I expect there are dozens, even 100's, of people like this guy.
I hope a lot of them find the courage to speak out, which will be career suicide as they will be reflexively murdered by dubya's henchmen
(see EVERY whistle-blower's fate under dubya's command).
======================================
washingtonpost.com
Colonel Finally Saw Whites of Their Eyes
By Dana Milbank
Thursday, October 20, 2005; A04
As Colin Powell's right-hand man at the State Department, Larry Wilkerson seethed quietly during President Bush's first term. Yesterday, Colonel Wilkerson made up for lost time.
He said the vice president and the secretary of defense created a "Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal" that hijacked U.S. foreign policy. He said of former defense undersecretary Douglas Feith: "Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man." Addressing scholars, journalists and others at the New America Foundation, Wilkerson accused Bush of "cowboyism" and said he had viewed Condoleezza Rice as "extremely weak." Of American diplomacy, he fretted, "I'm not sure the State Department even exists anymore."
And how about Karen Hughes's efforts to boost the country's image abroad? "It's hard to sell [manure]," Wilkerson said, quoting an Egyptian friend.
The man who was chief of staff at the State Department until early this year continued: "If you're unilaterally declaring Kyoto dead, if you're declaring the Geneva Conventions not operative, if you're doing a host of things that the world doesn't agree with you on and you're doing it blatantly and in their face, without grace, then you've got to pay the consequences."
With Bush's approval ratings dropping below 40 percent, the administration's vaunted loyalty and party discipline are suffering. David Frum, a former White House speechwriter, is campaigning against confirmation of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Bruce Bartlett, who worked for the president's father, was fired by his think tank this week because he is publishing a book led "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy."
And, on Capitol Hill yesterday, Republicans joined in criticizing the administration about Iraq. When Rice said at a hearing that "we have made significant progress" in Iraq, Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R.I.) replied: "Well, we all wish that were true, but we can't kid ourselves, either."
Wilkerson adds a new dimension to the criticism. A 31-year military veteran and former director of the Marine Corps War College, he worked for Powell in the public and private sectors for much of the past 16 years, and he was often described by colleagues as the man who would say what Powell was thinking but was too discreet to say.
Wilkerson's beef with the administration was, for the most part, not ideological. He argues that U.S. forces must remain in Iraq, and he describes George H.W. Bush as "one of the finest presidents we've ever had."
Rather, the colonel objected to the administration's secrecy, which allowed Cheney, Rumsfeld and others to subvert the foreign policy apparatus that has been in place since 1947.
"What I saw was a cabal between the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld," he said. By cutting out the bureaucracy that had to carry out those decisions, "we have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran, and generally with regard to domestic crises like Katrina." If there is a nuclear terrorist attack or a major pandemic, Wilkerson continued, "you are going to see the inep ude of this government in a way that'll take you back to the Declaration of Independence."
Wilkerson, part military man and part academic, said " " a lot but also used words such as "desultory" and " ular." Peering from large wire-rimmed glasses, armed with a flag lapel pin, he spoke with barely restrained anger. He had given critical quotes about the administration before, but yesterday's New America Foundation speech was his coming out as an administration critic.
He had barbs for lawmakers ("truly abandoned their oversight responsibilities") and said past presidents had also cir vented the national security structure. But, he said, "the case that I saw for four-plus years was a case I have never seen in my studies of aberrations, bas izations, perturbations, changes to the national security decision-making process."
Wilkerson blamed Bush, "not versed in international relations and not too much interested," for letting the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal to take over. He blamed Rice for dropping her role as honest broker to "build her intimacy with the president." And he blamed whoever gave Feith "carte blanche to tell the State Department to go screw itself."
The cabal's end run around the bureaucracy, he argued, stalled nuclear diplomacy with North Korea and Iran. He said top officials "condoned" prisoner abuse and left the Army "truly in bad shape."
"You and I and every other citizen like us is paying the consequences," he said, "whether it was a response to Katrina that was less than adequate certainly, or the situation in Iraq which still goes unexplained."
The colonel said his old boss is not pleased with his decision to go public with his criticism. Powell, he said, "is the world's most loyal soldier." Wilkerson said he admired that, but he took a different view of loyalty: not to the administration, but to the country.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
How can you hijack your own foreign policy. I think what he meant was "his" and his cronies foreign policy got taken away from them. I would say Bush has done an excellent job of cleaning out the stinking State Department and UN, about time. Bye the way your Colonel is working for a liberal think tank now. Sounds like a bad loser, or just a loser to me.
So when is his book coming out?
as opposed to what powell is saying now..
Colin Powell: 'We're not doing bad at all'
By CAROLYN THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer
October 19, 2005, 11:00 PM EDT
AMHERST, N.Y. -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday the United States is "not doing bad at all" diplomatically, despite anti-American sentiment over the war in Iraq.
"If you stand back a bit," Powell told an audience at the University at Buffalo, "you might see we have done very well in most parts of the world."
Powell, a guest in the university's Distinguished Speakers Series, outlined strides made in Europe, China and Asia, and predicted nuclear disputes with North Korea and Iran would be solved diplomatically.
"When I look at the world in that context, we're not doing bad at all," he said.
Although Powell last month called his prewar speech to the United Nations accusing Iraq of harboring weapons of mass destruction a blot on his record, he said Wednesday the United States could not walk away from the current fight until Iraq was stronger.
The U.N. speech lent credibility to President Bush's case for going to war.
"We are where we are," he said.
"We have to stay the course," he said to applause.
Here's another one, ragging on Mike Brown.
===================
The New York Times
October 20, 2005
FEMA Official Says Boss Ignored Warnings
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:47 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal Emergency Management Agency officials did not respond to repeated warnings about deteriorating conditions in New Orleans and the dire need for help as Hurricane Katrina struck, the first FEMA official to arrive conceded Thursday.
Marty Bahamonde, a FEMA regional director, told a Senate panel investigating the government's response to the disaster that he gave regular updates to people in contact with then-FEMA Director Michael Brown as early as Aug. 28, one day before Katrina made landfall.
In most cases, he was met with silence. In an Aug. 29 phone call to Brown informing him that the first levee had broke, Bahamonde said he received a polite thank you from Brown, who said he would check with the White House.
''I think there was a systematic failure at all levels of government to understand the magnitude of the situation,'' Bahamonde said.
The testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee contradicted Brown, who has said he wasn't fully aware of the dire conditions until days later and that local officials were most responsible for the sluggish response.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chairs the panel, decried the testimony and e-mail released by Bahamonde on Thursday as illustrating ''a complete disconnect between senior officials and the reality of the situation.''
''His urgent reports did not appear to prompt an urgent response,'' Collins said.
In e-mails to various FEMA officials, including one to Brown, Bahamonde described a chaotic situation at the Superdome, where many of the evacuees were sheltered. Bahamonde e-mailed FEMA officials and noted also that local officials were asking for toilet paper, a sign that supplies were lacking at the shelter.
''Issues developing at the Superdome. The medical staff at the dome says they will run out of oxygen in about two hours and are looking for alternative oxygen,'' Bahamonde wrote in an e-mail to regional director David Passey in a call at 4:46 p.m. CDT on Aug. 28.
Less than an hour later, Bahamonde wrote: ''Everyone is soaked. This is going to get ugly real fast.''
Bahamonde said he was stunned that FEMA officials responded by continuing to send truckloads of evacuees to the Superdome for two more days even though they knew supplies were in short supply.
''I thought it amazing,'' he said. ''I believed at the time and still do today, that I was confirming the worst-case scenario that everyone had always talked about regarding New Orleans.''
Later, on Aug. 31, Bahamonde frantically e-mailed Brown to tell him that thousands are evacuees were gathering in the streets with no food or water and that ''estimates are many will die within hours.''
''Sir, I know that you know the situation is past critical,'' Bahamonde wrote.
Less than three hours later, however, Brown's press secretary wrote colleagues to complain that the FEMA director needed more time to eat dinner at a Baton Rouge restaurant that evening. ''He needs much more that (sic) 20 or 30 minutes,'' wrote Brown aide Sharon Worthy.
''We now have traffic to encounter to go to and from a location of his choise (sic), followed by wait service from the restaurant staff, eating, etc. Thank you.''
Meanwhile, at a separate hearing, lawmakers considering Louisiana's request for $32 billion for Gulf Coast rebuilding were told that Mississippi would need tens of billions of dollars of its own to restore its coastline.
Gulf Coast lawmakers and state officials have been pushing for vast infusions of federal aid since Katrina hit Aug. 29, killing more than 1,200 people and forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate.
''It will be in the billions, with a 'b,' level, it may be in the tens of billions; it won't be in the hundreds of billions,'' William W. Walker, head of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, told a House transportation panel.
But Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., chairman of that panel, earlier had said flatly that Congress cannot afford Louisiana's request. ''This is just not going to happen,'' he said.
* Copyright 2005 The Associated Press
I had huge respect for Colin, dragging his feet on getting into the Iraq war like any experience military man would (esp one who had the balls to serve in VN, unlike war-evading chicken- shrub and head), until he compromised himself in front of the UN, setup by dubya's operatives with yet another fake, "fixed up" intelligence report.
dubya mikebrown suckrepug!!!!!
This is exactly where the Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame investigation is heading. The whole CIA leak thing isn't about Karl Rove, Louis Libby, or any reporter exposing the name of a covert CIA agent. We have already established that it was likely the CIA which unthinkingly exposed Plame. What the case is really about is a wide group of very powerful people in the administration who would do anything to control the whole pre-war intelligence on Iraq, even vindictively conspire to get back at a diplomat who was exposing the company lie, and then conspiring to hide the attack.How can you hijack your own foreign policy. I think what he meant was "his" and his cronies foreign policy got taken away from them.
Word from those in the know is that Fitzgerald already has 8 indictments ready to go and could have as many as 18 indictments and 2-3 conspirators who were involved but not indicted before all is said and done.
Didn't the neolibs post this same article 2 days ago?
That colonel is a dumbass.... Bush and Cheney are the policy makers... not some other non elected people in State dept..
That article is total westwing / blue pill broadcast bull .
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