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Author Topic: Fourth Anniversary of Colin Powell Deception
John K
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Babbler # 3407

posted 04 February 2007 10:09 PM      Profile for John K        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
February 5 is the fourth anniversary of Colin Powell's presentation to the UN Security Council that helped set the stage for the U.S. led invasion six weeks later.

It's pretty obvious now that the speech was a pack of lies, but at the time it fooled an awful lot of people who should have known better.

One of the best critiques of Powell's speech atthe time was written by Robert Fisk. Fisk's sarcasm and contempt positively drips off the page.

quote:
Powell Presentation
It Was Like Something Out Of Beckett
by Robert Fisk

February 06, 2003
The Independent (UK)

Sources, foreign intelligence sources, "our sources," defectors, sources, sources, sources. Colin Powell's terror talk to the United Nations Security Council yesterday sounded like one of those government-inspired reports on the front page of The New York Times – where it will most certainly be treated with due reverence in this morning's edition. It was a bit like heating up old soup. Haven't we heard most of this stuff before? Should one trust the man? General Powell, I mean, not Saddam.

Certainly we don't trust Saddam but Secretary of State Powell's presentation was a mixture of awesomely funny recordings of Iraqi Republican Guard telephone intercepts à la Samuel Beckett that just might have been some terrifying little proof that Saddam really is conning the UN inspectors again, and some ancient material on the Monster of Baghdad's all too well known record of beastliness. I am still waiting to hear the Arabic for the State Department's translation of "Okay Buddy" – "Consider it done, Sir" – this from the Republican Guard's "Captain Ibrahim", for heaven's sake – and some dinky illustrations of mobile bio-labs whose lorries and railway trucks were in such perfect condition that they suggested the Pentagon didn't have much idea of the dilapidated state of Saddam's army.



It was like something out of Beckett

From: Edmonton | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
quelar
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posted 05 February 2007 06:43 AM      Profile for quelar     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I remember watching this and making snarky comments about his 'proofs'. It was obvious to anyone who is a critical thinker that this was a pack of lies back then. What's still embarassing is the complete lack of questioning that the media and foreign governments did.
From: In Dig Nation | Registered: Jun 2002  |  IP: Logged
John K
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Babbler # 3407

posted 05 February 2007 06:21 PM      Profile for John K        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Quelar, like you four years ago I put myself through the torture of watching Colin Powell's presentation to the UN. Afterward, I spent a few hours searching the internet for critiques that encapsulated the rage I was feeling, especially at the vast majority of media commentators who said Powell had made a powerful and persuasive case.

Here's another good critique from Timothy Bancroft-Hinchley that ran in Pravda of all places. A few excerpts:

quote:
Powell’s Fairy Tales: Puerile and Patronising

Interspersed with interjections such as “Tell me! Answer me!” seeming as if he were addressing a convention of boy scouts, showing an utter disrespect for his colleagues on the UN Security Council, Powell went on to back up his evidence with puerile remarks such as “We know from evidence”, without ever substantiating what.

The greatest guffaw is the satellite pictures. True, Colin Powell had said before he introduced them, that they were very difficult to interpret and that experts had spent hours poring over them. In other words, in a sickeningly patronising tone, he was saying “These are so difficult to understand but I will tell you how to interpret them”, as if his misinterpretations of the recordings were a sound precedent...

This presentation of “hard evidence” is a tissue of lies, gossip, misinterpretation, cynical manoeuvring and possibly even misrepresentation, aimed at providing a case for a war against Iraq. The UN Security Council is not a kindergarten or a scout camp. The international community is not a class of primary school pupils to be lectured in this way by an incompetent teacher. Were this the case, Colin Powell would be the one to have a donkey’s tail pinned to his trousers when he turned around to illustrate his great case against Iraq.

If people believe this report, they will believe that there are fairies at the end of the garden. Colin Powell has managed to allow himself and his image descend from a respected world-class diplomat to some sort of confused, rambling and unconvincing Peter Pan.



From: Edmonton | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
quelar
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posted 06 February 2007 07:25 AM      Profile for quelar     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Colin Powell has managed to allow himself and his image descend from a respected world-class diplomat to some sort of confused, rambling and unconvincing Peter Pan.

Now in Colin's defense, I do remember thinking that despite the fact that he was arrogantly presenting direct lies and obfuscations, Colin himself looks almost like he has been forced there at the end of a bayonette. HE didn't look any more convincing than the evidence, but he did have the attack style of the rest of his white house counter parts.


From: In Dig Nation | Registered: Jun 2002  |  IP: Logged
sidra
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posted 06 February 2007 10:17 AM      Profile for sidra   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Now in Colin's defense, I do remember thinking that despite the fact that he was arrogantly presenting direct lies and obfuscations, Colin himself looks almost like he has been forced there at the end of a bayonette. HE didn't look any more convincing than the evidence, but he did have the attack style of the rest of his white house counter parts. -quelar

He may have let it be guessed/known that he felt "forced there at the end of a bayonnette". But certaily not out of a sens of conscience.

Powel may well have been saying to himslef "Well, let the American public see this, once the lies have been uncovered, Bush would be impeached and I will have a shot as next President. After all, I did express my displeasure and I did not play the unpatriotic trouble-maker by making a fuss and resigning rather than being hauled here to lie."

[ 06 February 2007: Message edited by: sidra ]


From: Ontario | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
Cueball
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posted 06 February 2007 11:37 AM      Profile for Cueball   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Powell when a young Major was part of the Mai Lai massacre cover up.

[ 06 February 2007: Message edited by: Cueball ]


From: Out from under the bridge and out for a stroll | Registered: Dec 2003  |  IP: Logged
John K
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posted 06 February 2007 04:20 PM      Profile for John K        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I can't help but thinking that the course of recent history might have been significantly different had either Colin Powell or Tony Blair spoken the truth to GWB and the neo-con cabal.

Instead, they chose to act as willing accomplices to the lies and deception. For this history will judge them both harshly.

It's comforting to know that there were a few courageous journalists who at the time called a spade a spade in such a powerful and persuasive way.


From: Edmonton | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged

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