Iraq prison abuse a 'failure of leadership': Powell

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040513/pl_afp/iraq_us_prisoners_powell_040513220147

Iraq prison abuse a 'failure of leadership': Powell

10 minutes ago Add Politics - AFP to My Yahoo!

LONDON (AFP) - The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US forces was caused by "a failure of leadership", US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said, while insisting this did not mean Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should step down.

"It was a failure of leadership, something like that should never have happened," Powell said in an interview from Washington with BBC television.

Photographs showing violent and sexual abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad have shocked the world and prompted calls for Rumsfeld to take responsibility by resigning.

But Powell said that this was not justified.

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I am so disappointed with Powell...I expected more from him.

Everything points to it - the man is a wreck. He was so very honorable at one time. Now he rides the waves of scrutiny and defeat. What a way to go.

He must be needing more than Ambien to sleep at night after what has happened. Where did those trailers go anyway? What a nightmare indeed Mr. Powell. You broke it, now you fix it. Whoops, it cannot be repaired can it?

:nuke:

His career is toast after November. Maybe he's kept awake at night by his conscience and it has driven him mad.

I am quite serious when I say the man is now a wreck. The past couple of times I've seen him on television, he looks like he is ready to crack. Sad way to go.

Maybe he has already gone insane, I agree.

...abnormal dreams, abnormal vision, agitation, amnesia, anxiety,...confusion...decreased mental alertness, depression,...

difficulty concentrating...emotional instability, exaggerated feeling of well-being, eye irritation, falling, fatigue...

general discomfort, hallucination,...

lack of coordination, lethargy, light-headedness...

nervousness, numbness, paleness...

sleep disorder, speech difficulties...

Abnormal tears or tearing...aggression...decreased sex drive, delusion...


false perceptions, feeling intoxicated, feeling strange...
increased tolerance to the drug...

loss of reality...panic attacks...


sensation of seeing flashes of lights or sparks, sensitivity to light, sleepwalking, speech difficulties...

thinking abnormalities....yawning

http://www.ambiensleepingpills.com/ambien-side-effects.html

this infighting will be entertaining to watch

And for those who claim Powell is not damaging Chimpster,
I'd expect Powell to soon have other priorities.

for some absurd reason.

"hands off" management culture nurtured by this Administration coupled with their blatant disregard for international norms and tacit acceptance of a command structure independent of oversight and control that produced this mess. They are responsible.

What is the matter with him? I'll tell you -- the Carlyle Group got a hold of him in between the Bushes. He has his place in history now -- the most shameful moment of it. Ever. And I say that having read Howard Zinn.

I came across this shot that shows the real perpetrators. I cropped out the prisoner's behinds. We've seen enough of them, poor things.



http://www.wgoeshome.com

... when he was in charge ... also based on reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and the former prisoners themselves, then Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld are every bit as responsible for such abuses as they would claim Saddam was on the basis of exactly the same evidence!

For the simpletons in his own country, Powell will make no such declaration. And even when pontificating for the Brits, he doesn't draw the obvious conclusion that a failure of leadership means the leaders failed. No, it's something else. Now, what could it be???

Think, think.

It is well known that he is leaving an vying the job of Pres.of the World Bank. bad tming on his part because that body has been accused of mis-handling around $100 Billion. He has disgraced himself by lying repeatedly for Bushco and now wants to clean up his image before moving on.

As long it's recorded by the camera. What a great sound bite to use against Bush and his cabal.

I do wish he was making these accusations on 60 minutes, though. Maybe someday!

From Brigadier to the top.
Rumy's name never came into the questioning of the report writer from the clips that I saw.

directed at Clinton for the abuse,

BUT THE OUTRAGE WOULD BE THERE ABOUT THE FEMALE SOLDIER HAVING SEX OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE, AND THE FACT THAT SHE WAS PREGNANT! PLUS, THEY WOULD BE CLAIMING IT WAS CLINTON'S BABY!

To leave now with so many worldwide hotspots in tenuous balance, such as north Korea, I imagine he is loathe to leave because who knows if they wouldn't put another neocon nut in. On the other hand, by staying he has to continue to sell the cabal sanctioned party line - soldier mentality and all that. It seems to me he's saying just enough give an impression of disagreeing without coming out totally and saying it. It'll be interesting to see what he has to say after Bush is out of office.

We should be harder than that on people truly responsible with eyes wide open- and with shady track records that bely both the admirable character we perceive and the legend of their accomplishments.

Powell helped cover up My Lai. At best this is just irony at work. Powell has allied himself with the Bushistas and is still allied with them no matter who suffers or what crime is committed. His office bestows no responsibility on him to go against that, in his mind.

Lastly, he is another unfit entity with vast ambitions, making his own moves in the communications field via his son, and constantly thwarted by the jealous enmity of the Cheney and ultra conservative faction whom he probably would dearly love to replace. Replace- not punish or drive out of the GOP coalition.

The crazies may be in charge but a worse danger lies in the ascension of such a man, or one with more charm and a blanker slate, to continue the general slide to disaster under corporate right wing fantasies standing in the way of progress necessary to the survival of billions- if not us all. Democracy and freedom would just be two sideshow casualties were we to continue this soft admiration of "good guys" like Arnold and Powell, two very weird hopefuls that would slide into power with a party that represents no one's best interests and madness. Morally and intellectually incompetent straw men against the foundations of American ideals.

Nitpicking against real men like Kerry who is not "star" material or dumb enough to attract the favors of our excuses is the flip side of this fatal glamor. We have to get real or we will cease to exist.