Breaking?: Wilkerson takes on Cheney (from AP)

Ex-Powell Aide Criticizes Detainee Effort

By ANNE GEARAN
AP Diplomatic Writer





WASHINGTON (AP) -- A top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday that wrongheaded ideas for the handling of foreign detainees arose from White House and Pentagon officials who argued that "the president of the United States is all-powerful" and the Geneva Conventions irrelevant.

In an Associated Press interview, former Powell chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson also said President Bush was "too aloof, too distant from the details" of postwar planning. Underlings exploited Bush's detachment and made poor decisions, Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson blamed Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and likeminded aides. He said Cheney must have sincerely believed that Iraq could be a spawning ground for new terror assaults, because "otherwise I have to declare him a moron, an idiot or a nefarious bastard."

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WILKERSON_INTERVIEW?SITE=CATOR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-11-28-17-45-40

:wow: I'm amazed they got that far !!!!

best line:

at least in goodly part?

n/t

That would be my choice. Worst Administration EVER :mad:

I just thought I might be able to get there first before the Republicans say it.

They always get to throw their own under the bus before we even get to comment.

**Wilkerson is a veteran of the Vietnam war as well as a U.S. Army “Pacific hand,” having served in Korea, Japan, and Hawaii and participated in military exercises throughout the Pacific.

Moreover, Wilkerson was Executive Assistant to US Navy Admiral Stewart A. Ring, Director for Strategy and Policy (J5) USCINCPAC, from 1984-87.

Wilkerson also served on the faculty of the U.S. Naval War College at Newport, RI and holds two advanced degrees, one in International Relations and the other in National Security Studies.

He has written extensively on military and national security affairs–especially for college-level curricula--and been published in a number of professional journals, including the Naval Institute’s Proceedings, The Naval War College Review, Military Review, and Joint Force Quarterly (JFQ). **

http://www.state.gov/outofdate/bios/w/26731.htm

I can't find if he's Repub or Dem, specifically, though it seems he contributed SMALL amounts to a handful of Republicans.

That description gets my vote.

out for Bush & Cheney. No tears lost for 'em.

This article was like a shot of adrenalin - great reading. I think it's absolutely delicious how Cheney is showing wear and tear, after aggressively defending his war. Now that the S.S. Bush is sinking, he's struggling.

Good.

A moron AND an idiot AND a nefarious bastard

horrors we are perpetrating on innocent people.

that Cheney wasn't absolutely convinced they would find WMD. But that he doesn't care how policy affects people as long as the end is what he wants. Rummy too. They let mayhem happen so that corporations can step in.

These are people experimenting with the lives of others. When you take all consideration of humanity out of policy - what are you left with? A nefarious bastard.

Look at Katrina! They didn't care - they saw it as an opportunity. Same with 9/11.