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.

link to video

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/17/colin-powell-lawrence-wilkerson-iraq-manipulated_n_824884.html

Source: http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer84.html

The Anti-Empire Report
August 4th, 2010
by William Blum
www.killinghope.org

So please tell me again: What's the war about?

When facts are inconvenient, when international law, human rights and history get in the way, when war crimes can't easily be justified or explained away, when logic doesn't help much, the current crop of American political leaders turns to what is now the old reliable: 9/11. We have to fight in Afghanistan because ... somehow ... it's tied into what happened on September 11, 2001. Here's Vice-President Joe Biden: "We know that it was from the space that joins Afghanistan and Pakistan that the attacks of 9/11 occurred." 1

Here's Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC): "This is the place [Afghanistan] we were attacked from 9/11." 2

Rep. Mike Pence, the third-ranking House Republican, asserted that the revelations in the Wikileaks documents do not change his view of the Afghan conflict, nor does he expect a shift in public opinion. "Back home in Indiana, people still remember where the attacks on 9/11 came from." 3

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8408918.stm

It would have been right to remove Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein even without evidence he had weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Tony Blair has said.

The former prime minister said it was the "notion" of Saddam as a threat to the region which tilted him in favour of the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Hyperlinks here:

Media Matters Catalogues Gibson-Bush Interview Spin, Omits PNAC!
http://911reports.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/media-matters-catalogues-gibson-bush-interview-spin-omits-pnac/

Bush gave an interview to ABC's Charlie Gibson, in which Bush referred to the "intelligence failure" about WMD as his "biggest regret". MediaMatters.org, supposedly a right-wing spin watchdog, ignores PNAC and pre-Bush Administration Iraq War plans, but notes the corporate media's failure to point out that there are many instances in the public record that make it clear that the Bush Administration was planning to go to war with Iraq after 9/11. The ones Media Matters notes include as the "Downing Street Memo”, Richard Clarke's statement in his book that Bush asked him the day after 9/11 to find a link to Hussein, his report to Condi Rice a week later that there was none, the Senate Intelligence WMD Inquiry, and other media reports.

By Cheri Roberts-Piper MTR News

On Thursday March 13th authorities announced that an Officer involved in the investigation of the Las Vegas Ricin incident tested positive for small amounts of Ricinine or Ricidine found in his system. Ricinine is an alkaloid (3-cyano-4-methoxy-N-methyl-2-pyridone) that shares a common plant source with Ricin, and its presence in the system infers Ricin exposure. However, the alkaloid substance is extracted from the seeds of the castor plant and does not derive directly from Ricin.

KTNV News in Nevada reportedly identified the Officer as Jim Mitchell and he is said to have no symptoms of Ricin poisoning. The Officer was one that arrived on the scene to search a Las Vegas hotel room on Feb. 26th - weeks after it’s occupant - who is believed to be suffering from Ricin exposure, called 911 on Valentines Day. Bergendorff had been transported to a local hospital for respiratory distress. He was reported to have fallen into a coma after arrival and remained so for many weeks although family members have reported differently and have said Bergendorff was merely heavily sedated.

H.R.333 [799]
Article I

`We know they have biological and chemical weapons.'
March 17, 2002, Press Conference

and we know they are pursuing nuclear weapons.'
March 19, 2002, Press Briefing

`And he is actively pursuing nuclear weapons at this time . . .'
March 24, 2002, CNN Late Edition interview with Vice President Cheney.

`We know he's got chemicals and biological and we know he's working on nuclear.'
May 19, 2002, NBC Meet the Press interview with Vice President Cheney.

`But we now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons . . . Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.'
August 26, 2002, Speech of Vice President Cheney at VFW 103rd National Convention.

Thursday, October 7, 2004
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Saddam Hussein did not possess stockpiles of illicit weapons at the time of the U.S. invasion in March 2003 and had not begun any program to produce them, a CIA report concludes.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/06/iraq.wmd.report/

April 23, 2006

Dont you just wanna punch this guy in the face?? And the publics reaction!! they clap him!!
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=56f_1188720689

This was posted less obvious by someone else. I thought it was great. Wanted to make sure everyone could get a chance to watch it.