Disturbing and shocking revelations about the Iraq War just keep coming.
The latest is a piece in the Washington Note by Col Lawrence B Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell when he was Bush’s Secretary of State. A Republican, Wilkerson clearly detests Dick Cheney whose been touring the media extolling the virtues of torture in keeping America safe.
Summarising an MSNBC package he comments, “Let’s just say that five minutes of the Sith Lord was stunningly inaccurate”.
The real reason for torture was nothing to do with keeping America safe; as Wilkerson explains (with my emphasis):
Likewise, what I have learned is that as the administration authorized harsh interrogation in April and May of 2002–well before the Justice Department had rendered any legal opinion–its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al-Qa’ida.
So now we see the real reason for torture. In the absence of any evidence from the UN survey teams, the Iraq/al-Qa’ida link had to be manufactured wholesale – dodgy dossiers, torture – whatever it took with Bush and Blair playing off each other.
Liberal Eye 