"Three words: The vice president."

Edit: with all the recs I think it's prudent to point out that this is but one bombshell in the air raid that is the pre-war intelligence hearing. A LOT of new information is coming out - I'd point everyone to http://www.c-span.org to go listen to it. The DSM journalist is talking as of this edit. Join us on the live thread here.

Just now on C-SPAN 3.

Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), who is very upset about the idea that intelligence was manipulated, asked Lawrence Wilkerson, "How is it that this small group of people were able to grab so much power so quickly that they were able to usurp the entire intelligence community?"

Lawrence Wilkerson said, "Three words: The vice president."


:nuke: :wow: :nuke: :wow: :nuke: :wow:


I could have sworn I heard Dianne Feinstein mutter something along the lines of "Oh, dear..."

he did NOT!

:headbang:

:wow:

:rofl:

That's my three.

muthaf---as!!!

It gets one from me.

Sooner or later, the truth will out...

Now what? Sweep that ugly thing under the rug, QUICK!

:thumbsup:

When he said that...it was quite dramatic... Can a clip be sent to Keith O???

Blew my mind.... Frontline said the same thing.. He made 11 visits to the CIA.. They would tell him some information and if he liked it, he would go with it, if he didn't, he would tell them to go back and work some more on it till they would find some information he would like...

We knew this already. Can one hope this will finally get it reported in the MSM? I doubt it, but ya gotta have hope.

anyone want to take that on? That moment to Oberman and Jon Stewart, too (maybe as a moment of Zen and even better, run it each and every nite for a month.)

One can only wish that it would get the play that Joseph Welch's comment to McCarthy got:



Not a single day goes by these days that I don't think of Joseph Welch and how he defended his country.

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6444/

Now that was a hearing. There's very little hearing these days.

He's just been fearless in speaking out against Darth Cheney. Thanks for the news.

JUst how did he get so much power and I think he started out poor and now he's a millionaire.

So that when they got in power, they could exploit their knowledge. Rumsfeld, in particular, is an evil genius who really applied himself to that task.

that came to light for me recently--Cheney and Rumsfeld worked for the Ford Administration when the Warren Commission was doing their work on the JFK assassination. It is my opinion, though I will admit it is tinfoil hat based, that all sorts of dirty deeds were uncovered during this particular investigation and were purposely and summarily tidied up and swept under the rug. It is my belief that this is where Dicky and Donny get their arsenal of leverage.

I thought he was the co-chair and I'm pretty sure that it was wrapped up by the time Nixon resigned. But yes, Rumsfeld and Cheney were instrumental in the Ford administration and I'm sure they learned a lot about hiding messes then, they learned a lot about the use of anciliary power then too. They were also strong advocates for government secrecy talking Ford into the veto of the FOIA, which congress then enacted by veto override.

It goes back further to Prescott Bush who mentored Nixon, who mentored poppy shrub, elevated him in the CIA, *and* mentored rumsfeld, who mentored darth. In fact rumsfeld wanted to bring along cheney as a condition of employment whe Ford hired him.

-Hoot

it was before his Administration when he was still in the House of Reps. and Rummy was too. No doubt that Rummy and Cheney were Ford's hatchet men.

One more interesting note, Arlen Specter was also a member of the Warren Commission--hmmm.

http://www.theassassinatedpress.com/adiodi20.htm

snip>
New York City ---With a stroke of the pen and a hail of bombs, President de facto Dick Cheney has swept away the highest standards of personal wealth of the 20th century and seemingly raised the bar for many decades to come! Move over Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and make way for the World's First Trillionaire!

Upon tailoring an agreement as President de facto with a subsidiary of his former company, Halliburton, Mr. Cheney laid the $900,000,000 groundwork for his trillion dollar fortune! Now, with the $36 trillion in reserves in the oil rich regions of Mosul and Kirkuk in Northern Iraq in the gunsights of Cheney's forces, the 60 something, balding, heart patient has become the world's first trillionaire!

"Since Dick still holds thousands and thousands of shares of Halliburton and its numerous subsidiaries, he in essence signed a contract with himself to have control of the major Iraqi oil fields! Pretty fuckin' slick. With this announcement, we certainly had our own "shock and awe" here today in New York," said Steve Forbes fellow member of The Project For the New American Century and fellow financial beneficiary, at a celebratory banquet for Cheney held in David Rockefeller's private suite in the refurbished bunkered boiler room in the basement of the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

"Did any of you ever wonder why Dick fought those congressional subpoenas so hard? He sure didn't want the prying eyes of Congress reading what he and his buds in the energy business were plotting behind closed doors. Christ! If those venal fuckers in congress would a found out, they all would have wanted a taste. I'm sure that would have made it very difficult for Dick to reach the trillion dollar plateau."

You're citing Assassinated Press, which also does not cite Forbes magazine. In fact it has no citations whatsoever. A google search for this quote used in the article

"Since Dick still holds thousands and thousands of shares of Halliburton and its numerous subsidiaries, he in essence signed a contract with himself to have control of the major Iraqi oil fields! Pretty fuckin' slick. With this announcement, we certainly had our own "shock and awe" here today in New York," says Steve Forbes

shows absolutely no results anywhere but the website assassinated press. That would seem to indicate that this author made it up.

Let's start with the other problems in this article.

#1 Most importantly a trillion dollars is a ridiculous number. Do you have any comprehension of how much money that is? For starters, Forbes magazine claims that the combined wealth of the 691 richest men in the world as of 2005, in other words everybody in the world with a net worth above 1 billion USD, comes to only 2.2 trillion dollars. And the richest of them all is Bill Gates, who was worth 46.5 billion in 2005. The claim the Dick Cheney is a trillionaire only holds water if you consider all of Iraq his personal property. Blatantly false.

<http://www.forbes.com/2005/03/09/bill05land.html>

#2 It overestimates the oil reserves significantly. The article claims $36 trillion in oil reserves in Mosul and Kirkuk alone. At $70 per barrel that translates to roughly 500 billion barrels. The DOE estimates there are 115 bbl in all of Iraq, not just Mosul and Kirkuk. The Federation of American Scientists places their estimate at 215 bbl for all of Iraq. Petroleum Economist Magazine estimates 200 bbl. Your article does not explain where their number comes from, and given the error when compared to other sources, an explanation is in order.

<http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/fellows/luft20030512.htm>

#3 Lastly, if the the obviously false numbers don't give this article away as a joke, this quote shows it do be a mock journalistic piece albiet a funny one:

"When asked what it felt like to control as much wealth as all of the world's GNPs combined excluding the U.S., Cheney said, 'Along with control of the U.S. armed forces that's a mighty big club and we at the PNAC have always been open about our desire to wield that club. Of course, were bullshitting about rebuilding Iraq. I mean we'll get our companies in there so we can collect the money, but look at Afghanistan. We really haven't done shit except make the raw opium/heroin trade number one in the world again. Even Nightline can't cover it up. I mean look at our track record on that score. Say, Nicaragua or heaven forbid, South-East Asia. Listen up. After we destroy a country its recovery mimics what it was before we leveled it. The rest is State Department agitprop.'"

The article was intended as a joke. Don't try and pass it off as anything else. If you actually thought any information in that piece was true... wow.

couldn't find the link.

Do you have to be so rude and insulting?

Get over yourself.

from the same state. So Cheney did some fast moves and got his legal address declared as Montana (?), although he'd lived for years in TX.

The republicans were challenged but the federal district court ruled in bushco's favor.

Mine quit right before the last panel finished.

...until it sinks into the collective unconscience of the slumbering America.






:kick:

WE should begin a google bomb, so when people see or hear the phrase they can google it and come up with the mother of all jaw droppers.

So, what's led up to this? I imagine a conversation that occurred a surprisingly long time ago. Perhaps, two summers ago:

"Retire or be indicted, Dick. Your choice."

That message is completed with the last six words, "For the good of the Party."

:bounce:

Oh my!

I also hope the nationals pick up this gem.

He is the Puppet Master of Busholini.

They go way back, and at this point it's hard to tell who's calling the shots.

-Hoot

He's been very vocal about the neocons' power in the Bush Administration. He called them "Cheney's cabal."

Poppy -> Powell -> Wilkerson

It seems pretty clear that Powell, at least, gave Wilkerson the go ahead to speak publically about this. And it also seems like Bush Sr.'s collegues now feel free to criticize this Administration. Brent Scowcroft, Bush Sr.'s head of national security & best friend, has made critical statements about Bush's foreign policy & said that he "doesn't know" this Dick Cheney anymore. That was probably cleared by Bush Sr. I don't know if Bush Sr. also cleared Wilkerson's testimony, or if it was just Powell, but it does seem like the old Republican establishment has quietly agreed to stop protecting these guys.

Brent Scowcroft "Breaks Ranks" with George W. Bush in Major New Yorker Article -
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001024.html

Lawrence B. Wilkerson
Chief of Staff,
Term of Appointment: 08/01/2002 to 01/26/2005

Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired) Larry Wilkerson joined General Colin L. Powell in March 1989 at the U.S. Army’s Forces Command in Atlanta, Georgia as his Deputy Executive Officer. He followed the General to his next position as Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, serving as his special assistant. Upon Powell's retirement from active service in 1993, Colonel Wilkerson served as the Deputy Director and Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia. Upon Wilkerson’s retirement from active service in 1997, he began working for General Powell in a private capacity as a consultant and advisor.

In December 2000, Secretary of State-designate Powell asked Wilkerson to join him in the Transition Office at the U.S. State Department and, later, upon his confirmation as Secretary of State, Secretary Powell moved Wilkerson to his Policy Planning Staff with responsibilities for East Asia and the Pacific, and legislative and political-military affairs. In June of 2002, the Director for Policy Planning, Ambassador Richard Haass, made Wilkerson the associate director. In August of 2002, Secretary Powell moved Wilkerson to the position of Chief of Staff of the Department.

Wilkerson is a veteran of the Vietnam war as well as a U.S. Army “Pacific hand,” having served in Korea, Japan, and Hawaii and participated in military exercises throughout the Pacific. Moreover, Wilkerson was Executive Assistant to US Navy Admiral Stewart A. Ring, Director for Strategy and Policy (J5) USCINCPAC, from 1984-87. Wilkerson also served on the faculty of the U.S. Naval War College at Newport, RI and holds two advanced degrees, one in International Relations and the other in National Security Studies. He has written extensively on military and national security affairs–especially for college-level curricula--and been published in a number of professional journals, including the Naval Institute’s Proceedings, The Naval War College Review, Military Review, and Joint Force Quarterly (JFQ).

* * *
He's also known for this quote about Powell's presentation to the U.N.:

"I wish I had not been involved in it," says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a longtime Powell adviser who served as his chief of staff from 2002 through 2005. "I look back on it, and I still say it was the lowest point in my life."

There are so many parallels it isn't even funny.

How is it possible for one incompetent liar to mess up the entire world? Something's wrong here, boys and girls.

It's about time.

people may finally understand the silent coup that has been going on for the past few years.

:wow:

OK and I say this wearing the tin foil hat - but what if Porter Goss was hired and fired if ONLY to do a house-cleaning of anyone who did not kiss King W's ass? This could reek of intelligence-doctoring.

I knew this years ago reading DU and www.salon.com

Or, there's a detailed account in the latest Vanity Fair.

There doesn't appear to be s search engine at that site. Can you help?

pnorman

http://www.vanityfair.com/commentary/content/articles/060619roco02 I was expecting to see a focus on that Dark Side documentary, but it deals just with some peripheral issues. But still worth a read.

pnorman

she hadn't received permission to mention it, so she was wondering why somebody else said it. She probably didn't think it would be good for "swing voters" to hear.

...that someone actually *said* it.

Dick, the one time sec of Defense, now come on, don't tell me you cannot picture that guy helping to orchestrate the shenanigans that went on that day :shrug:

Dick Cheney, American Warmonger

Does anybody think it will be on CNN? Fox "News?"

"...the Vice President"...

Damn straight. Is it possible to impeach a vp?

The Ambiguously Gay Duo!

-Hoot

:popcorn:

then when none are found blame it on the CIA.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/06/26/wilkerson-vp/

clip should have been played on all network evening news programs. Thank god for blogs!

think progress is great!

was unprecidented.

that went kaboom for Bush Incorporated today.

Unfortunately the video was terrible and his British accent made him difficult to understand at times, but Michael Smith laid out the Downing Street Memos like jewelry on a blue velvet cloth.

It showed that Bush and Blair had this war pre-planned like the Brinks armored car robbery and it's all transcribed into written testimony now for us to use it.... and use it.... and use it.



Those memos have to be leaked. They just have to!!!

His evil empire will shock everyone all the more when it is fully exposed in a few years.

Wilkerson saying he was glad to see Jones there but sad that he was the only member of his (Republican) party to show up was telling. The Repubs in Congress are lapdogs. The people who voted for them should be disgusted.

While watching the Frontline program I noticed that every time he was interviewed or had a photo op he was wearing the pin....what a major slap in the face to Americans!

Holy shit...now i have to turn all my hatred of Chimpy into pity and transfer that hatred to Cheney, the real dark prince of Republicanism (no relation to the Dark Prince of the rEpUbLiCaNhOtTiE chronicles...I hope i don't sound self premoting in this post. You can tell me if I am)

more or less.

Holy cow!!! That's like the Lloyd Bentsen line to Dan Quayle...devastating.

Great post.

Wonderful stuff. Absolutely wonderful. The only flaw in the whole thing was that it was not bipartisan -- though the way things are going it may eventually end up that way.

Will the minutes of this hearing end up in the Congressional Record?

I had to feel for Rep. Jones -- he has the air of a man who's just awakened to how he and all the rest of us have been betrayed and screwed over. The man deserves kudos for having the integrity to be public about it, rather than continuing to drink the Koolade and pretending it will all go away if he sticks his fingers in his ears.

Three little words -- :rofl:.

Hekate

Was it on any of the talk shows this morning? Any of the mainstream papers?

of decision makers. Cheney is the public figurehead/figurethug of a Global
Cartel of unseen international players manipulating political policy and the
market share worldwide.

From start to finish it was stunning. Just one shitball on the panel with his nonsense about it being the intelligence community's fault for not giving a better product.

...in his interview with Charlie Rose (PBS) comments on Cheney and the Iraq war. He is asked about the idea of a war in Iraq, and Gore says something like...Cheney hadn't yet told Bush that they were going to war in Iraq. It's pretty damning...watch the interview. The whole thing is great...but the best parts are in the second half.:patriot:


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3412657607654281729&q=tvshow%3ACharlie_Rose

Whee!!!!:wow: :wow:

I know CNN and Fox won't show it, but the others have an obligation, don't you think?

:eyes:

Actually, I turned it up when it got to that part and I think she said "Oh wow..."

I loved his line about how Wilkinson was bothered by the fact that Jones was the ONLY Republican Senator to show up for the hearing.

Three more words:

Cheney? Yer fukked.

he might actually get below 10% at this rate

knew ye well

I bet M$M doesn't mention a word of this on TV.

I'm not watching any msm today, but last night they seemed very "silent" on this matter? :wtf:

Dick Cheney is just too powerful, even though his ratings with the public are low.

I'd love to ask him a few pertinent questions.