Did anyone catch Larry Wilkerson just now on Cenk Uygar's show? I missed the first part, but in what I caught, he was discussing Curveball. He said Powell was lied to. He said they lied to the Secretary of State. He wasn't specific about who lied. The WH used him for his credibility in sending him to the UN. But didn't Wilkerson know that at the time? This is not new news, even if the Curveball story is new. We all knew they were lying, Powell knew, Powell fought back as they were prepping the speech, and cut some claims, IIRC.
What I am hearing from Wilkerson, is that he is shocked, shocked to discover that there was lying going on in the Bush WH and Pentagon. Really?
Cenk asked him if in light of new information, it was a mistake to have attacked Iraq. Wilkerson said it didn't matter, because George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were determined to go into Iraq regardless.
Here is Wilkerson on Tuesday:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff to the then US secretary of state Powell in the build-up to the invasion, said the lies of Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, also known by the codename Curveball, raised questions about how the CIA had briefed Powell ahead of his crucial speech to the UN security council presenting the case for war.
In particular, why did the CIA's then director George Tenet and his deputy John McLaughlin believe the claim by Curveball, "and convey that to Powell even though the CIA's own European chief Tyler Drumheller had already raised serious doubts.
"And why did Tenet and McLaughlin portray the presence of mobile biological labs in Iraq to the secretary of state with a degree of conviction bordering on passionate, soul-felt certainty?"
Hopefully the video from the Cenk Uygar interview will show up here later >
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
I'm just befuddled to the reaction to this news. Yesterday there was Chris Matthews, shocked, shocked to find out Rummy lied about WMDs. Did he seriously not know? We knew. Now Larry Wilkerson is outraged to find out one of the arguments for war was fictional?
All of it was fictional. And everyone knew it at the time.