Did You Celebrate Colin Powell Day?

Did you celebrate Colin Powell Day?

By Dusty
[link to uncapitalist.com]

Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of Colin Powell's speech to the United Nations Security Council to push for war with Iraq. Powell's speech, as we now know, was full of lies. His speech was entitled: Iraq, Failing to Disarm. He even had a nifty slide show for the attendees. Behind him sat George Tenet, then head of the CIA.

No one fact-checked Powell, no one bothered to ask questions. It was accepted as fact by pretty much everyone. Bush had been beating the war drums for quite some time prior to Powell's speech and the MSM fell right in line. The MSM did their job by selling us the war, and they did it very well:

CNN's Bill Schneider said that "no one" disputed Powell's findings. Bob Woodward, asked by Larry King on CNN what happens if we go to war and don't find any WMD, answered: "I think the chance of that happening is about zero. There's just too much there." George Will suggested that Powell's speech would "change all minds open to evidence."

The Washington Post's liberal columnist, Mary McGrory, wrote that Powell "persuaded me, and I was as tough as France to convince." She even likened the Powell report to the day John Dean "unloaded" on Nixon in the Watergate hearings. Another liberal at that paper, Richard Cohen, declared that Powell's testimony "had to prove to anyone that Iraq not only hasn't accounted for its weapons of mass destruction but without a doubt still retains them. Only a fool—or possibly a Frenchman—could conclude otherwise."

For the skeptical, Powell's speech was the turning point. It was a slam dunk and BushCo was quite happy with the fact that even moderate and liberal pundits fell right in line after hearing Powell's speech at the UN. The week prior to Powell's speech, more than two-thirds of the nation's leading editorial pages, E&P had found, called for the release of more detailed evidence and increased diplomatic maneuvering. After the 80-minute speech, there were no more doubting Thomas'. Powell's speech changed our lives and those of all Iraqi's forever.

Powell now calls his infamous speech a 'blot on his record'. "I'm the one who presented it to the world, and (it) will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It is painful now,". How quaint.

Ray McGovern, who was no longer employed by the CIA at the time of Powell's speech, tried to warn Bush and Powell about the inaccuracies in the speech. The day before Powell gave it, McGovern other former CIA intelligence officers, part of a group who called themselves VIPS, dissected Powell's speech and found it lacking in truth and evidence. The afternoon of Powell's speech they sent Bush a memo which outlined the problems associated with the so-called facts of Powell's address to the UN. A small blurb from that prophetic memo:

"But after watching Secretary Powell today, we are convinced you would be well served if you widened the discussion beyond violations of Resolution 1441, and beyond the circle of those advisers clearly bent on a war for which we see no compelling reason and from which we believe the unintended consequences are likely to be catastrophic."

Catastrophic indeed! Powell's speech was a major part of the 935 lies told by Bush and his minions to draw us into the war in Iraq. Bush made 232 false statements about Iraq and former leader Saddam Hussein's possessing weapons of mass destruction, and 28 false statements about Iraq's links to al Qaeda., Colin Powell made 244 false statements about weapons and 10 about Iraq and al Qaeda.. A blot on his record? Hell, the speech will define Colin Powell throughout history I think..at least I hope it will. As for the study, it also takes the MSM to task for buying into all the bs and bravado without questioning any of it:

"Some journalists -- indeed, even some entire news organizations -- have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical," the report reads. "These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq."

American's believed what the media told them. The media believed what Bush and Powell told them about Saddam, the WMD's and the liaison between Hussein and Al-Qaeda. They bought it all hook, line and sinker and then it was sold to American's as the truth and nothing but the truth.

With hindsight being 20-20, it was anything but the truth.