Larry Wilkerson Spiegel interview: "I am convinced that the vast oil resources of Iraq..."

[scarletwoman]

"...weigh heavier for me now when I do the strategic analysis as reasons for the war than I thought back then."

Larry Wilkerson - for those who don't know - was Colin Powell's Chief of Staff until Powell resigned.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,542881,00.html

SPIEGEL: Do you feel that you made mistakes?

Wilkerson: Of course. It still makes me feel even worse when I just think about it because I was a part of it. Back then I felt I had done a bad job. Everything happened too fast, it was too hurried, everything was jammed through. Why did we agree that Powell would do the UN presentation? Why didn’t we insist that the US Ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte do the presentation -- just like Adlai Stevenson during the Cuban Missile Crisis? That all came together and I even began to regret it back then. But I also know -- what were we supposed to do? We were dependent on the information of the intelligence services.

SPIEGEL: Do you ever think that Powell was set up?

Wilkerson: Well I am increasingly convinced that, for a part of the Bush administration, the argument “weapons of mass destruction” was just a camouflage, just subterfuge for their real goals and reasons of the war.

SPIEGEL: What are they?

Wilkerson: I am convinced that the vast oil resources of Iraq weigh heavier for me now when I do the strategic analysis as reasons for the war than I thought back then.

SPIEGEL: Who do you mean specifically? George W. Bush?

Wilkerson: I am not sure. But I would be very interested to look at the documents chronicling Dick Cheney’s pre-war conversations with leading figures of the energy business and with oil magnates. Maybe one day historians will be able to get their hands on those documents and come to a judgment about that -- if and when the classified documents become open to the public.

It's worth reading the entire interview; there's some interesting bits about the cooperation between European and U.S. Intelligence agencies, among other things.

sw

[Wilms]

1. .

[Middle finga]

2. Larry I could have told you that back in 2002 buddy..

[scarletwoman]

3. At least he's had the decency to go public with his regrets.

In 2002 he was an insider, thinking he was dealing with a normal administration.

[Middle finga]

4. Yeah I guess you're right considering his former boss Colin has yet

to come clean.

[scarletwoman]

5. Kicking this in case it might interest someone...

[seemslikeadream]

6. Powell was set up

Don't forget Haiti Colin

[scarletwoman]

7. Well, I think one has to look at it from Wilkerson's perspective.

He's a long time true believer in American supremacy -- the basic bottom line of the Foreign Policy Establishment.

I don't expect Wilkerson to see things from a leftist perspective -- he's no Ramsey Clark or George Galloway -- he's still basically an Establishment man.

But at least he's expressing a healthy skepticism, which is made significant by the fact that he IS an Establishment figure.

sw

[DURHAM D]

8. Be sure to read the long article on "Curveball" at that link as well.

Most details I have ever seen on the "fabricator". 4000 Americans dead and he gets protection and a stipend from the German government.

[scarletwoman]

9. Thanks, good point. (nt)