The next time someone suggests Colin Powell for VP...

recommend that they study the man's background:

Despite that temporary setback, Powell did not forget his own dictum about putting the best spin on a story. Stepping before cameras at the Pentagon, Powell declared victory and downplayed the disappointment over Noriega's disappearance. "This reign of terror is over," Powell declared. "We have now decapitated (Noriega) from the dictatorship of his country."

In the following days, as U.S. forces hunted for the little dictator, Powell demonized Noriega over the supposed discovery of drugs and voodoo artifacts in his safehouse. Powell started calling Noriega "a dope-sniffing, voodoo-loving thug." (The white powder in Noriega's house that was initially called cocaine would turn out to be tamale flour.) When asked once too often about the failure to capture Noriega, Powell told the reporter to "stick it."

The tragedies on the ground in Panama could sometimes be worse. On Dec. 24, shortly after midnight, a nine-months-pregnant Panamanian woman, Ortila Lopez de Perea, went into labor. She was helped into the family Volkswagen which was marked by a white flag. With her husband, her mother-in-law and a neighbor, she headed to the hospital.

At a U.S. military roadblock on the Transisthmian Highway, the care stopped. The four Panamanians requested an escort, but were told that one wasn't necessary. After being waved through, they drove another 500 yards to a second checkpoint. But at this spot, the young American troops mistook the speeding Volkswagen for a hostile vehicle. The soldiers opened up with a 10-second barrage of automatic rifle fire.

When the shooting stopped, Lopez de Perea and her 25-year-old husband Ismael were dead.
***

Oh so much more...
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin.html

Why do people keep suggesting republicans??? I can't think of any republican I would trust in a position of power. Not one. Especially not powell. He is pure evil. His role in the My Lai cover up tells me all I need to know about that assholes charecter......

Personally, I never bought into the PR image created during/after Desert Shield/Storm. He's often been suggested as a candidate for President - I hold reserve on the story that he was actually born in the USA.

The role he plays in the good-cop, bad-cop shields him a bit ... the GOP need to have someone to get around the Nixon syndrome ... to carry on ... a person to, again, as they always do, put all their marbles with ... maybe the talk about changing the citizenship requirements is more to protect any damaging truth about Colin than it is for the Gropinator ... I don't think his pregnant Mother made it in time for Colin to be born on US soil ... he's always hesitant about the idea of seeking the Presidency when the opportunity was ripe. Simple: authenticate any existing birth certificate (should he run for Pres)



The Consortium Archive

Colin Powell's Legend

-Behind Colin Powell's Legend: A Warning -- Gen. Colin Powell's career as a military bureaucrat often has been viewed through rose-colored glasses rather than a clear eye. But critics, including some who served in Vietnam, feel Powell may have carried the wrong lessons out of the bloody jungles. (6-24-96) http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin1.html

-Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Lesson's from Vietnam -- Powell's service in Vietnam distinguished him as a "water-walker." But what were the hard lessons of war he learned in the Vietnam jungles? (7-8-96) http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin2.html

-Behind Colin Powell's Legend: My Lai -- When American specialist fourth class Tom Glen accused American soldiers in the Americal division of routine brutality against Vietnamese civilians, Maj. Powell undertook the assignment to review Glen's complaints. Powell's report derided Glen's charges and showed Powell to be the consummate team player. (7-22-96) http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin3.html

-Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Pentagon-Man -- The middle years of Powell's military career were a time for networking and advancement. Here, Powell learned that a military bureaucrat succeeds best by sidestepping controversy and keeping quiet when superiors screw up. (8-5-96) http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin4.html

-Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Back to the Future -- When Colin Powell returned to Washington in the early '80s, he returned to the terrain he knew best--a professional home he often called "Ground Zero." On the fast track to success, Powell became deeply entangled in Reagan/Casey war-games. (8-19-96)
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin5.html

-Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Iran-Contra Amnesia -- In 1984-85, Colin Powell was the "filter" for information flowing to Defense Secretary Casper Weinburger. But what kind of information flowed through the "filter?" (9-2-96)
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin6.html

-Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Arms to Iran -- Would the disastrous Iran-contra scandal have happened without Colin Powell's work as Defense Secretary Casper Weinburger's "filter?" (9-16-96)
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin7.html

-Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Saving Reagan -- Just as Colin Powell played an important behind-the-scenes role in missile shipments to Iran, he would be equally instrumental in the next phase, the scandal's cover-up in 1987-88. (9-30-96)
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin8.html

-Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Panama War -- Going by the "Powell Doctrine" that "it is better to win than to loose," Powell shows his stuff in Panama. (10-14-96) http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin9.html

-Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Arms to Iraq? -- Newly declassified documents suggest that Powell was a player in the secret U.S. policy to supply Saddam Hussein with military equipment. (11-11-96)
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin10.html

-Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Dodging Peace -- Powell played a key role in ensuring a ground war pitting American troops against an Iraqi enemy trying to surrender. (11/25/96)
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin11.html

-Behind Colin Powell's Legend: The Media Icon -- Though the media has unanimously embraced him, Colin Powell's record deserves further review. (12/9/96)
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin12.html

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin.html