Friday, November 18, 2005
Powell Admits The WMD Story Was Pure Fiction
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell now admits the reasons given by the Bush Administration for going to war with Iraq were a total fabrication. He says planning for the invasion began immediately after the Taliban were routed from Afghanistan by U.S. forces.
Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, according to Powell, contracted with third-rate American fiction authors to develop scenarios for justifying an invasion. Some of the more bizarre ideas, Powell recalled, involved a child pornography ring organized by Sunni clerics, an Iraq plan to invade Luxembourg, and forcing Iraqi newspaper writers to testify before the Supreme Judiciary Council.
The idea of Weapons of Mass Destruction came from an unnamed science fiction writer whose latest book is about the discovery of dancing midgets on the rings of Jupiter, Powell noted. Cheney reportedly said the WMD scenario made his heart skip a beat. The acronym, said Rumsfeld, as Powell recalled, could later be used to stand for "Wimpy Mindless Democrats."
When the various stories for justifying a war with Iraq were presented to President Bush, he suggested sending Monica Lewinsky as an undercover agent to Iraq to distract Saddam Hussein while Navy Seals destroyed the country's levee system, sending flood waters into Baghdad. When it was pointed out, according to Powell, that there are no levees in Iraq, Bush appeared confused. "Isn't Iraq the country built below sea level?" he reportedly asked.
Powell said he eventually agreed to the WMD story when Cheney promised to stop calling him an Oreo Cookie, the reference being black on the outside and white inside. Rumsfeld said his staff would deliver a fresh watermelon to Powell once a week, year round. Bush agreed to stop whistling "My Old Kentucky Home" every time Powell entered the Oval Office.
Powell now admits that going along with what he calls the "Bush Cabal" was a "mother mistake." He says he wanted to clear the air before he announced his latest business venture -- a chain of discount prosthetic limb retail outlets serving American veterans wounded in the Iraq war. The start-up company, he said, is being assisted by donations from conservative Republican congressmen. "I suspect they're now feeling a little guilty," he said.
Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, according to Powell, contracted with third-rate American fiction authors to develop scenarios for justifying an invasion. Some of the more bizarre ideas, Powell recalled, involved a child pornography ring organized by Sunni clerics, an Iraq plan to invade Luxembourg, and forcing Iraqi newspaper writers to testify before the Supreme Judiciary Council.
The idea of Weapons of Mass Destruction came from an unnamed science fiction writer whose latest book is about the discovery of dancing midgets on the rings of Jupiter, Powell noted. Cheney reportedly said the WMD scenario made his heart skip a beat. The acronym, said Rumsfeld, as Powell recalled, could later be used to stand for "Wimpy Mindless Democrats."
When the various stories for justifying a war with Iraq were presented to President Bush, he suggested sending Monica Lewinsky as an undercover agent to Iraq to distract Saddam Hussein while Navy Seals destroyed the country's levee system, sending flood waters into Baghdad. When it was pointed out, according to Powell, that there are no levees in Iraq, Bush appeared confused. "Isn't Iraq the country built below sea level?" he reportedly asked.
Powell said he eventually agreed to the WMD story when Cheney promised to stop calling him an Oreo Cookie, the reference being black on the outside and white inside. Rumsfeld said his staff would deliver a fresh watermelon to Powell once a week, year round. Bush agreed to stop whistling "My Old Kentucky Home" every time Powell entered the Oval Office.
Powell now admits that going along with what he calls the "Bush Cabal" was a "mother mistake." He says he wanted to clear the air before he announced his latest business venture -- a chain of discount prosthetic limb retail outlets serving American veterans wounded in the Iraq war. The start-up company, he said, is being assisted by donations from conservative Republican congressmen. "I suspect they're now feeling a little guilty," he said.
