Colin Powell: 'No meeting on torture'

[sabra]

Source: Chicago Trib

The most riveting passage in retired Army Gen. Colin Powell's conversation with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow -- Aries, both, the interviewer noted -- involves what the former secretary of state knew about the interrogation of suspected terrorists on his watch.

There were regular "principal's meetings,'' our former colleague, Jan Crawford Greenberg, of ABC News now, first reported of the Bush administration's consultations on the conduct of interrogation. This included conferences of several of the highest-level members of the Bush administration, including Powell.

"There was no meeting on torture,'' Powell told Maddow of those meetings, and they did not conduct "play by play'' discussions of the techniques being used on some of the highest-value targets,-- at least not in the meetings that he attended.

Powell maintains that it was always his position in those sessions that any interrogation must adhere to the strictures of the Geneva Convention. But he also allows that the full story of this saga remains to be told, and may be revealed some day in "the written record'' of those meetings.

" It is constantly said that the meetings - I had an issue with this - we had meetings on what torture to administer,'' Powell says. "The only meetings I recall were where we talked about what is it we can do with respect to trying to get information from individuals who were in our custody.''

Read more: http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/04/colin_powell_no_meeting_on_tor.html

[dflprincess]

1. "The only meetings I RECALL..."

(weasel words like the "To the best of my recollection..." heard so often during the Watergate hearings)

And then Powell goes on to say "..we talked about what is it we can do with respect to trying to get information from individuals who were in our custody." :wtf:

And we're suppose to believe that torture was not mentioned? This guy had no problem lying to the U.N. and now we're suppose to believe him?

The only way Powell can redeem himself is to volunteer to testify for the Spanish prosecution - without demanding immunity.

[Bobcat]

2. Powell

CYA all the way!!!

[atreides1]

3. That's Powell

CYA at its best, he did a great job as the initial investigating officer of the My Lai Massacre.

"He was charged with investigating a detailed letter by Tom Glen (a soldier from the 11th Light Infantry Brigade), which backed up rumored allegations of the My Lai Massacre. Powell wrote: "In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent." Later, Powell's assessment would be described as whitewashing the news of the massacre, and questions would continue to remain undisclosed to the public."

[Solly Mack]

4. Snort

"The only meetings I recall (double-snort) were where we talked about what is it we can do (like torture?) with respect to trying to get information from individuals who were in our custody.'' (Gee, like which "enhanced interrogation technique" to use?)

LMAO.

Well, yeah....it was the ways you all came up with that is the problem.

I don't recall a discussion about painting the room green but I do recall we talked about using blue and yellow together.

[annabanana]

5. Sure.. By Yoo's definition of torture, there WAS no such conversation.

Of course you have to believe that waterboarding isn't torture to believe it...

[Jefferson23]

6. In Charlie Savage's book, Takeover, I have to tell you, of all those

implicated in his Pulitzer prize winning account of the Bush administration, Powell is not one of them. Not suggesting that means Powell isn't a liar, just wouldn't surprise me if they left him out of those final decisions intentionally.

[No Elephants]

10. If Powell really knew nothing about torture, he would not have had to hedge so much in his

interview with Maddow.

Pontius Powell

[Jefferson23]

15. Like I said before, it doesn't mean he wasn't lying, but I have read

nothing that implicates him, not like the others have been.

[EFerrari]

17. He let them use his so called "integrity" as a selling point.

He knew exactly what he was doing.

[Jefferson23]

18. The discussion was about torture, not WMD.

[EFerrari]

19. It speaks to his character, though, and to his credibility. n/t

[Jefferson23]

20. Yes it does, no doubt about that. If any information comes out

that directly implicates him about torture, I will know he was lying but until then I'll withhold judgment.

[EFerrari]

21. One thing you might want to consider: there is no way the CIA

could have black sites all over the world without the cooperation of the State Department.

[scribble]

7. Powell dishonors his uniform

Someone at DU should run down what deniability is and how Executives (including Generals and Admirals and cabinet officials) use deniability.

Here's the deal: All managers defend themselves against knowing anything directly about what their direct reports are doing. That way they can deny that they knew that their direct reports required to violate the law, even though their own orders pretty much determined that an order would have to be carried out unlawfully. They give the general order; they don't want to know how you are actually going about doing what they told you to do.

When Powell waffles about torture, well, I can't tell you how angry that makes me.

He knew everything -- but his meeting notes will only capture the ORDERS he gave and will carefully NOT report HOW those orders were being carried out (torture). He had Hells' own elbow room to maneuver himself out of harms' way. This isn't the first time he has violated the Geneva Convention or even lied on the record, knowing that people would die. Did you know that in Viet Nam, Colin Powell was Lt. Calley's direct superior officer?

Powell is simply not an honorable or respectable man. We should not forget that, and we should remind Rachel Maddow that her job is not done regarding her interview.

sc

[damntexdem]

8. It was actually "I don't recall."

Sound familiar?

[benld74]

9. I believe him, BUT

those in power let it be known, to those who take orders without question, by any means required GET WHAT I WANT!

[Zhade]

11. This motherfucker lied to the UN about Iraq's alleged-but-long-ago-destroyed WMDs.

There is no reason to believe a word he says about anything.

[No Elephants]

12. So much em;phasis on the written record. What a joke.

[ladjf]

13. Powell is a weasel. nt

[antimatter98]

14. Tired of Powell's slick lying. n/t

[EFerrari]

16. War criminal and career scumbag. n/t

[ConcernedCanuk]

23. +1

.
.
.

:thumbsup:

[ProgressIn2008]

22. Powell is a lying thug. It is as it always was. OTOH, he'll get off free, like the rest of em. nt

[goddess40]

24. Repuke word games

Call it games with captives and it's no longer torture