All the (Vice) President’s Men
Now that we are getting closer to the truth about who led the “fixing” of intel in the runup to the Iraq war, perhaps it is time to look at who is the mastermind behind torture, rape and murder becoming official policy of the Bush Whitehouse.
Get a load of this potentially explosive tidbit:
“Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, then the secretary of state, told National Public Radio he had traced a trail of memos and directives authorizing questionable detention practices up through Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s office directly to Cheney’s staff.”
Bush is such a weak, lazy leader, leaning on those around him to prop him up, that he has allowed Cheney to be become the most powerful Vice President in US history. Is seems that not only have Rumsfeld and Cheney been in collusion, but that Cheney has been the real driving force behind the most despicable fall from morality our country has ever seen.
He said the directives contradicted a 2002 order by President George W. Bush for the U.S. military to abide by the Geneva conventions against torture.
“There was a visible audit trail from the vice president’s office through the secretary of defense, down to the commanders in the field,” authorizing practices that led to the abuse of detainees, Wilkerson said.
The directives were “in carefully couched terms,” Wilkerson conceded, but said they had the effect of loosening the reins on U.S. troops, leading to many cases of prisoner abuse, including at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, that were contrary to the Geneva Conventions.
David Addington, Cheney’s new chief of staff, is one of the staunchest supporters of unlimited presidential powers. Apparently, Cheney also ran an “alternate national security staff” that spied on and sought to undermine the real National Security Council. So Cheney’s shadow government consisted of the WHIGS, meant to fix intelligence, and an alternate national security staff, meant to fix policy.
These people believe their own lies. They obviously believe in what they are doing. They believe in torture. They believe in murder. They proudly reflect the personality and beliefs of their leader Bush.
I’m praying that before all is said and done, nothing short of a presidential pardon will protect all of them from serious jail time.
This shows how neocon ideology has turned into an evil malignancy on the US Presidency, threatening the foundations of our democracy. It’s time to tear the roof off of the White House and let the sun shine in. Even that may not be enough. Anyone know of a good exorcist?
International Herald Tribune article