The Grand Jury Testimony of Colin Powell (4/4/08)
Place:
Washington, DC
grand jury room
Time:
October 3, 2011 at 9:00 AM
[The witness takes the oath]
Judge: What is your full name?
Witness:
Colin Luther Powell
Prosecutor (Pr):
Did you serve in the George W. Bush
Administration?
Witness (W):
Yes
Pr:
In what capacity?
W:
I was the Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005.
Pr:
Secretary Powell, did you approach the office of
the United States Attorney recently with information
about the Bush Administration?
W:
Yes
Pr:
Why did you do this?
W:
President Bush wrote several statements in his
memoirs that I knew were untrue.
I wanted to correct the record.
Pr:
Why not write your own book?
W: What I have to say about the
Administration involves accusations of criminal conduct.
Pr:
Do you mean first-hand observations?
W:
Yes
Pr:
Please tell us of your first accusation.
W:
Shortly after September 11, 2001, the President
had me go on national television to tell the public that
the Administration would soon produce evidence that
Osama bin Laden was behind the crime.
Then, in a mid-day press conference not long
after, he told the media that the evidence would not be
out any time soon.
Pr:
What did you conclude?
W:
That if the President had the proof, he would
have provided it.
He took advantage of the fact that most people
remember the first thing they hear about something, but
often forget about what else they learn.
Pr:
What else did you observe?
W:
When the President asked me to give a speech
before the United Nations about the danger presented by Iraq, I asked
him about the certainty of the evidence.
He assured me that it was solid.
But as I read through it, none of the evidence
proved that Iraq had weapons
of mass destruction.
Pr:
What did you do?
W:
I told the President, who told me not to worry
about it. I
told him I could not give the speech because I did not
believe it.
He said that he would accept my resignation.
Pr:
Why did you not give it to him?
W:
I am a soldier at heart and soldiers take orders.
So I gave the speech and looked for a way out of
the Administration.
Pr:
What did you observe about the start of the war
with
Iraq?
W:
I observed everyone around me was hawkish on
foreign policy and they were completely comfortable with
going to war even though no one seemed to know what it
was for.
Pr:
Was there any other reason you think they liked
going to war?
W:
Yes.
They planned to go to war all along.
They looked for any reason they could and,
failing that, they made up reasons.
Pr:
Why did you not come forward sooner?
W:
I became convinced that taking on these people
would be like taking on a machine.
I feared being made an example of like Joseph
Wilson and Valerie Plame.
Pr:
Who are these people?
W:
People who make huge profits when we go to war.
The people who build the weapons, make the
uniforms and hold the stocks in companies who invest
overseas.
They usually pressure politicians, but they did not have
to use any pressure on Bush, Cheney and the rest.
Pr:
Did the election of 2008 make any difference?
W:
No. I
thought it would, but it did not.
After all of my years in the military, I finally
came to accept the reality that a war machine rules us.
If the new President were to get us out of
Iraq
before the war machine was through sucking money
opportunities out of it, they would be killed or
discredited.
Pr:
What do you mean?
W:
The machine thought President Kennedy was getting
us out of
Viet Nam.
They feared a powerful young man like Robert
Kennedy would be a force against war for decades.
They got upset when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
started to talk about the immorality of war…
[Note:
The transcript ends
here. A
group of pacifists, concerned for the safety of
Secretary Powell from Bush sympathizers, entered the
grand jury room and directed Powell to a nearby plane.
He and his wife flew to an undisclosed location.]
United States Needs a Sermon (3/22/08)
Senator Barack Obama’s former
preacher, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Jr. has had
parts of his sermons played before the nation.
In one, he says that God should “damn
America.”
The outcry over
this excerpt and others caused many political pundits to
tell Obama to back off from Reverend Wright, which he
did recently.
But maybe the Reverend
had a point about the soul of the
United States.
It is worthwhile to review the “Seven Deadly
Sins” that, according to Pope Gregory the Great, condemn
a person’s soul to Hell.
Where is our nation going for its eternal life?
Lust – United
States leaders have
long been known to get involved in affairs.
The two most recent governors of
New York
are a part of this problem.
But the real lust extends to people who peruse
the newspapers and weekly magazines for more gossip
about political leaders’ extracurricular activities.
Gluttony – Our nation has a history of enabling the wealthy to gain
luxuries to an excess, even when others starve.
With the amount of homeless and hunger in the United States, we have not advanced
in practical terms from the days that white men had the
sole power to vote and did so to protect their material
interests.
The wealthiest among us still push for tax cuts they do
not need and then turn around and ask for government
assistance when their businesses go under.
Greed – The United States
has staked its claim for diamonds from South Africa at the expense of the
blacks there who had few rights and in favor of a regime
that happily took our money as investments.
We have also been greedy in seizing territory
through wars that need not have been fought (the U.S.
took Hawaii, Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and
others in the Spanish-American War).
When business interests were going to be affected
around the world, we have employed, via the CIA, covert
operations to overthrow leaders we have opposed and
install ones we favored.
Our actions in Iran (1953),
Guatemala
(1954) and
Chile
(1973) speak volumes on our greed.
Presently, our intervention in Iraq is going so poorly and for no
apparent reason that logic would tell us that someone is
making a killing off it.
Sloth – We can rant and rail all we want about the problem of
illegal immigration, but many of them would have no work
if those with the legal right to be here did not hire
them. It may
not be lazy to hire another person to do a job we do not
want to do, but failing to ask for proof of the right to
work legally certainly is.
Interestingly, some people hire illegal
immigrants because they believe they work harder than
others. Our
collective sloth causes its own set of problems.
Wrath – Pundits on television have lambasted Reverend Wright,
calling him “racist” and “unpatriotic.”
Why the anger?
If the Reverend made statements that were not
true, I could understand, but he expressed opinions
(albeit in an emotionally charged way) about how United States
policies have harmed non-whites.
He cited the atomic bombing of
Japan, our pro-Israel stance and
our lack of concern over the blacks in Africa, all of which happened.
His use of profanity incited some of this anger,
but he put his outburst in the context of decrying those
who keep saying “God bless
America,” even during
situations when we do not deserve any blessings.
Envy – Statistics frequently come out that show how poorly the United States
fares in educating children, infant mortality and
accessibility of health care.
The same studies name other nations as being far
ahead on these and other issues.
We envy them, which would be OK if were willing
to act on it.
Pride – If pride goeth before a fall, we are in real trouble!
When was the last time anyone in power owned up
to the mistakes we have made, both recently and
historically?
Humble pie may not taste good but it rids us of
the pride that gets in our way of seeing our other
mistakes.
We can complain about the Reverend
Wrights in the
United States.
But we would risk losing our own objectivity
about the role of the United States
in the world and here at home.
It is that objectivity, and not our pride, that
would serve our nation best as it confronts its
challenges.
The
Secret Obama-Clinton Talks: A Paradoxical Parody (3/8/08)
(Senators Obama and
Clinton find a hideaway to discuss the Democratic
nomination.)
Barack: Hillary, I have more delegates than you. Take the #2 slot and we can
put this mess behind us.
Hillary:
Nice try, Barack. I have the momentum to catch up to
you.
B: You’ll have to beat me by twenty percent in the states left.
H: You mean, like I did in Ohio? That won’t be hard.
B: OK, let me put it another way – what will it take to get you on my
ticket?
H: A gag for Bill! No, I’m only kidding! Listen, Barack, you’re a young
man. After eight years as my VP, you can run for
President again.
B: If you agree to be my running mate, I will let you choose half the
cabinet and any Supreme Court justices. Deal or no
deal?
H: Come on, Barack. I’m not here to make a deal. We don’t disagree much
on judicial issues anyway.
B: If there is no deal, how will we settle the ticket before McCain
overtakes both of us?
H: And you want to be the leader of the free world? I have an idea.
B: Good. For a minute, I thought you were going to say you had a dream.
H: I’m not the plagiarizing type.
B: Don’t go there. I’ll have to bring out my “New Hampshire” tears.
H: So you don’t want to hear my idea?
B: Let’s hear it, Hillary.
H: Hold out your hand in a fist, shake it twice and on the…
B: You mean Rock-Paper-Scissors? Michelle and I used to play that to
decide whose turn it was to change diapers!
H: Well…Do you have any better ideas?
B: I already told you.
H: I’m not negotiating.
B: Oh yes, never negotiate out of fear but never fear to negotiate.
H: Caught you in the act!
B: I was going to give the credit to JFK!
H: OK, Barack. I’m sure you were. I just can’t believe you won’t give
in to a game of chance!
B: You won’t swallow your pride and admit you’ll finish second.
H: How would we ever get along as running mates or as President and Vice
President, anyway? My plan leaves the winner with the
choice of whom to run with.
B: My plan makes it look like we are a team. Who’s going to vote against
a ticket with a black man and a woman on it?
H: Or at least say they won’t vote for the ticket.
B: Hey…Where are the Secret Service?
H: I don’t know. They must be having a fit!
B: If we were trapped somewhere and they could only rescue one of us, who
do you think they would choose?
H: Fascinating hypothetical question, but I’ll take a pass on answering.
B: If we took an actuarial perspective on this, we could solve the
problem. Not in terms of our worth to society, but our
worth to our party.
H: I give the party more of the Clinton legacy. Someday they’ll forget
Monica Lewinsky and remember a good economy and peace.
B: Hillary, the Clinton legacy is fading. Didn’t you say a while ago you
wanted to gag your husband?
H: I was joking!
B: Fine. I have created my own legacy of adding new voters, bringing
back people who were disgusted with the system and
getting past twenty consecutive years of people named
Bush and Clinton in the White House. Your loss would be
the end of an era, whereas mine would mean a loss of an
opportunity to fix the mess.
H: The women of this nation would lose out on a chance for a female
president.
B: Yes, I know. But can’t I say the same about the black people of the
United States? At the risk of being flippant, I’d call
it a draw on this count.
H: OK, Barack. We’ll never settle our tie this way. I know a way to
make my own legacy.
B: How’s that?
H: I will walk the plank. I’ll say I read the handwriting on the wall
and I’ll withdraw from the race in the best interests of
our party.
B: Is that really the legacy you want?
H: No, but it will show the critics I don’t just act in self-interest.
It will stun Bill speechless. And it will ensure I’ll
never hear about Whitewater anymore.
B: I’ve got to hand it to you, Hillary. Some would say you are acting as
an altruist in sacrificing your own personal ambitions
to help the party…Hillary, where are you?
(With the nomination now
his, Senator Obama realizes that it is lonely at the
top.)
