Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Powell defends Rumsfeld, urges no rush to judgment on Iraqi abuse allegati

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread		 This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Latest Breaking News Donate to DU
 
NNN0LHI Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 11:56 AM
Original message
Powell defends Rumsfeld, urges no rush to judgment on Iraqi abuse allegati
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040507/pl_afp/us_iraq_powell_rumsfeld&cid=1521&ncid=1473

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) defended his frequent sparring partner, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, amid growing calls for the Pentagon (news - web sites) chief's resignation over allegations that American troops abused Iraqi prisoners.


"Before people start talking about, at this point in the matter, heads needing to roll, let's get all the facts out, let's make sure we understand what happened, let's get the story straight before you get into this kind of suggestion," Powell told AFP in an interview.


"Secretary Rumsfeld has done a great job as secretary of defense, he has got two campaigns underway right now: one in Afghanistan (news - web sites), one in Iraq (news - web sites), and let's not forget we've got troops deployed in many other places -- Bosnia, Kosovo, Haiti," he said.


"This is the time for us to be steady, get all the facts out, get all the information out, and let's see where we are," Powell said.

more...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
jrthin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 11:58 AM
Response to Original message
1. Powell, you shameless piece
of humanity, shut the eff up!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
PaDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 04:40 PM
Response to Reply #1
26. Kennedy called for Powell
to replace Rummy today when he left the hearing.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Sandpiper Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 11:59 AM
Response to Original message
2. Colin "My Lai" Powell
Goes to bat for Donald "Abu Ghraib" Rumsfeld.

What a surprise.

Is there anyone left who still thinks Powell has any integrity?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Jacobin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 03:08 PM
Response to Reply #2
16. Hey. He's good!!! He kept My Lai under wraps for two years!!
He's an excellent war criminal. Why are you questioning his talents?

:evilgrin:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
maddezmom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 12:02 PM
Response to Original message
3. wonder what colin knows
this could get very interesting....
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
frankieT Donating Member (375 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 12:03 PM
Response to Original message
4. weird ?
what was Powell's answer when the rest of the world told him at the UN speaking of the alleged iraqis WMD and support for international terror "Before people start talking about, at this point in the matter, heads needing to roll, let's get all the facts out, let's make sure we understand what happened, let's get the story straight before you get into this kind of suggestion," ???
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ixion Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 12:06 PM
Response to Original message
5. right... only rush to judgement when it's some other country
like Iraq and WMD's. Where was the call not to 'rush' to judegement there?

:grr: :eyes:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
gratuitous Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 12:08 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. Took the post right out of my computer!
After all, this is just torture we're talking about here. Taking out Saddam had to happen, and quick, before those meddlesome inspectors showed what a pack of lies the casus belli was!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
keithyboy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 12:06 PM
Response to Original message
6. His family has probably been threatened....consequences of
'sleeping with dogs' The fleas really do itch!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
SEpatriot Donating Member (369 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 12:13 PM
Response to Original message
8. What does anyone really expect from Colin Powell?
Lest we forget...

My Lai Massacre Cover-Up

"Colin Powell, then a young US Army Major, was charged with investigating the 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 refutation would be called an act of "white-washing" the news of the Massacre, and questions would continue to remain undisclosed to the public. "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre

"There may be isolated cases of mistreatment of civilians and POWs," Powell wrote in 1968. But "this by no means reflects the general attitude throughout the Division." Indeed, Powell's memo faulted Glen for not complaining earlier and for failing to be more specific in his letter.

Powell reported back exactly what his superiors wanted to hear. "In direct refutation of this portrayal," Powell concluded, "is the fact that relations between Americal soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent."
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin3.html
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
othermeans Donating Member (858 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-08-04 05:07 AM
Response to Reply #8
27. GREAT LINK for Powell defenders
Man this is the best link for those who somehow believe that a guy who went along with the invasion of Iraq is a "hip" conservative.

Just another Republican Oreo.

Wouldn't you love to see an interview with the helicopter pilot who ordered his men to shoot to kill the American soldiers committing the atrocities?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
pebbles1 Donating Member (39 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 12:23 PM
Response to Original message
9. when the planes hit the towers
I was ask by you all to reflect, to understand why this happened. When a Palestinian walked onto a local school bus in Israel and blew himself up along with young school children, again I was told to understand their way of living and the abuse that they have been put threw.

Now we see horrific pictures of American soldiers at the least humiliating Iraqi prisoners. I have seen no pictures of broom sticks up anyones ass. I have only seen naked pictures of Iraqi's simulating sexual acts, and all that is being ask of you is to not rush to judgement until all the facts come out.

Some people would say you are being hypocritical
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
frankieT Donating Member (375 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 01:22 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. come on, even Rumsfeld
Edited on Fri May-07-04 01:23 PM by frankieT
admitted that he reviewed yesterday MANY MORE UNSEEN photos et videos of other abuses and said that they are even MORE SHOCKING.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
TankLV Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 02:56 PM
Response to Reply #9
11. and every other honerable sane person would say you're full of shit.
Guess we'll have to "doubt" those meddlesome, inconvenient pictures, then, huh?

You are shameless.

These thugs are criminals.

The idiots in charge of our country are criminals.

This whole mess was based on lies.

It's rotten fromt the top down and inside out.

And bunkerboy is at the heart of it all.

Choke on that for awhile!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
saigon68 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 02:58 PM
Response to Reply #9
12. Pebbles I thaught you were banned
back again eh
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
gratuitous Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 03:01 PM
Response to Reply #9
13. Have you seen this picture?


It was in this morning's New York Times. It's an Iraqi "detainee", dead, swathed in ice and in an unzipped body bag. You can see from his face that he was beaten up pretty badly while in detention.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
sandnsea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 03:02 PM
Response to Reply #9
14. And you'll still defend them
If you can defend the Bush scum after they have desroyed every decent thing this country has ever stood for, you'll never stop. I don't understand the need for it. They must be stopped.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Jacobin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 03:10 PM
Response to Reply #9
17. I understand from Rumfilled that the worst pics are yet
to be released.

So, fine. I'm sure we can all wait for the "really good ones".
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DrWeird Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 03:27 PM
Response to Reply #9
21. Some people would say you are being hypocritical.
There have been far more innocent civilians killed in Iraq then died on 9-11. And Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
daleo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 04:36 PM
Response to Reply #9
24. Tabuga's report mentioned evidence soldiers used a chemical light
To sodomize prisoners, and probably broom sticks as well. This is an official U.S. army document, available on the web (CNN has a copy, you should read it). This is just the tip of the iceberg, or the thin edge of the broomstick, if you will, that we have seen so far.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
TryingToWarnYou Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-08-04 08:29 AM
Response to Reply #9
29. When you see..
Humiliation?

You do realize that electrodes connected to extremities is NOT humiliation, but instead, torture, right?

You do realize that stretching people across a metal bunk and securing them to said bunk is not humiliation, but instead, torture, right?

Did you hear that there are more sadistic pictures and even video to come?

You do realize that the level of 'humiliation' experienced by these prisoners is addressed directly at their religion and thus, their culture? By definition, this too is torture.

Wait until all the facts are in? We have photographs of the acts committted. What more do you need? The rest of us have seen enough. Now, head on back over to Free Republic.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
robbedvoter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-08-04 10:08 AM
Response to Reply #9
32. But, but, didn't we go in Iraq to "liberate" them? To close the torture
and rape rooms? Aren't we the beacon of democracy? isn't the word better off without Saddam? It was supposed to, right? How come I feel worse?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
leesa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-08-04 10:12 AM
Response to Reply #9
33. Duh.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Whoa_Nelly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 03:05 PM
Response to Original message
15. Powell is a fool
Edited on Fri May-07-04 03:06 PM by Angel_O_Peace
and has allowed himself, and continues to allow himself, to be used as a tool by this administration.
I still question what is it that this administration has on him that made him recant his want to resign early on, and to publicly and vehemently come to the defense of all decisions and actions of the Bush admisntrations? He did a 180 early on, and since then has publicly presented himself as a staunch soldier in favor of all moves by BushCo, regardless of Woodward's reporting of Powell not in favor of Iraq due to what he saw as the beginning of a diplomatic and economic disaster. What the hell is in his history that has made him allow himself tobe such a tool? Mai Lai? maybe...but it seems there is much more that we may never know.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
daleo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 04:39 PM
Response to Reply #15
25. Sadly, it is probably just money
Plus a big-shot job for his son, and doing his duty, like a good little robot. People see integrity in Powell that I never could.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Generator Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 03:11 PM
Response to Original message
18. Powell is a asskissing piece of fool that has sold his soul
Don't why this really outrages me that he defended SCUMMY but it does.

Maybe because as a former soldier, you think he would realize the harm that this admin has done to our soldiers for the next few decades.

UGGGGGGGGGGH of the day number 3!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
snippy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-08-04 07:31 AM
Response to Reply #18
28. I agree, except that I think Powell wants Rummy to twist in the wind.
I think Powell wants to sit back and watch Rummy receive more and more criticism as more and more information comes out. Powell is a master at political back stabbing.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Malva Zebrina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 03:24 PM
Response to Original message
19. they are all jerking us around and playing games
we have no clout at all.

Our own Democrats are also jerking us around.

I am soured on politics

As far as I am concerned, it is time to open the barn doors, grab the pitchforks, and take to the streets.

My country has disgraced itself horribly and possibly irretrievably under an insane, stupid man, and no one in any position of authority wants to recognize the black mire we are stuck in and the destruction this ignorant man has caused.

and I mean NO ONE.

Probably because they want to keep and preserve their own reputation as a great senatorial, statesman.

With a couple of exemptions--Dennis for one.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
NashVegas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 03:25 PM
Response to Original message
20. LMFAO
Oh, this is just beautiful.

Any of you guys see TPM?

As far as people losing their jobs goes, political storms have two phases: a dynamic phase and an equilibrium phase. The first comes right after the revelation when everything is influx and the person on the line is wholly embattled. Usually, and always if the person in question is to survive, you then reach a point of equilibrium where the person's defenders find some point, some firm ground, on which they feel they can defend him.

If that second stage doesn't kick in quickly the person is almost always finished. In virtually every case, what does someone in is not an abundance of critics but a lack of defenders.

then, there's this:

An interesting tidbit from this evening's edition of The (must-read) Nelson Report ...

We can contribute a second hand anecdote to newspaper stories on rising concern, last year, from Secretary of State Powell and Deputy Secretary Armitage about Administration attitudes and the risks they might entail: according to eye witnesses to debate at the highest levels of the Administration...the highest levels...whenever Powell or Armitage sought to question prisoner treatment issues, they were forced to endure what our source characterizes as "around the table, coarse, vulgar, frat-boy bully remarks about what these tough guys would do if THEY ever got their hands on prisoners...."

Is Powell trying to save Rummy's ass, or damn him with faint praise?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
JawJaw Donating Member (574 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 04:04 PM
Response to Original message
22. sniff..
"he has got two campaigns underway right now: one in Afghanistan, one in Iraq"



Maybe Rumsferatu should have finished one campaign before starting another, Mr Powell.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
daleo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-07-04 04:26 PM
Response to Original message
23. They want Saddam's head to roll (literally) for abuses and tortures
But they can't even bring themselves to fire Rumsfeld (who is 71 and could easily retire anyway). Powell is doing his usual sleazy little enabler act.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Politicub Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-08-04 09:37 AM
Response to Original message
30. My feelings about Powell
:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
robbedvoter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-08-04 09:52 AM
Response to Original message
31. Powell for secretary of State! yeay! (sorry, that idiocy stuck in my crow)
I am wondering when his DU fan club will disband - if ever.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
JoFerret Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-08-04 02:46 PM
Response to Original message
34. He wants the job!!
.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May 09th 2024, 01:26 AM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Latest Breaking News Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators

Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC