...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Wednesday, May 12, 2004
      ( 1:30 PM )
 
Train Wreck

As Josh Marshall puts it, "Okay, I think the wheels are now officially off this car." The Baltimore Sun is quoting Colin Powell as indicating that (shocker) the President might be lying (gasp!):

Powell's statement suggests Bush may have known earlier than the White House has acknowledged about complaints raised by the International Committee of the Red Cross and human rights groups regarding abuse of detainees in Iraq.

"We kept the president informed of the concerns that were raised by the ICRC and other international organizations as part of my regular briefings of the president, and advised him that we had to follow these issues, and when we got notes sent to us or reports sent to us ... we had to respond to them, and the president certainly made it clear that that's what he expected us to do," Powell said.

Now, I don't exactly trust that Colin Powell is the best suited to deal with this situation, considering he cut his teeth on the whole cover up of My Lai and because he willingly went along with the lies about Iraq. However, it does appear that there is authority given at the highest levels of State to leak the truth about this situation that the DOD and WH don't want leaked -- namely, that the President and Rumsfeld were hoping no one would ever find out and the torture could continue. Damn those pictures! The split in the executive branch is almost a full-blown break. If it illuminates the general predilection of this administration to lie, then I guess it's worth something.

Read Billmon's excellently-written post on cruel war to get a picture of how "staying the course" means that we will be leading the way in the worst kind of spiral.

Oh, and if you were looking for rationales why we're in Iraq in the first place? The administration has so far come up with 27 of them. (thanks to maru for the heads up on that one). By the way, Bush could have killed Nick Berg's murderer 3 times - but it would have ruined his war plans.

P.S. if you're looking for sources on how big this is - don't forget Col. Hackworth - he hears it straight from the horses' mouths.

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