Uncle Colin Comes Home?
Everybody knows that ex-SecState Colin Powell is the Rorshach blot of American politics. Each of us tends to see in him precisely what we want to see, and for some paradoxical reason that lends his opinions on issues additional gravitas - especially when he criticizes the Bush Administration, in which case it becomes front-page/above-the-fold/lead-story news in the Extreme Media. This probably helps explain why General Powell's two most recent public pronouncements on Bush foreign policy haven't drawn much EM attention.
A little over a week ago, in an interview with the BBC that was picked up on by Mark in Mexico and blown sky-high by Cap'n Ed, Powell disclosed that for all the Monday morning intelligence quarterbacking from the Bushophobes in the spookacracy, the CIA never once indidated any doubt about the prevailing wisdom - which was, in fact, accurate through January of 2003 - that Saddam Hussein was in full possession of both his WMD programs and the arsenal that went with them:
You could excuse this omission to some degree by the perfectly prudent adage that it's better to err on the side of caution, as well as making the argument that even if we found no WMD stockpiles, we could take for granted that Saddam would eventually reacquire them - i.e. the "Saddam himself was a WMD" argument. But that doesn't dovetail with the open war that the CIA seditionists have been waging against the White House ever since the end of "major combat operations" thirty-two months ago. Indeed, it suggests that they were trying to set up the President to, at worst, look foolish, and at best, for impeachment. And now the "Voice of Reason" has essentially said so.
On ABC's This Week a couple of days ago, Powell made it a two-fer by demolishing another piece of left-wing stink bait - sort of:
Sure, you'd prefer to get the FISA warrants first whenever possible. But in a war in which intelligence-gathering and dispatch in acting on it are imperatives, if the FISA court becomes an obstacle instead of an asset, is the President supposed to just sit there, helplessly twiddling his thumbs while critical time ticks away and another attack becomes imminent? And General Powell, to his credit, said "no".
Hope the pressies enjoyed their double-helping of [CENSORED]mas coal, and that in the coming year the supply will be inexhaustible as it is promiscuously distributed.
Let Uncle Colin be its pied piper.
UPDATE 12/28: Just to close this loop, the FISA court's obstructionism neatly coincides with Clintonoid Judge George Robertson's appointment to it in the fall of 2002, which makes his melodramatic, high dudgeon exit (though not from the federal bench altogether, which would actually do the country some good) look anything but the spontaneous act of conscience he and the press are trying to put over. Kind of like teasing your dog to distraction by holding a doggie treat just out of his reach and then whacking him across the nose with a rolled up newspaper for jumping up on you.
The President finally decided to just eat from the treat box instead when and where he felt he had to.
Hopefully next time he'll just bite instead.
A little over a week ago, in an interview with the BBC that was picked up on by Mark in Mexico and blown sky-high by Cap'n Ed, Powell disclosed that for all the Monday morning intelligence quarterbacking from the Bushophobes in the spookacracy, the CIA never once indidated any doubt about the prevailing wisdom - which was, in fact, accurate through January of 2003 - that Saddam Hussein was in full possession of both his WMD programs and the arsenal that went with them:
The US administration was never told of doubts about the secret intelligence used to justify war with Iraq, former secretary of state Colin Powell told the BBC in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday night.
Mr. Powell, who argued the case for military action against Saddam Hussein in the UN in 2003, told BBC News 24 television he was "deeply disappointed in what the intelligence community had presented to me and to the rest of us."
"What really upset me more than anything else was that there were people in the intelligence community that had doubts about some of this sourcing, but those doubts never surfaced to us," he said.
You could excuse this omission to some degree by the perfectly prudent adage that it's better to err on the side of caution, as well as making the argument that even if we found no WMD stockpiles, we could take for granted that Saddam would eventually reacquire them - i.e. the "Saddam himself was a WMD" argument. But that doesn't dovetail with the open war that the CIA seditionists have been waging against the White House ever since the end of "major combat operations" thirty-two months ago. Indeed, it suggests that they were trying to set up the President to, at worst, look foolish, and at best, for impeachment. And now the "Voice of Reason" has essentially said so.
On ABC's This Week a couple of days ago, Powell made it a two-fer by demolishing another piece of left-wing stink bait - sort of:
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday supported government eavesdropping to prevent terrorism but said a major controversy over presidential powers could have been avoided by obtaining court warrants.Perhaps General Powell let his subscription to the Seattle P-I lapse. In last Saturday's edition was a story [h/t Jed Babbin] revealing that the FISA court, from which such warrants would have to have been obtained, has, since 9/11, become actively obstructionist:
Powell said that when he was in the Cabinet, he was not told that President Bush authorized a warrantless National Security Agency surveillance operation after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Appearing on ABC's This Week Powell said he sees "absolutely nothing wrong with the President authorizing these kinds of actions" to protect the nation.
But he added, "My own judgment is that it didn't seem to me, anyway, that it would have been that hard to go get the warrants. And even in the case of an emergency, you go and do it."
[I]n the first 20 of the court's 21 annual reports, none of the requested warrants were turned down or even modified. But since 2001, at least six warrants were turned down and 173 subjected to substantive modification.
Sure, you'd prefer to get the FISA warrants first whenever possible. But in a war in which intelligence-gathering and dispatch in acting on it are imperatives, if the FISA court becomes an obstacle instead of an asset, is the President supposed to just sit there, helplessly twiddling his thumbs while critical time ticks away and another attack becomes imminent? And General Powell, to his credit, said "no".
Hope the pressies enjoyed their double-helping of [CENSORED]mas coal, and that in the coming year the supply will be inexhaustible as it is promiscuously distributed.
Let Uncle Colin be its pied piper.
UPDATE 12/28: Just to close this loop, the FISA court's obstructionism neatly coincides with Clintonoid Judge George Robertson's appointment to it in the fall of 2002, which makes his melodramatic, high dudgeon exit (though not from the federal bench altogether, which would actually do the country some good) look anything but the spontaneous act of conscience he and the press are trying to put over. Kind of like teasing your dog to distraction by holding a doggie treat just out of his reach and then whacking him across the nose with a rolled up newspaper for jumping up on you.
The President finally decided to just eat from the treat box instead when and where he felt he had to.
Hopefully next time he'll just bite instead.
posted by JASmius at 9:14 AM
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