Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, continues to be one of the Bush administration’s worst nightmares. In a February 3rd interview aired on PBS, and summarized at Raw Story, Wilkerson went further than he has in past criticisms of the administration, branding the case for war presented at the United Nations on February 5, 2003 by Colin Powell “a hoax on the American people, the international community and the United Nations Security Council.” Wilkerson continues to hold Powell blameless for “falsehoods of which Powell had never been made aware,” instead calling the lapses a “profound intelligence failure.” Still, he hints at darker motives: “I have to believe that. Otherwise I have to believe some rather nefarious things about some fairly highly placed people in the intelligence community and perhaps elsewhere.” Yet Wilkerson’s use of the word “hoax” suggests a personal belief in a level of deceit and treachery that certainly rises above the level of an “intelligence failure.” Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word “hoax” as “to trick into believing or accepting as genuine something false and often preposterous.”
Powell’s February 5, 2003 United Nations speech, you’ll recall, laid out the case against Saddam Hussein, alleging that his regime maintained stockpiles of WMD and was actively engaged in developing nuclear weapons. Editor & Publisher Editor Greg Mitchell dubbed it “the single most important moment in the march to war,” despite the fact that Powell’s evidence turned out to be almost entirely without foundation. Wilkerson participated in the briefings that preceded the speech and now describes his participation as “the lowest point in my professional life.” According to Raw Story Wilkerson has some pretty solid opionions about just who perpetrated the hoax, even though he does not come right out and say it:
…Wilkerson also agreed with the interviewer that Vice President Cheney’s frequent trips to the CIA would inevitably have brought “undue influence” on the agency. When asked if Cheney was “the kind of guy who could lean on somebody” he responded, “Absolutely. And be just as quiet and taciturn about it as– he– as he leaned on ’em. As he leaned on the Congress recently– in the– torture issue.”
Wilkerson stood strongly by his earlier description of Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld as having formed a cabal to hijack the decision-making process, emphasizing both their determination to ignore the Geneva Conventions and the “inept and incompetent” planning for post-invasion Iraq. And he concluded, “I’m worried and I would rather have the discussion and debate in the process we’ve designed than I would a dictate from a dumb strongman. . . . I’d prefer to see the squabble of democracy to the efficiency of dictators.”
Wilkerson, Powell’s chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, and a long-time friend and associate of Powell’s, first turned heads in a frank interview he gave CNN for its documentary “Dead Wrong,” broadcast in August 2005 where he first described his participation in the UN speech briefings as “the lowest point” in his life:
…”I wish I had not been involved in it,” says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a longtime Powell adviser who served as his chief of staff from 2002 through 2005. “I look back on it, and I still say it was the lowest point in my life.”
…”(Powell) came through the door … and he had in his hands a sheaf of papers, and he said, ‘This is what I’ve got to present at the United Nations according to the White House, and you need to look at it,'” …”It was anything but an intelligence document. It was, as some people characterized it later, sort of a Chinese menu from which you could pick and choose…”
In the CNN documentary Wilkerson aimed most of his animus at former CIA director George Tenet:
“George actually did call the Secretary, and said, ‘I’m really sorry to have to tell you. We don’t believe there were any mobile labs for making biological weapons.” “This was the third or fourth telephone call. And I think it’s fair to say the Secretary and Mr. Tenet, at that point, ceased being close. I mean, you can be sincere and you can be honest and you can believe what you’re telling the Secretary. But three or four times on substantive issues like that? It’s difficult to maintain any warm feelings.”
But it was not until two months later that Wilkerson made international headlines On October 19, 2005 in a Washington, D.C. speech before the New America Foundation where he accused Vice President Dick Cheney and secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld of spearheading a “cabal” to hijack U.S. foreign policy. He also lashed out at then national security advisor Condoleeza Rice for excluding relevent officials from the decision-making process.
This criticism was not coming from some low-level bureaucrat. Wilkerson brings an impressive resume to the table. From Sourcewatch:
“Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired) Larry Wilkerson joined General Colin L. Powell in March 1989 at the U.S. Army’s Forces Command in Atlanta, Georgia as his Deputy Executive Officer. He followed the General to his next position as Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, serving as his special assistant. Upon Powell’s retirement from active service in 1993, Colonel Wilkerson served as the Deputy Director and Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia. Upon Wilkerson’s retirement from active service in 1997, he began working for General Powell in a private capacity as a consultant and advisor.
“In December 2000, Secretary of State-designate Powell asked Wilkerson to join him in the Transition Office at the U.S. State Department and, later, upon his confirmation as Secretary of State, Secretary Powell moved Wilkerson to his Policy Planning Staff with responsibilities for East Asia and the Pacific, and legislative and political-military affairs. In June of 2002, the Director for Policy Planning, Ambassador Richard Haass, made Wilkerson the associate director. In August of 2002, Secretary Powell moved Wilkerson to the position of Chief of Staff of the Department.
“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.”
While Colin Powell has himself called his UN speech a blot on his record, Wilkerson’s blunt criticism of the Bush administration has not endeared him to his former boss. In a Q&A following his October 19, 2005 speech he acknowledged that:
“…I have paid a price, and it is a high price for me. I’ve paid the price that Colin Powell and I see eye to eye a lot less than we used to…. The great respect I have for the man emanates as much from his ability to tolerate me in my many dissenting opinions as it does from his leadership qualities… But at the end, I actually was physically thrown out of his office on one occassion, and that was a first in 16 years.
It showed, I think, his exasperation and it showed his tolerance level had sunk considerably for dissenting opinions. He’s not happy — I think that’s fair to say — with my speaking out because — and I admire this in him too — he is the world’s most loyal soldier and feels that his inveterate optimism is right and that we will overcome these problems. And I share that. However, I feel like as a citizen and as a person very much concerned with the military — it was my old home — I need to speak out…
And speak out he has. Wilkerson saw from the inside the case for war being constructed, and he has branded it a hoax. The administration likely regards him as a traitor, but the American people should salute him as a true patriot.