| Wednesday, November 30, 2005 |
| High crimes? |
Larry Wilkerson tells the BBC that Vice President Cheney may be guilty of a war crime over the abuse of prisoners in American military custody, and over U.S. policy regarding torture. According to the Guardian:
Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to secretary of state Colin Powell from 2002 to 2005, singled out Mr Cheney in a wide-ranging political assault on the BBC's Today programme.
Mr Wilkerson said that in an internal administration debate over whether to abide by the Geneva conventions in the treatment of detainees, Mr Cheney led the argument "that essentially wanted to do away with all restrictions".
Asked whether the vice-president was guilty of a war crime, Mr Wilkerson replied: "Well, that's an interesting question - it was certainly a domestic crime to advocate terror and I would suspect that it is ... an international crime as well." In the context of other remarks it appeared he was using the word "terror" to apply to the systematic abuse of prisoners. Wilkerson also had lots to say on hyped pre-war intelligence. Where was this guy before the 2004 election? I'm with Chris Matthews on this one -- people like Wilkerson, and his former boss at State, Collin Powell, should have spoken out when it could have done the country some good... Anyway, here's the BBC version of the story, and the transcript of the Wilkerson interview.
Tags: Iraq, Middle East, War, Torture, Foreign Policy, Wilkerson |
posted by JReid @ 12:19 AM   |
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