Citizendia

Lawrence B. Wilkerson (15 June 1945 in Gaffney, South Carolina) is a retired United States Army soldier and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. Events 763 BC - Assyrians record a Solar eclipse that will be used to fix the Chronology of Mesopotamian history Year 1945 ( MCMXLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar Gaffney is a city in and the County seat of Cherokee County, South Carolina, United States. The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. In Politics, a chief of staff is the primary aide to a political leader or position The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The United States Secretary of State (commonly abbreviated as SecState) is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with Foreign affairs Colin Luther Powell, KCB (Honorary MSC, (born April 5, 1937) is a retired General in the United States Army.

Contents

Education and military service

After three years of studying philosophy and English literature at Bucknell University, Wilkerson dropped out in 1966 and volunteered to serve in the Vietnam War. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language The term English literature refers to Literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by Writers not necessarily from Bucknell University is a Private university located along the West Branch Susquehanna River in the rolling countryside of Central Pennsylvania in the The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia He told the Washington Post: "I felt an obligation because my dad had fought, and I thought that was kind of your duty. The Washington Post is the largest and most circulated Newspaper in Washington D "[1]

Wilkerson arrived as an Army officer piloting an OH-6A Cayuse observation helicopter and logged about 1100 combat hours over a year. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout He went on to Airborne School and Ranger School before receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and graduate degrees in international relations and national security. The Airborne School is run by the 1st Battalion (Airborne 507th Infantry, U The United States Army Ranger School is an intense nine-week-long combat leadership course oriented to small-unit tactics and conducted in three separate three-week-long A degree is any of a wide range of status levels conferred by institutions of Higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing National security is the entire scope of measures undertaken by the Governments of Nation-states in providing assurance of national Sovereignty He attended the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island and later returned there to teach. The Naval War College (NWC is an education and research institution of the United States Navy that specializes in developing ideas for Naval warfare and passing them Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about 30 miles (48 km south of Providence He later served as acting director of the Marine Corps War College at Quantico. Marine Corps Base Quantico is a major United States Marine Corps training base located near Triangle Virginia, covering nearly 100 square miles in southern Prince

Wilkerson spent some years in the United States Navy's Pacific Command in South Korea, Japan and Hawaii, where he was well-regarded by his superiors. The United States Pacific Command ( USPACOM) is a Unified Combatant Command of the armed forces of the United States, led by the Commander South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often referred to as Korea ( Korean: 대한민국 tɛː For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. The State of Hawaii ( or həˈwaɪʔiː Hawaiian: Mokuāina o Hawaii) is a state in the United States located on an Archipelago in the These recommendations led in early 1989 to a successful interview to become the assistant to Colin Powell, who was then finishing his stint as National Security Advisor in the Reagan administration and moving to a position in the United States Army Forces Command at Fort McPherson. Colin Luther Powell, KCB (Honorary MSC, (born April 5, 1937) is a retired General in the United States Army. The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Adviser (abbreviated NSA, or sometimes ANSA The United States Presidency of Ronald Reagan, also known as the Reagan Administration, was a Republican administration headed by United States Army Forces Command ( FORSCOM) is the Army's largest major command See also Fort McPherson Northwest Territories Fort McPherson is a U He continued this supporting role as Powell became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff through the Gulf War, following Powell into civilian life and then back into public service when President George W. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( CJCS) is by law the highest ranking military officer overall in the United States Armed Bush appointed Powell Secretary of State. The United States Secretary of State (commonly abbreviated as SecState) is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with Foreign affairs

Wilkerson was responsible for a review of information from the Central Intelligence Agency that was used to prepare Powell for his February 2003 presentation to the United Nations Security Council. near as long as it used to be several months ago It has been actively summarized and split into sub-articles and there is a dynamic talk page discussion of all In March 2003 the US government announced that " Diplomacy has failed" and that it would proceed with a "coalition of the willing" to rid Iraq of His failure to realize that the evidence was faulty has been attributed on the limited time (only one week) that he had to review the data. The subsequent developments led Wilkerson to become disillusioned: "Combine the detainee abuse issue with the ineptitude of post-invasion planning for Iraq, wrap both in this blanket of secretive decision-making. . . and you get the overall reason for my speaking out. "[1]

Post-retirement and criticism

Since his retirement Wilkerson has on several occasions spoken out against what he perceives as the poor planning and execution of the Iraq War as well as the global politics leading up to and following it. The Iraq War, also known as the Second Gulf War, the Occupation of Iraq, or the War in Iraq, is an ongoing Military campaign Global politics is the discipline that studies the political and economical patterns of the world In particular he has denounced the decision-making process of the Bush Administration and Vice President Dick Cheney's and Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld's part in it. The Vice President of the United States is the first person in the presidential line of succession, becoming the new President of the United States upon the death Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney (born January 30 1941 is the forty-sixth and current Vice President of the United States. The United States Secretary of Defense ( SECDEF) is the head of the U Donald Henry Rumsfeld (born July 9 1932 is a United States Businessman, Politician, the 13th Secretary of Defense under President

Treatment of detainees in Iraq

Wilkerson made comments in November 2005 to the effect that the Vice President had decided that the Third Geneva Convention (regarding treatment of POWs) would not apply to "al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda look-alike detainees"[2] and that the February 2002 White House memorandum regarding the "Humane Treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda Detainees" contained a loophole designed to avoid applying the Geneva convention to the detainees. The Third Geneva Convention (or GCIII) of 1949 one of the Geneva Conventions, is a treaty agreement that primarily concerns the treatment of Prisoners of According to Wilkerson, the phrase "the detainees (should) be treated humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of Geneva"[3] was a way to appear to play by the rules while in reality, the "military necessities" would always overrule concerns about the plight of the detainees. [2] Wilkerson furthermore claimed this to be the result of Cheney and Rumsfeld, working in collaboration to undermine the standard decision-making process of the White House (which included his superior, Colin Powell).

“And so what I'm saying is, under the vice-president's protection, the secretary of defence moved out to do what they wanted to do in the first place even though the president had made a decision that was clearly a compromise. ”
 
— Lawrence Wilkerson, BBC Radio 4, November 25 2005

Iraq war intelligence was "a hoax"

During an October 19, 2005 speech at the New America Foundation, Wilkerson criticized the intelligence community which compiled the Iraq War intelligence. The New America Foundation is a non-profit Public policy institute and Think tank located in Washington D

“I can’t tell you why the French, the Germans, the Brits and us thought that most of the material, if not all of it, that we presented at the U. N. on 5 February 2003 was the truth”
 
— Lawrence Wilkerson, New America Foundation, October 19 2005[4]

In an interview that aired on the PBS news magazine NOW on PBS in Spring 2006 Wilkerson claimed that the speech Powell made before the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003, laying out a case for war with Iraq, included falsehoods of which Powell had never been made aware. He said, "My participation in that presentation at the UN constitutes the lowest point in my professional life. I participated in a hoax on the American people, the international community and the United Nations Security Council. A hoax is a deliberate attempt to Dupe, Deceive or trick an audience into believing or accepting that something is real when in fact it is not or that "[5]

He stated in the interview that he was "intimately involved in the preparation of Secretary Powell for his 5 February 2003 presentation at the UN Security Council" and that neither CIA Director George Tenet, nor the CIA analysts involved in furnishing Powell with the information on mobile biological laboratories that he would use in his speech, gave any indication that there were disputes about the reliability of the informants who had supplied this information. George John Tenet (born January 5, 1953) was the Director of Central Intelligence for the United States Central Intelligence Agency Mobile weapons laboratories are Bioreactors and other processing equipment to manufacture and process Biological weapons that can be moved from location to locating

Wilkerson also agreed with the interviewer that Cheney's frequent trips to the CIA would have brought "undue influence" on the agency. When asked if Cheney was "the kind of guy who could lean on somebody" he responded, "Absolutely. And be just as quiet and taciturn about it as-- he-- as he leaned on 'em. As he leaned on the Congress recently-- in the-- torture issue. "

Wilkerson stood by his earlier description of Cheney and Rumsfeld as having formed a cabal to hijack the decision-making process: "I'm worried and I would rather have the discussion and debate in the process we've designed than I would a diktat from a dumb strongman. A cabal is a number of people united in some close design usually to promote their private views and interests in a church, State, or other community often . . I'd prefer to see the squabble of democracy to the efficiency of dictators. "

Iranian overture, 2003

On an interview on BBC Newsnight, January 17, 2007, Wilkerson revealed that an Iranian offer to help stabilise Iraq after the American invasion, though positively received at the State Department, was turned down by Dick Cheney. For the CNN programme see NewsNight with Aaron Brown Newsnight is a British daily News analysis Events 38 BC - Octavian marries Livia Drusilla. 1287 - King Alfonso III of Aragon invades Minorca Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. [6] The offer supposedly consisted of help in stabilizing Iraq, cutting ties with Hezbollah and greater transparency in its nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions and dismantling the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, an organisation working to overthrow the Iranian government. Hezbollah (حزب الله, literally " party of God " is a Shi'a Islamic political and Paramilitary organisation The nuclear program of Iran was launched in the 1950s with the help of the United States as part of the Atoms for Peace program The People's Mujahedin of Iran ( PMOI, also MEK, MKO) ( Persian: سازمان مجاهدين خلق ايران sāzmān-e mojāhedin-e khalq-e

“We thought it was a very propitious moment. . . But as soon as it got to the White House, and as soon as it got to the vice president's office, the old mantra of 'We don't talk to evil' . . . reasserted itself. ”
 
— Lawrence Wilkerson, BBC Newsnight, January 17 2007

Lack of congressional oversight

Wilkerson is one of the people interviewed in the 2007 documentary film No End in Sight, a film that is very critical of the way the occupation of Iraq was handled in the spring of 2003. No End in Sight is a 2007 Documentary film about the American occupation of Iraq. [7]

Powell's Chief of Staff proposes impeachment

". . . . You compare Bill Clinton's peccadilloes for which he was impeached to George Bush's high crimes and misdemeanors or Dick Cheney's high crimes and misdemeanors, and I think they pale in significance. " Powell's Chief of Staff Proposes Impeachment. afterdowningstreet. org (10 May 2007). Events 1291 - Scottish Nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. War Accountability in the US. onpointradio. org (10 May 2007). Events 1291 - Scottish Nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.

Commentary on the documentary "Why We Fight"

Wilkerson did a full-length audio commentary for the documentary Why We Fight. Why We Fight ( 2005) directed by Eugene Jarecki, is a Documentary film about the United States 's relationship with war as a business This film won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance Film Festival is a Film festival that takes place annually in the state of Utah, in the United States. [8]

In April 2007, Wilkerson was featured in VPRO's Tegenlicht Dutch documentary The Israel Lobby. The VPRO (originally an acronym for Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep, or "Liberal Protestant Radio Broadcasting Company" was established in the Netherlands He said that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was highly influential in the Bush Administration's decision to go to war in Iraq. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee ( AIPAC) is an American Lobbying group that advocates for pro- Israel policies to the Congress and

Politics

In September 2006 in a conference call Wilkerson expressed support for Wesley Clark and Anthony Zinni. A Conference call is a Telephone call in which the Calling party wishes to have more than one Called party listen in to the audio portion Wesley Kanne Clark, KBE (born December 23 1944 is a retired General of the United States Army. Anthony Charles Zinni (born September 17 1943 is a retired four-star General in the United States Marine Corps and a former Commander in Chief of U He also endorsed Jim Webb against incumbent George Allen in the 2006 U.S. Senate election in Virginia. James Henry "Jim" Webb Jr (born February 9 1946 is the Junior Senator from Virginia. George Felix Allen (born March 8 1952 is a former Republican United States Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the son of former The Virginia Senate election of 2006 was held on November 7, 2006. [9]

Wilkerson is an adjunct professor at the College of William & Mary where he teaches courses on U. The meaning of the word professor ( Latin: professor, person who professes to be an expert in some art or science teacher of highest rank) varies The College of William and Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, also known as William & Mary or W&M) is a Public university S. national security. He also instructs a senior seminar in the Honors Department at the George Washington University entitled "National Security Decision Making. The George Washington University ( GW or GWU) is a private coeducational university located in Washington D " He and his wife Barbara have two children. His son is an Air Force navigator while his daughter was in the Army but has since returned to civilian life.

References

  1. ^ a b "Breaking Ranks", Washington Post, 19 January 2006
  2. ^ a b Transcript of Wilkerson interview. The Washington Post is the largest and most circulated Newspaper in Washington D Events 1419 - Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England completing his reconquest of Normandy. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. BBC (25 November 2005). Events 1034 - Máel Coluim mac Cináeda, King of Scots dies Donnchad, the Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Retrieved on 2007-01-20. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 250 - Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome.
  3. ^ The White House (7 February 2002). Events 457 - Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1074 - Battle of Montesarchio in which the Prince See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. Memorandum: "Humane Treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda Detainees". The White House. Retrieved on 2007-01-20. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 250 - Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome.
  4. ^ Col. Lawrence Wilkerson on the Bush Administration's National Security Decision Making Process. New America Foundation (October 19, 2005). Events 202 BCE - The Battle of Zama results in the defeat of Carthage and Hannibal. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Retrieved on 2007-01-20. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 250 - Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome.
  5. ^ Interview on the PBS show NOW with Col. Lawrence Wilkerson about pre-war intelligence. Public Affairs Television (February 3, 2006). Events 1112 - Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence marry uniting the fortunes of those two states Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Retrieved on 2007-08-08. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1220 - Sweden is defeated by Estonian tribes in the Battle of Lihula.
  6. ^ Report: Cheney Rejected Iran Concessions. Guardian Unlimited (18 January 2007). Events 350 - Generallus Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans and proclaims himself Emperor Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Retrieved on 2007-01-20. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 250 - Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome.
  7. ^ Former Administration Officials Speak Out on Iraq at Sundance Panel. Netscape News (23 January 2007). Events 393 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Retrieved on 2007-01-23. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 393 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor
  8. ^ Internet Movie Database (IMDb) entry for Why We Fight. Internet Movie Database Inc. (January 2005). Retrieved on 2007-08-06. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1538 - Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
  9. ^ Generals endorse Jim Webb for Senate. Richmond Times-Dispatch (26 September 2006). Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar dedicates a Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Retrieved on 2007-01-20. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 250 - Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome.

External links

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