A Quote for the Morning: A Republican criticizes the racism of his party…

Secretary of State under George W. Bush, Colin Powell, had retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson as a Chief of Staff. Wilkerson made this comment in response to  John Sununu‘s statement on Thursday that Powell’s endorsement of President Barack Obama’s re-election was motivated by race:

“My party is full of racists, and the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin, and that’s despicable.”

– Col. Lawrence Wilkerson

And there are people who want these guys elected… why? We worked so hard for decades to establish the civil rights of all Americans. It was a triumph to elect our first black president and Obama has made significant achievements in his first term, even though he faced Republicans in the Congress who publicly pledged to keep his agenda from being passed.

Voting for Republicans in this election endorses their racial views. Do you?

Related articles

• Col. Lawrence Wilkerson says his party the Republican party is full of Racists (americanlivewire.com)
• Lawrence Wilkerson, Former Colin Powell Aide, Blasts Sununu, GOP As ‘Full Of Racists’ (democraticunderground.com)
• Col Lawrence Wilkerson On Republican Party: My Party Is Full Of Racists (ireport.cnn.com)
• Powell’s former chief of staff: I’m voting for Obama too (tv.msnbc.com)
• Video | Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson: “My Party Is Full Of Racist” (3chicspolitico.com)
• Romney campaign so desperate to change subject from Mourdock that they accuse Colin Powell of racism (dailykos.com)
• A Candid Republican Tells The Truth About Racism In His Party (duanegraham.wordpress.com)
• Sununu: Powell endorsed President Obama because of race (thehill.com)
• White Elephants (boyculture.com)
• Honesty – From the Mouth of a Conservative – Finally! (With Video Link) (euterpe-1641499.newsvine.com)

Colin Powell “manipulated” into making the case for the Iraq War…

…said his former Chief of Staff last night on MSNBC.

Take a look:

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, appeared on “MSNBC Live” tonight and discussed Powell’s role as Secretary of State during the lead-up to the Iraq War. Wilkerson said he believes that Former Vice President Dick Cheney‘s office “manipulated” Powell into justifying the case for war and that “the Secretary of State was not told the complete truth.” He went on to state his belief that the Bush Administration was “using” Powell due to his respected reputation. A key moment in the interview comes when host Cenk Uygur asks Wilkerson about Powell’s speech to the United Nations in which Powell made the case for war: Uygur: Do you think the Vice President’s office manipulated you and Secretary Powell into giving a speech? Wilkerson: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Of course, this is something most of us have assumed for years.

Related Articles

• “Colin Powell gets punked by the CIA” and related posts (bayareahouston.blogspot.com)
• Powell: CIA should answer on WMD (politico.com)
• Conscience catches up with Colin Powell (nowpublic.com)
• Colin Powell demands answers over ‘Curveball’ (telegraph.co.uk)
• Angry Colin Powell wants answers on Iraq WMD lies (capitolhillblue.com)

Curveball says he lied to get rid of Saddam…

..and, of course, led us into a long stupid war with dead and wounded Americans and thousands of dead Iraqi citizens.

This snippet by an article from Empty Wheel:

clipped from emptywheel.firedoglake.com Almost eight years after he helped start a war, the Iraqi behind the US claim that Iraq had mobile weapons labs admitted in an interview with the Guardian that he lied. (h/t Hissypit) Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed Curveball by German and American intelligence officials who dealt with his claims, has told the Guardian that he fabricated tales of mobile bioweapons trucks and clandestine factories in an attempt to bring down the Saddam Hussein regime, from which he had fled in 1995. The article as a whole provides fascinating details of how the German intelligence, BND, service basically fed Curveball the details he’d need to fabricate his lies. But I’m particularly interested in two new details he reveals. First, BND and British intelligence met with Curveball’s boss in mid-2000; the boss debunked Curveball’s claims. But it sure adds to the picture of the US dialing up the intelligence it needed — however flimsy — to start a war.

Related Articles

• “Curveball” Says He Lied About WMDs To Topple Saddam (alan.com)
• Curveball ‘deserves permanent exile’ (guardian.co.uk)
• ‘Curveball’: I lied about WMD to hasten Iraq war (msnbc.msn.com)
• Iraqi Defector Admits He Lied About WMD in Lead Up to War (hotair.com)
• Iraqi defector ‘Curveball’ admits WMD lies (telegraph.co.uk)
• Iraqi Defector ‘Curveball’ Admits WMD Lies, Is Proud of Tricking U.S. (abcnews.go.com)

Quote of the Day – Colin Powell on Military Solution to Gulf Oil Problem

When asked what the military could do if brought in to manage the Gulf mess:

“What we would do in my time, we would assign it to one of our army commanders, a second army would go in on Hurricane Andrew and take charge of things. But whether that’s the right combination of assets now I’ll have to leave to others to decide.

First we have to figure out what do we need? Do we need people to clean the beaches or put out skimmers? We have lots of fishermen and others down there who are available who want the work and know the water a lot better than an army unit coming in, but whether it’s army, coast guard, local forces, it is time for a comprehensive total attack on this problem.”

-Colin Powell, former Secretary of State