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Powell, Iran and the Drums of War
The drums of war are sounding from unlikely quarters. We’re used to those braying dogs of war named Cheney, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld. But Colin Powell, he of the Pottery Barn rule, who warned the Bushites of the disaster lurking in the event of an Iraq war has, in the twilight of his tenure, decided to become the beacon of neoconservative fury against Iran (Powell Says Iran Pursues Bomb). You wonder what’s gotten into the poor guy. Burned once after much of the CIA intelligence he used in his infamous UN speech on Iraq proved dubious, it appears he’s learned next to nothing about the trustworthiness of unvetted intelligence material.
The Washington Post reports in Nuclear Disclosures on Iran Unverified that Powell briefed reporters about:
Iran’s nuclear program based on a report that was classified and based on an unvetted, single source.According to one official with access to the material, a “walk-in” source approached U.S intelligence earlier this month with more than 1,000 pages purported to be Iranian drawings and technical documents, including a nuclear warhead design and modifications to enable Iranian ballistic missiles to deliver an atomic strike…
A CIA official remains unsure about the authenticity of the documents and how they came into the informant’s possession. A second official would say only that there are questions about the source of the information.
Of course, this smacks of more character assassination from Rummy, Wolfie or another of Powell’s sworn enemies in the trenches that constitute the Bush Administartion. But still, it makes you wonder about Powell’s judgment. On his way out, is he trying to restore himself and his war fervor bona fides in the eyes of George Bush? It also makes you wonder how long it will be before Bush takes us into a new military adventure.
