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<br><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"> I note that Colin Powell managed to slither onto the Stanford campus for a <br>couple of</font><font style="" face="Verdana"> </font><font style="" face="Verdana">hours last Monday apparently without arousing any controversy.</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><title></title><style>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="" face="Verdana"><a href="http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/march4/colin-powell-speaks-030409.html">http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/march4/colin-powell-speaks-030409.html</a></font></p>
<font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"> When he spoke at De Anza College in Cupertino in November, 2005 he</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">inspired an all-afternoon "War Crimes Tribunal" that was pretty well</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">attended, also demonstrations three nights running. </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"> Where's the outrage? </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"> Don't let anyone tell you Colin Powell is a nice man. </font><font style="" face="Verdana">Powell was involved </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">early in his career in the coverup of the My Lai massacre. (1) His book </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><i>My
<br>American Journey</i></font><font style="" face="Verdana"> justifies the Americans' practice of shooting Vietnamese </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">"military-age males" from helicopters. If the man ran, he </font><font style="" face="Verdana">would be judged <br>hostile and killed. If he stood in place and allowed the </font><font style="" face="Verdana">Americans to shoot <br>at him, he would be allowed to live. (2)</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"> Later, Powell defended Brig. Gen. John W. Donaldson from court-martial </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">murder charges after the general's helicopter pilots alleged that he had </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">killed Vietnamese civilians indiscriminantly. (2)</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"> Powell served as senior military advisor to Secretary of Defense Cap </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">Weinberger during a time when the Reagan administration was supporting</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">Central American death squads and the murderous Contras in Nicaragua. (3)</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">Later he pressured Central American regimes to support the Contras, </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">"trying
every weapon in [his] arsenal to break up the peace process,"
</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">according to one Congressman. (4)</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"> As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Powell recommended the 1989</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">invasion of Panama that was condemned by the U.N. and the Organization</font><font style="" face="Verdana"> <br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">of American States. Human rights organizations </font><font style="" face="Verdana">protested that military <br>policies designed to minimize U.S. casualties caused</font><font style="" face="Verdana"> unnecessary civilian <br>deaths. (5)</font><font style="" face="Verdana"> </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"> In preparations for the ground war phase of Gulf War I, Powell repeatedly</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">
expressed impatience with delays to commencing the war, fearing that the</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">
Russians would succeed in brokering a peace settlement. Poppy Bush</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">badly needed a war to do away with his "wimp factor". General</font><font style="" face="Verdana"> <br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">Schwarzkopf wanted to allow the Iraqis to peacefully withdrawal from Kuwait </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">with a one-week timetable. According to award-winning journalist Robert<br>Parry, Powell sabotaged this </font><font style="" face="Verdana">plan by substituting an unrealistic two-day <br>timetable. Ultimately, retreating </font><font style="" face="Verdana">Iraqi troops were slaughtered in the famous <br>"Highway of Death" atrocity. (6)</font><style>
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</style><font style="" face="Verdana"> </font><font style="" face="Verdana">(10)<br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">Norman Solomon calls Powell's
presentation to the U.N. about alleged Iraqi WMD </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">"fudged,
exaggerated and concocted, often presenting deceptions as
</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">certainties.... [H]e played fast and loose with translations of phone
intercepts to </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">make them seem more incriminating.... " but
though many of his claims were </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">"ripped apart" within a few
days by mainstream British press, the press in the </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">USA was almost
universally fawning and admiring. (7)
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<font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">Though Powell has tried to put the blame for the WMD debacle on bad intelligence </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">from lower-level intelligence officers, his State Department colleagues were </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">skeptical of the WMD claims and according to forme</font><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2" face="Verdana">r Assistant Secretary of State</font><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2" face="Verdana">Carl Ford, "</font><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2" face="Verdana">the State
Department's intelligence bureau put in a very deliberate and <br>strong and
lengthy dissent" to claims about Iraq's nuke program.</font><font style="" face="Verdana"> (8) Four months</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">before Powell tried to sell the WMD case to the U.N., mainstream Knight-Ridder <br>journalists</font><font style="" face="Verdana"> </font>Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay <font style="" face="Verdana">published a story called "Some <br>Administration Officials Expressing Misgivings on Iraq"</font><font style="" face="Verdana"> </font><font style="" face="Verdana">that said: </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">"a growing number of military officers, intelligence professionals and
diplomats.... </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">charge that administration hawks have exaggerated evidence of the
threat that </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein poses - including distorting
his links to the al-Qaida </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">terrorist network - have overstated the
amount of international support for attacking </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">Iraq and have downplayed
the potential repercussions of a new war in the Middle </font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana">East."</font><font style="" face="Verdana"> (9)</font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"></font><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2" face="Verdana"> Robert Parry concludes that Powell</font><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><font style="" face="Verdana"> </font></font><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2" face="Verdana">"</font><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2" face="Verdana">has always been an opportunist who consistently <br>put
his career and personal status ahead of America’s best interests.... </font><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2" face="Verdana">Powell <br>repeatedly has failed to stand up against actions that were
immoral, unethical or <br>reckless. At every turning point, Powell protected
his career above all else.</font><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2" face="Verdana"><font style="">" (10)<br><br><br><br>If I'd known he was coming I would have baked a cake.<br><br><br><br> <br><br><br></font></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><font style="" face="Verdana"><br></font><br><br><br><br> <br><br><br><br><br><br><br><hr>Windows Live™ Contacts: Organize your contact list. <a href="http://windowslive.com/connect/post/marcusatmicrosoft.spaces.live.com-Blog-cns%21503D1D86EBB2B53C%212285.entry?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_UGC_Contacts_032009">Check it out.</a><br /><hr />Express your personality in color! Preview and select themes for Hotmail®. <a href='http://www.windowslive-hotmail.com/LearnMore/personalize.aspx?ocid=TXT_MSGTX_WL_HM_express_032009#colortheme' target='_new'>See how.</a></body>
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