Bushies 'used' Colin, (says Powell's wife)

[deadparrot]

Colin Powell fought the Viet Cong, but he was no match for the Bush administration hard-liners who "used" his prestige to sell the Iraq war to the American people, his wife says.

In "Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell," Powell's wife, Alma, says the former secretary of state was "callously used to promote a war she wished had never happened," author Karen DeYoung writes.

"They needed him to do it because they knew people would believe him," she told DeYoung, an editor at the Washington Post.

Colin Powell, who was interviewed by DeYoung six times at length, expressed reservations about invading Iraq but never considered quitting in protest once President Bush decided to go to war.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/459063p-386181c.html

[maseman]

1. I wonder

Seems like Powell would love to come out against the misAdministration. Did Rove threaten a "hit" or something? He has his wife doing the outing if you will.

[saigon68]

36. Yes Colon got used--Like a Colon should

Draw me a Picture

LOL

[atreides1]

37. Rumor has it

That Michael Powell may have been involved with some under the table dealing, while he was Chairman of the FCC.

This could be the reason that the father has allowed himself to be used by BushCo, to protect his son. From my own experience with my son, it did him more good going to prison for his crime then if I had tried to cover for him, but I guess I'm more practical then Powell.

And it did teach my son a lesson, he's been able to hold down a job, for the last 2 years and has stayed away from drugs and kept himself out of trouble.

[Kikosexy2]

53. Powell and son....

sold their souls to the Devil (Bushie) and now they're paying the price...of guilt....redeem yourselves or just rot in Hell....

[dddem]

68. Yay for your son (and you)

I wish him continued success.
Peace.

[sofa king]

70. The commonly known liability is actually Powell's wife.

She suffers from chronic depression and it would be very easy to tip her over the edge. This is reputedly one important reason why Powell would not run for President, because it was too easy to get to her and they both knew it.

The fact that Mrs. Powell is publicly espousing an opinion might actually suggest an improvement in her condition, now that the pressure on her husband is off. That's all well and good, but the fact of the matter is that Colin Powell will go down as the first William Pierce Rogers of the 21st Century, rather than the first African-American President.

[NOLADEM]

73. Mai Lai will always be over his head

He climbed the ranks due to his cover up of Mai Lai Massacre. Any misstep and his legacy will be swiftboated, and his corporate welfare checks will end.

He is an owned man, and always has been.

[sugapablo]

81. Powell is ultiimately a soldier...

...Bush was his Commander in Chief. No matter how much a soldier disagrees with his commander, there's a sense of honor when it comes to "betraying" him, even if the feelings run deep.

I don't always agree with Powell, but he does seem to carry himself well. I doubt he'll attack Bush in the near future.

[leesa]

83. Well, he's wrong. His duty is to protect the Constitution NOT to the CIC.

He dishonored his office.

[Virginia Dare]

2. Alma won't be getting any more...

intimate dinner invitations with the Bush's anymore. Good to see she's got her priorities back.

:wow:

[dflprincess]

34. Be careful Alma

remember what they did to Martha Mitchell.

[goclark]

47. Recall that the CONS said that he couldn't run for President

because his wife had some "mental issues."

I never did believe that but watch them bring it out again that she is "mental."

[Virginia Dare]

57. Good catch...

I had forgotten about that, Alma must have been vocal in the past about her disagreements with the BFEE.

Have a good weekend goclark! :hi:

[goclark]

58. You too Virginia Dare ~ hope Alma spills the beans

before they give her the "Martha Mitchell Pill"

[kwassa]

3. She is right, but he LET himself be used.

Colin knew what was going on. He has none of my sympathy.

[radfringe]

38. I'll agree to that

he willingly let himself be used - no pity from me at this date

[Vidar]

42. I entirely agree.

[Name removed]

69. Deleted message

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

[msongs]

4. colin powell has no honor - he sold out deliberately even thought he knew

what he was doing was immoral. Powell was NOT USED, he went along willingly! too bad alma, you are married to a toadie.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[Canuckistanian]

20. He KNEW he was being used

Probably from about five minutes into his job. He went willingly.

The "scary Saddam WMD" performance he gave at the UN was the low point of his career.

He did it anyways.

[wryter2000]

54. I'd forgive him

If he'd come out now and tell the truth, as Larry Wilkerson has done. Letting his wife do it for him doesn't cut it.

[Subdivisions]

67. I agree. Make it up to me MR Powell by coming

out with the truth, the whole truth and, nothing but the truth. Until then, he's just another conspirator to me.

[Roy]

55. Actually it was even sooner than that.

I remember a (non) press conference where Bush marched out like a mother duckling trailed by her brood. He mentioned how people were concerned with his foreign policy inexperience and pointed the group who would be potential cabinet members. Powell, Rumsfeld, Cheney, a total of about 6 or 7 people.

Refusing to take questions he then march off the stage, again with the duckling like line of power hitters trailing in a perfect column.

Powell being last in line was asked by a reporter "do you support George Bush's policies"? Powell hesitated and replied "I SUPPORT GEORGE BUSH".

Reported: "But sir, do you support George Bush's policies?"

With an embarrassed look on his face, he repeated the previous line, "I support George Bush", and huuriedly re-took his place in the line.

So, no he knew at the outset he was being used in the exact manner as described by Harry Belafonte, and he went along willingly.

[closeupready]

28. I think you're right.

Sad, but true.

[Jackpine Radical]

30. My Lai.

Some lovely associations.
Me Lie.
My Lie.
My Lai.

[0007]

35. How ironic....

A mock-heroic cocksucker at his best.
Harry Belafonte sez it best about Colin chicken shit Powell.

[corporatemedia]

5. I've always said "The reason Colin Powell could never be president is...

that he is the ultimate 'Yes Man' and there would be no one to say yes to."

(Unless he can find his own little Dick Cheney.)

[kurth]

6. Powell could have stood up and changed history, but he chose

to be a Bushbot instead.

[Phredicles]

7. As the late Ann Landers used to say, No one can take advantage of you...

...without your permission. He sold out and didn't even get his 30 pieces of silver.

[Frances]

9. Wasn't Ann Landers quoting Eleanor Roosevelt?

[Phredicles]

14. Now that you mention it, I think she was.

Good catch!

[Demeter]

10. Colin Got His Silver

His son got a cushy appointment, for example.

[philly_bob]

32. ... to the FCC -- and we're all paying.

Powell's son Michael was an AWFUL FCC Chairman. Presided over the media concentration that led (until just recently) to today's happy-talk government-line news.

[crim son]

8. Yeah, and he went along with it,

hoping it would work out favorably for him.

[ForFuxakes]

11. A thought just occurred to me...

Could it be possible that Colin went to the UN knowing full well the WMD line was all bullshit? With that question being raised, could it also be possible that Colin knew full well that BushCo was going to war regardless of the UN outcome and could it also be possible that Colin was simply trying to protect the military by trying to get as many allies as possible?

I have a hard time believing that Collin would sell his soul for this war. I would rather believe (hope or maybe even grasping at straws here) that he knew that this war was going to happen and wanted to desparatley protect the military in any way he could.

Or perhaps, I can not fathom the concept that EVERYONE in this admin is so devoid of compassion/ethics...I am at a loss...sorry for rambling!

[LynnTheDem]

25. Same excuse for powell's attempts at covering up Mai Lai?

Bet the 2800 Americans who bled to death in the sands of Iraq for what powell knew were lies don't think powell was just trying to protect them.

[allemand]

75. Powell had nothing to do with the My Lai cover-up.

It's an urban myth, often repeated, often copied and pasted..., but still not true. Very few journalists bothered to talk to Tom Glen himself (the author of the letter which Powell had to investigate):

"Damned If You Don't; Colin Powell's supposed sins of omission"

(...) Six months into the job Powell was handed a letter, written the previous month, by a specialist four, Tom Glen, an ammo carrier for a mortar platoon in the 3rd Infantry. Glen by then was back in the States. The letter was addressed to Gen. William C. Westmoreland and passed down to the division, where it landed in Powell's lap. He was instructed to check it out and respond within 72 hours.

The letter was an eloquent but generalized critique of American military practices in Vietnam — the brutalizing of civilians, torture and other mistreatment of prisoners by "soldiers that, apparently, fire indiscriminately into Vietnamese homes and without provocation or justification shoot at the people themselves. . . . What has been outlined here I have seen not only in my own unit, but also in others we have worked with, and I fear it is universal. If this is indeed the case, it is a problem that cannot be overlooked, but can through a more firm implementation of the codes of and the Geneva Convention, perhaps be eradicated." No names, dates or places were cited. (...)

Glen now lives in Centreville, Ind., and works with students needing remedial work to qualify for college admission. His own platoon in Vietnam, he told me, engaged in no atrocities or brutal treatment of civilians or prisoners, but he had personal knowledge of indiscriminate firing by other units and the use of dogs to intimidate prisoners in the course of their interrogations. He had been told by a helicopter door gunner soon after the My Lai massacre that something untoward had occurred in that village. But he didn't pursue it, report it to higher authorities or mention the incident in his letter to Westmoreland.

Glen stands by his general observations but, with respect to Powell, is "concerned about this being blown out of proportion. . . .I don't see Powell involved, and shouldn't have drawn that conclusion."

Richard Harwood, Washington Post, 10 April 1995

[cui bono]

50. I thought it had come out that he knew...

weren't there reports that he tried to talk them out of that presentation? I mean it was drawings, not photos. How real is that?

[tblue37]

60. Powell called it all BS during a prep briefing before

he gave that speech. He threw the notes in the air and said, "This is all bullshit!"

Yes, he knew. But he is and always has been an opportunist, a careerist in the worst sense of the word.

He has never had any ethics. His son is the apple that did not fall far from the tree.

Remember, Colin Powell helped cover up My Lai.

[sofa king]

72. Yes.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/unmovic/2003/0609conseq.htm

On the evening of February 1, two dozen American officials gathered in a spacious conference room at the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Va. The time had come to make the public case for war against Iraq. For six hours that Saturday, the men and women of the Bush administration argued about what Secretary of State Colin Powell should--and should not--say at the United Nations Security Council four days later. Not all the secret intelligence about Saddam Hussein's misdeeds, they found, stood up to close scrutiny. At one point during the rehearsal, Powell tossed several pages in the air. "I'm not reading this," he declared. "This is bulls- - -."

[GeorgeGist]

12. Seems to me Colin...

was more than willing to be used and wouldn't be complaining if he hadn't been caught. :nopity:

[RaRa]

13. Cry me a fucking river, Alma

is you're husband an idiot? I don't think so He may not have liked what was going on, but he wasn't totally in the dark.

[GiveUsHope]

15. I say it was "consensual"

nt

[glarius]

16. He also allowed himself to be "used" to cover up the Mi Lai massacre in

Viet Nam. Seems he has a habit of allowing himself to be "used"!

[Matilda]

17. And now he's held in contempt by both sides,

Bush supporters and anti-war activists alike.

He put ambition above honesty, that's all.

[Skittles]

18. Mrs. Powell, your husband was a willing participant

he served under bush inc after they stole the election in part by denying blacks the right to vote. He was a whore then and by not speaking out, he is a whore now.

[Brazenly Liberal]

19. No.

Colin Powell allowed himself to be used.

Read his autobiography. This is NOT a man who is either stupid or naive. For whatever reason, apparently now regretted, he chose to ride that tiger and in the process sold his credibility, getting nothing of value in return for it.

[Stuckinthebush]

21. Well, of course he was used!

Why in the hell did he and Alma think the Bushies wanted him in the administration?

Yes, Colin was used and used well. They knew that the administration would have little respect when it came to all things warlike, so they needed a mouthpiece. Then, when they needed him to go in front of the world and push us into war, they didn't hesitate to tell him to jump. Hell, even Cheney admitted that Colin had some positive polling points to give up for this effort.

The problem is now Colin is bitching about it. If he was a man of true integrity, he would have quit rather than be used. Don't give me the "good soldier" defense. He is a general and should be a leader, not a mindless follower.

So, I agree with Alma that he was used. I just don't let that sway my opinon of him as a human being.

[LynnTheDem]

22. Your sworn duty, powell, was to protect the Constitution of the USA.

You failed that duty, powell.

You failed your troops.

YOU CAUSED THEM TO DIE IN AN ILLEGAL INVASION WAR OF AGGRESSION DEEMED "THE SUPREME CRIME" BY THE NUREMBERG TRIBUNAL FOR WHAT YOU KNEW WERE A PACK OF LIES, pOWELL.

Their blood is on YOUR hands just as redly as it is on the bushies, powell.

[Jawja]

23. Play with snakes.....

[gratuitous]

24. Everybody makes mistakes, Mrs. Powell

What is your husband planning to do to make up for this colossal mistake? The families of thousands of troops and many more thousands of families of Iraqis may have a hard time accepting just "I was used" as justification for the invasion that killed so many. And as a taxpayer, it surely doesn't make up for the billions and billions of dollars squandered in this reckless venture.

So, what is Mr. Powell going to do to make up for this mistake? Write another book and suck up some more royalty checks? What's the going rate for his conscience?

[tk2kewl]

26. So. Time to come clean then.

[FSogol]

27. Too bad. He should have told the truth. He still could. n/t

[Nite Owl]

29. So the big brave General

didn't have the backbone to say no to them? He's as guilty as the rest of them, it's too late now to say he was used when at the time he let it happen.

[kurth]

39. Yes the general who led the most powerful military in the world into

battle against the vaunted and much-feared forces of Saddam Hussein - who couldn't wait to surrender to Western camera crews.

[alfredo]

31. I have no love for Powell. He has been a great disappointment.

Still there could be another possibility. Did he feel that he was a "voice of reason" within the administration, then once the neo cons gained control, he lost control and became a prisoner of their ideology and blood lust? He did protest the assertions in his UN address? He did say they are "bullshit." His failing is to give in and deliver the lies to the world.

He had a chance to be a hero, but he failed us and he failed himself. The blood of our soldiers and the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis are on his hands. At the least, I hope he never has a day without guilt, a day without regret.

[donsu]

33. at the time it was all going down I used to watch Alma and thought

she was not happy with it. then she disappeared from the media. this is the first I've heard of her since then.

why is she still Colin's wife?

if your husband is a traitor to your country, and you know it, why continue to be his wife?

[GetTheRightVote]

40. What I have heard is that Powell has been working behind the scenes

for some time to get this mess taken care of but it has been difficult to over come the lies of the * crime family. He is trying to make a difference still....

:kick:

[cui bono]

51. Well he should go public with all that he knows. Blood is on his hands.

[Burried News]

41. The Thugs built him up and the Thugs took him down ...

meanwhile his net worth is in the tens of millions.

[samsingh]

43. you think? and the fool let himself be used.

[MrPrax]

44. Sour Grapes...

I am sure if Powell's star shone a little more brighter as a GOP hopeful, he wouldn't be shedding crocadile tears...at one point this guy was trying threatening to become a democrat to get his political career off and running.

Too much baggage, too moderate and he knows it...Adios, Butcher

[grasswire]

49. this isn't exactly fair

Powell could have been president at any time he chose to run. And yet for a long, long time (and I heard it personally from him and from his press aide while he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs) he never had ANY intention of seeking the presidency.

The rumors of such a campaign were raised in order to heighten interest in his book. But there never was any plan or desire to hold that office. I think he could still pull it off. But he won't.

[gully]

45. "They needed him to do it because they knew people would believe him,"

Yep, and unfortunately people did. Mr. Powell, you too have INNOCENT blood on your hands.

[leftofthedial]

46. he bent over willingly for them

he's been an absurdly overrated blind opportunist for his whole career.

[stepnw1f]

48. Yuh... Surrre... He Was Used... Give Me a Break! (nt)

[bobthedrummer]

52. Powell's Iran/Contra Role

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2000/121900b.html

[BornagainDUer]

62. So Powell was in Iran Contra too.

These Republicans don't know how to take responsibility for their actions.

[pacalo]

56. He could have used his prestige to stop the war from happening.

[zonkers]

59. He could still speak out against the war if he wanted to. He should

write a book and do a tour.

[mitchum]

61. She is a liar married to a liar who sired a liar

the whole Powell family can go to hell

[Taverner]

63. If Gen Powell only took the cue from another General...Butler

As in Gen Smedly Butler. The one who was good buddies with the neocons of the time, but when they tried to suspend Democracy - he did the honorable thing. Fried the rat bastards.

[lovuian]

64. Powell & Son LET BUSH USE THEM

and commited political Suicide ...

[trashcanistanista]

65. Powell has so much blood on his hands

"Go straight to hell, boy."

The Clash

[demo dutch]

66. Duh Hello!! we all knew that a few years ago!

[Cha]

71. DUH-A!

Sorry, I know some might be shocked at that little revelation.

[pinniped]

74. Ok, the POS is complicit, regardless.

He knew people were going to get blown to hell and didn't give a shit.

All of these punks need to be locked up.

[clydefrand]

76. Colin will be only a comma in the history books. n/t

[Norton]

77. Mitchum is right!

Colin is like the woman who decides to try prostitution, then afterwards finds that she's lost her soul. Of course, prostitutes don't kill thousands of people when they "whore it up"! Colin is a whore, Colin is a murderer... hope he finds a special place in Hell.

[dad]

78. Everyone is giving Powell too much credit.

He is a piece of human garbage just like the rest of the Bushies.
Don't insult whores by comparing them to Colin Powell.

[shanti]

79. and she thought it would be any different?

:shrug: come on...

[ikojo]

80. Colin Powell ALLOWED himself to be used

He's not an idiot.

[Orsino]

82. Somehow, I suspect that the Powells...

...are keeping the money he earned during his tenure, and won't be spending any of it to undo the damage. Until that changes, Alma's quote means little coming from *her*.

[Imagevision]

84. Powell: "we went to war with false and in some cases, fabicated intel...