[niallmac]

16. Too bad Cheney opened all the CIA mail first. n/t

[BrotherBuzz]

17. But those doubts never surfaced to us?

Christ on a stick, how come this nobody from podunk America knew? The spin I've been seeing the last two weeks is making me truly dizzy.

:crazy:

[rooboy]

18. Doesn't explain Tenet's medal, Colin. n/t

[Media_Lies_Daily]

43. Is it possible that Herr Busch was trying to keep Tenet in the fold....

...by awarding him that medal?

Do you think Herr Busch and the rest of his merry little NeoCon band fully understand that Tenet has been able to do FAR more damage to them as a former government employee?

[lumpy]

19. Why is it, Colin Powell,

that so many many people in this country and the world knew invading Iraq was without merit and that Iraq was not a threat?

[rooboy]

20. I'm convinced someone's got photos of Powell fiddling with kids. n/t

[drm604]

50. I doubt that it's specifically that but

I can't escape the idea that they must be holding some kind of threat over his head.

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Unfortunately the interviewer is David Frost

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/whatson/prog_parse.cgi?FILENAME=20051218/20051218_1430_4352_65398_30

so don't expect him to challenge Powell about the bullshit. Frost is no big loss to the BBC - I don't think he'll add a great deal to al Jazeera, in content, just in persuading a few big names they can get an easy ride.

[daleo]

22. Powell is a world-class liar and suckup

He is just proving it once again.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

23. So when he threw the papers in the air and said I'm not reading

this this is bullsh*t" he didn't mean what he said.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/printer_060403B.shtml
Powell was Under Pressure to Use Shaky Intelligence on Iraq: Report
Agence France Presse

Friday 30 May 2003

US News and World Report magazine said the first draft of the speech was prepared for Powell by Vice President Richard Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, in late January.

According to the report, the draft contained such questionable material that Powell lost his temper, throwing several pages in the air and declaring, "I'm not reading this. This is bullshit."

Cheney's aides wanted Powell to include in his presentation information that Iraq has purchased computer software that would allow it to plan an attack on the United States, an allegation that was not supported by the CIA, US News reported.

The White House also pressed Powell to include charges that the suspected leader of the September 11 hijackers, Mohammed Atta, had met in Prague with an Iraqi intelligence officer prior to the attacks, despite a refusal by US and European intelligence agencies to confirm the meeting, the magazine said.

The pressure forced Powell to appoint his own review team that met several times with Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to prepare the speech, in which the secretary of state accused Iraq of hiding tonnes of biological and chemical weapons.

US News also said that the Defense Intelligence Agency had issued a classified assessment of Iraq's chemical weapons program last September, arguing that "there is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons."

However, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress shortly after that that the Iraqi "regime has amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons, including VX, sarin, cyclosarin, and mustard gas," according to the report.

[hadrons]

24. when will this PoS just fade away????

[JoFerret]

25. What crap

it was in the NYTimes for crissakes. What a liar. What liars they all are.

[0007]

26. Colin knew going in, that he was selling a bullshit war. Who's

fucking with who?

[napi21]

27. IF, A VERY BIG IF, there is any truth to this, then

EVERYBODY in the intelligence communnity should have been fired!!!!

For any subordinate to withold significant information from "the boss" is not only grounds for dismissal but in this case, criminal charges too!

There sure was NO reason to hand out medals!!!!!

[flordehinojos]

28. POWELL to the rescue...the GENERAL doesn't want to be forgotten.

PLUS... he might be being payed a few extra dollars to propagandize.

[countingbluecars]

30. I'm more inclined to believe

that he may have been threatened in some way.

[Olney Blue]

29. "Never told of doubts"

should be: "Never listened to doubts"

[Malva Zebrina]

31. well the reason they were never told is because they saw to it that they

would never be told. Duh, Powell. You had better just shut up because the evidence is coming out daily that Bush and Cheney only saw what they told their intelligence to see. Especially their own intelligence source the OSP, who dutifully screened all intelligence to promote the view of the neocons surrounding the Bush and Cheney cabal, who were just itching, who could not stand the itch one minute longer, to attck Iraq. It seems they thought it was a good thing for Israel from their point of view. It was all a trumped up lie and you Mr. Powell, although you have learned over the years how to talk the talk and look as though you are sober and serious, have sold your soul--but maybe I give you too much credit-- perhaps you have learned rote how to talk the talk and along with Condi who has also learned how to talk that talk, neithr of you say a damn thing that has any substance--, but you know your intelligence seems to be a little short of a slice off the loaf so perhaps learning to talk the talk is all that you were ever capable of--but it was enough to have you propelled up the ranks.

BTW, Powell, what is your son Michael doing now?

[mike_c]

32. lies are SOP for this administration and its toadies....

Powell is either lying, or the Bush administration simply insulated itself from the truth so effectively-- and willfully-- that none could get through.

[VegasWolf]

33. Ah! Ah! BULLSHIT! Choo!! <pardon my sneeze>

:evilgrin:

[Kolesar]

35. Indicates a complete lack of critical thinking skills on Powell's part

If I could figure it out by reading a few newspaper columns and Pelosi's statements, Mr. Gulf War Hero should have been able to figure it out. What a lying asshole.

[alarcojon]

36. Pathetic

just pathetic. As transparent as can be. It wasn't Bush and Cheney's fault - it was that evil Clinton appointee Tenet that forced Dim Son and Chestpainey to go to war against their wills. :sarcasm:

[Media_Lies_Daily]

37. "BEEP-BEEP-BEEP"!!! said the bull**it detector!! "BEEP-BEEP-BEEP"!!!

[Gman]

38. Well when the Vice President of the United States is camped out

at the CIA directing the cooking of the intelligence and underlings are being threatened if they open their mouths, what does someone like Powell expect. Powell needs to understand that they never wanted him to see how bad the intelligence. Powell was treated just like the rest of the country. Those bastards saw Powell as an enemy. They damn sure weren't going to share a thing with him. So I believe Powell to a large extent. The problem with what Powell is saying is that he never was part of the "us" he refers to.

[Auntie Bush]

39. How come we all knew there were no WMD...but they had no clue?

Maybe because we care what happens to people and they don't give a shit!

However it's probably because we're interested in what's going on and we read everything we can to get informed and develop a well rounded picture...and the President and buddies just believe what someone else tells them. Seems that is true with most Republicans. They're such spinners and they believe their own spin.

[BR_Parkway]

40. Gotta keep the testimony straight in case of war trial - first year law

student would give you that advice.

Of course he can't say anything else - without an agreement of immunity from prosecution.

[hellbound-liberal]

41. What a pathetic, lying sack of shit!

I am so tired of this bastard traveling around the world trying to salvage what is left of his former reputation. Does he think the rest of the world is as mesmerized by Fox news as his former boss? I am really pissed off that some of my tax dollars are going to help support this worthless shill as he makes the rounds trying to make people think that he still deserves their respect. I suppose the My Lai coverup was an honest mistake too, eh Colon?

[creeksneakers2]

42. Powell knew there were serious flaws in the intelligence

His own State Department made 36 objections to material Powell had for his speech. Wilkerson says the whole case stunk.

If Powell knew that, and didn't tell the president, then the war is his fault too. Its shocking to think someone would stand by and watch the country being lied into war like that.

[Name removed]

46. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Voltaire99]

44. Hillary-Powell in 2008!

His "oh, gosh, the intelligence community let us down" bullshit will be the perfect companion to her "oh, gosh, I'll fight the war better!" bullshit.

[greenman3610]

45. LIAR! I READ about it at the time in USAToday and Knight Ridder

FUCKING LIAR!!!

from march 2003
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0303-01.htm

“...a growing number of military officers, intelligence professionals and diplomats ... privately
have deep misgivings about the administration's double-time march toward war..."Analysts
at the working level in the intelligence community are feeling very strong pressure from
the Pentagon to cook the intelligence books," said one official, speaking on condition of
anonymity. A dozen other officials echoed his views .... No one who was interviewed
disagreed.”
Philadelphia Inquirer, October 28, 2002
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/4234259.htm

“..analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency have complained that senior administration officials
have exaggerated the significance of some intelligence reports about Iraq, particularly about its possible
links to terrorism, in order to strengthen their political argument for war...At the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, some investigators said they were baffled by the Bush administration's insistence on a
solid link between Iraq and Osama bin Laden's network. "We've been looking at this hard for more
than a year and you know what, we just don't think it's there," a government official said.”
The New York Times, Feb. 2, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/02/international/middleeast/02INTE.html?pagewanted=1

[madmark]

48. Same here; what a load of shit by CP

[madmark]

47. What a load of shit; I read about the CIA reservations on the Iraq

war in the general press during the run up to the war.

[54anickel]

49. An Open Letter to the U.N. about Colin Powell (Still stands true)

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0204-07.htm

snip>

Although our immediate focus is Iraq, I include below a postscript that offers evidence and citations from reputable human rights groups of Powell’s “fictitious” certifications to Congress on aid to Colombia, as well as his devotion in the 1980s to murderous governments and rebel forces in Central America and Africa whose depridations would make that European diplomat’s skin crawl.

Iraq: Powell for the prosecution

U.N. members, if you prepare properly for Powell’s presentation, you can make an invaluable contribution to your own and the world’s understanding of the true extent of Iraq’s threats to its neighbors and the global community, as well as its links, if any, to al Qaeda. If you’re not prepared, you could make a horrendous mistake with unfathomable repercussions.

Powell’s presentation will be in the form of “here is the unvarnished truth as we understand it.” But his will be a case for the prosecution and should be viewed as such. He will present only those tidbits that strengthen his case while suppressing tidbits that undermine it — and he will have a great advantage over a prosecutor in an American court.

You see, that prosecutor would earlier have taken part in what is called the “discovery” phase. The rules differ by state and by type of case, but the idea is that both sides in a trial get access to just about all the information and evidence the other side has gathered. You, on the other hand, will not be privy to the mountain of evidence from which Powell has selected his damning tidbits. You won’t have access to the material that places each accusation in its proper context, or the material that weakens or directly contradicts each accusation.

Nor will you know if certain evidence is unreliable because it was obtained through torture. On Monday Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote a letter to Powell ( http://hrw.org/press/2003/02/powell-ltr020303.htm) urging him to denounce the use of torture and not to include in his presentation any “information” obtained through torture or severe mistreatment. (An in-depth story in the Dec. 26 Washington Post, cited by Roth, indicates the administration now countenances torture.) Would the Bush administration permit U.S. intelligence agencies to torture directly and/or ship detainees to foreign torture centers in hopes of extracting the magic words “Saddam and al Qaeda — all for one and one for all”? You might want to ask Secretary Powell.

The tubes: What did Powell know and when did he know it?

more...

[Hyernel]

51. Rumsfeld must have broken out the blackmail pics...

...of Colin machine gunning Vietnamese children to get him to come out and lie this big.

Good News = The Bushco Regime is an evil flash in the pan, historically speaking.
Bad News = That flash might consume us all.

[HuffleClaw]

55. oh what a complete load of garbage.

does he really expect anyone to take him seriously ?

[rodeodance]

56. I have lost all respect for this man.

[muriel_volestrangler]

58. Video here, if you can stand it

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3681938.stm

about 6 minutes

[merwin]

64. kick

:kick:

[madmark]

53. Bullshit

[Seabiscuit]

57. "Pig Vomit Powell Chokes Up More Vomitus"

[killbotfactory]

59. Oh, it's the intel community's fault

Right...

Go fuck yourself, you goddamned traitor.

[bunny planet]

60. What the hell is wrong with this man? Of course Boy King George knew

about the bad intelligence, we already know that. Why doesn't Powell just keep his mouth shut, what do they have on this man that he continues to lie for them.

[Amonester]

63. What really upset me more than anything else is a shameless

LIAR, LIAR!

"What really upset me more than anything else was that there were people in the intelligence community that had doubts about some of this sourcing, but those doubts never surfaced up to us," Powell said, according to a transcript of the BBC interview.

What a shameless hypocrit traitor you R, Col-liar-on.

SHAMESHAMESHAMESHAMESHAMESHAMEIMPEACHIMPEACHIMPEACHIMPEACH

[Barrett808]

65. White House never told of pre-Iraq war intelligence doubts: Powell

LONDON (AFP) - The US administration was never told of doubts about the secret intelligence used to justify war with Iraq, former secretary of state Colin Powell reportedly said.

Powell, who argued the case for military action against Saddam Hussein in the UN in 2003, told BBC News 24 television he was "deeply disappointed in what the intelligence community had presented to me and to the rest of us."

"What really upset me more than anything else was that there were people in the intelligence community that had doubts about some of this sourcing, but those doubts never surfaced to us," he said.

Powell's comments follow US President George W. Bush's acceptance earlier this week of responsibility for going to war on intelligence, much of which "turned out to be wrong".

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051217/pl_afp/usiraqattackspolitics

[Demeter]

66. Pull The Other Leg, Colin

I wouldn't want to walk with a limp.

[babylonsister]

67. What the heck does the wh have on Powell? nt

[emulatorloo]

68. what does he know -- he was "out of the loop" per Woodward book n/t

[notadmblnd]

69. doesn't his former chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson

differ with former secretary Powell about this?

[lovuian]

70. Colin unfortunately your credibiity is at an all time LOW!!!

So nothing you say is going to make a difference... I wish you would have come clean... and been honest here...

[chelsea0011]

71. Now I get it. This guy is thinking of a run for President.

There can be no other reason he can't come clean like his friggin' chief of staff.

[The Wielding Truth]

72. Even if this were true....... Doesn't common sense tell you to make sure

to check all options before you go to war - kill - and drain the governments financial resources? (duh) Either they are idiots or corrupt. It's obvious they are both,unless we go way out there and agree to being deceived for the sake of an unknown threat that only they can control in only this way. Then you must assume they are Gods. But if that is the case they would have devised a scheme where .... it goes so far beyond logic and is so perverse. GEEZ, fire them.

[TomInTib]

73. I think his speechifying fees may be falling thru the floor.....

trying to suck up to the admin's pals.