Other people, it seems, are beginning to come forward with their concerns about the administrations case for war. Yesterday, 60 Minutes II ran an interview with Greg Thielmann, former director of the Office of Strategic Proliferation and Military Affairs at the State Department. He and his staff were responsible for analyzing the Iraqi weapons threat for Secretary Powell. In this interview, Thielmann essentially states that Powell knew he was talking bullshit when he went in front of the United Nations on February 5, 2003, and gave his speech about the significant threat that Iraq was posing to the US and the world.
In the words of Thielmann, I think my conclusion now is that it’s probably one of the low points in (Powells) long, distinguished service to the nation.
I feel bad for Powell. He was pushed to go in front of the UN and make the case with flimsy evidence. If youll recall a story I linked to a few months ago, the story circulating in DC is that when Powell was first given the evidence against Iraq by Rumsfeld and his team, he threw it down and said something to the effect of, Im not going to present this bullshit.
So, what he ended up presenting wasnt quite a far-fetched as it could have been. What Thielmann is saying though, is that it was still bullshit, and that Powell knew it.
It seems as though the floodgates are opening up against the administration now. All the people that were sitting on the sidelines are finally getting up the courage to step forward like Ambassador Joe Wilson and tell what they know about the run-up to this war.
The only person in the administration that I really feel bad for in all of this is Powell. I respect Powell and I think that it would suck to see him go out like this. Bush and his team of neo-cons were ready to go into Iraq on their own and Powell convinced them to wait and take the case to the United Nations. Unfortunately, he just didnt have the facts to pull it off. And now it looks as though he might pay the price for trying.
