Former Colin Powell Chief of Staff: Cheney “Fears Being Tried as a War Criminal”…
Not buying it.
(ABC News) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s memoir, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir,” is out Tuesday, and it’s full of criticism and attacks on his Bush administration colleagues — from describing Condoleezza Rice as “tearfully admitting” he was right on the war in Iraq to revealing private conversations with George W. Bush on the eve of the Iraq war.
He reserves much of his ire for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and now Powell and his longtime aide and chief of staff, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, are attempting to set the record straight. In no uncertain terms. Cheney, Wilkerson told ABC News, “was president for all practical purposes for the first term of the Bush administration” and “fears being tried as a war criminal.”
Before serving as Powell’s chief of staff while Powell was Secretary of State, Wilkerson worked in the first Bush administration as a special assistant to Powell, who was then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Cheney was serving as Secretary of Defense. He’s known Cheney for decades, but says now, “I simply don’t recognize Mr. Cheney anymore” and calling him a “very vindictive person.”
“I think he’s just trying to, one, assert himself so he’s not in some subsequent time period tried for war crimes and, second, so that he somehow vindicates himself because he feels like he needs vindication. That in itself tells you something about him,” Wilkerson told ABC News, explaining that Cheney may have “angst” because of receiving deferments instead of serving in the Vietnam War like Wilkerson and others in the administration.
“He’s developed an angst and almost a protective cover, and now he fears being tried as a war criminal so he uses such terminology as ‘exploding heads all over Washington’ because that’s the way someone who’s decided he’s not going to be prosecuted acts: boldly, let’s get out in front of everybody, let’s act like we are not concerned and so forth when in fact they are covering up their own fear that somebody will Pinochet him,” Wilkerson said alluding to the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested for war crimes.
Posted by ZIP on Tuesday, August 30, 2011, at 10:09 pm | 
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Yep, I agree with ZIP….nice try Colin. Now, please fade back into the history books.
Be careful. Watch the WH’s other hand while they’re developing this crap.
when will barry be tried for war crimes??
This is crap. Cheney knows damn well that with the country in the shape it’s in the people would have absolutely zero patience for ‘war crimes trials’. And if Obama wanted to play that game, perhaps some Republican would present the oh, six conflicts we’re currently engaged in, the record death toll in Afghanistan, or the secret CIA prisons currently being operated in Somalia.
Cheney nails Powell for not coming forward when Scooter Libby was being crucified for Plamegate, Powell KNEW the whole time Armitage was the source and did not come forward. He let Cheney, Rove, and Libby take the heat. A wholly dishonorable act on Powell’s part.
Powell is trying to get a first shot fired hoping it will be the one everyone remembers.
“fears being tried as a war criminal.”
Translates to Holder gathering intel for a trial.
I “use to” like Powell, …now, not so much
I call bullshit. How can a Vice President be tried for anything since he has not official power.
I would have respected Powell had he opened a nice restraunt when he retired from the Army. Now, not so much.
No hope; too much change.
First, If Cheney can be tried, so can Colin Powell. Neither should be tried, and neither will be.
Second, I didn’t like Cheney when he was in the WH, bought into everything MSNBC said, and liked Colin Powell, that was until 2008 and the BS blinders were finally thrown away.
Now, I respect Cheney much more than Powell, as for Powell, the man betrayed Mccain, and now is saying “he isn’t sure he’ll back Barry in 2012″…BULLCRAP, he’ll at the “right” time endorse Barry again in hopes it’ll give him a boost…. the sad thing, Powell has no idea how much credibility and respect he’s lost from people who used to respect him and his words…. now all he;s about is protecting his tattered credibility. To be honest, I wouldn’t take Powell’s recommendation for a good restaurant with much credibility.
And this guy obviously doesn’t fear being a bloody asshole.
Cheney, whether you agree with him or not, has been a long time public servant, a patriotic American, and has great respect for our military. He is now telling the truth. Why? He has no fear of a “trial”, since the man knows he’s dying. He wants to go down as having corrected the media lies for the last twenty years. Thats good enough for me.
Obama launched an attack on Lybia…
Were WE ATTACKED by Lybia? No.
Where are the wackos that made this argument against Bush when he went into Iraq? Nowhere.
Obama thumbed his nose at Congress and the American people by flipping off the War Powers Act. Anyone made a stink about that? No.
The left’s argument should apply to this mutant in the WH. If not, Powell should just shut the hell up, he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.
Nope, never happen. Powell and his cronies, or lackeys, as the case may be are spinning spinning spinning to no avail.
“they are covering up their own fear that somebody will Pinochet him”
———-
A Coup d’etat by fraud is still a Coup d’etat. They tried to change our form of government without our consent.
.
The argument I never understood by Powell, after he left as SOS in 2005, if he really believed the whole war build-up was a lie etc, and that is a legitimate opinion, then why didn’t Powell resign in protest?
Instead, it appears he went along, and then after he left, complained to the press that Bush et al were all people he didn’t agree with, and was forced to do the UN speech, really? the man is a general, if he really believed that much in his arguments against the whole UN speech, etc, then he should have resigned right then and there, rather than going along and then complaining and leaking to the press.
By the way, Colin Powell ruined his own legacy.
History will remember how he embraced a charismatic imposter named Barack Obama.
.
also, wasn’t the name of Valerie Plame revealed and exposed through Powell’s office? richard artimage (sp?)? Why didn’t powell say anything?
That Powell was a disloyal mediocrity.
hehehehe, hahahahahaha, look at the righty nuts trying to defend their unscrupulous scam dick Chicken hawk cheney. The tireless draft doger,the AWOL draftee and the AWOL VP who sat for 8 years and milked the American taxpayer through his Haliburton connection.
What does one read on dick’s eptiaph?
Herein lies, a whoremonger, a war monger and a hate monger who after having served Lucifer to the best of his abilities suddenly choked off and disappeared into hell where the nubmer of volunteers who eternally want to pour hot coal over him day in day out at the minute, at the hour for eternity has no ends. Need an infinite number of shovels with an infinite amount of hot coal to pour over Cheney for an infinite amount of time. oucchhhhhhhhhhh
I believe BIG DICK is responsible for alot of us still being here.
And I call him BIG DICK with the utmost respect
Unfortunately,your probably here because of him too Mcdouche
a former dem: “then he should have resigned right then and there, rather than going along and then complaining and leaking to the press”
———
Absolutely!
He came off looking like a flake…..like someone who was more concerned about his reputation than he cared about doing the right thing.
Powell is still conducting damage control of his public image. He likely won’t go away ‘until we love him again’ (not gonna happen). I believe that this is what motivated Jimmy Carter to hang around a keep making trouble. He couldn’t deal with the fact that his performance as President was a complete and utter failure, and he is still trying to redeem himself to this day.
But instead of basing his actions on something he could be proud of, his measure of success is the approval of others. That’s a narcissistic tendency.
.
“look at the righty nuts trying to defend their unscrupulous scam dick Chicken hawk cheney.”
well, there are lots of independents who post here as well, even those who didn’t like the darth vader at the time, and still have many disagreements with him, but at least he was 100% pro-America 100% percent of the time, can’t say that about the current occupant that is there now. So, yea, I’d take Cheney over Biden/Barry in a second, at least with Cheney I know he won’t be apologizing for America 24/7.
history has an interesting way of making a voter look back and reevaluate their thinking and point of view.
Powell is a chicken-shit back-stabber. He showed his TRUE COLORS when he endorsed his BRO in 2008. Just like the 97% of his racist, bigot friends “of color”.
Now, the world knows what a bunch of racist FOOLS they all are.
Question is if there is no thermometer of any kind in hell where dicky is slowly cooking from all sides, and there is no one to smell stinky dicky burning, do we know for sure if he is cooking or he is half done or if he will keep cooking for eternity.
If on the other hand, some thermometer detects an infinitesimal increase in the the temp at which dicky is roasting in hell, can we assume he turns to ashes, I mean hot ashes
as time approaches infinity ? 
John McDonald says:
August 30, 2011 at 11:57 pm
_______________________
What a waste of verbiage.
Powell is just pissed wifey didn’t want him to run for president. He could have been the first black president and he blew it. I really want to believe he would have been better than barry, but probably not.
I agree he is hanging around for damage control and it’s too late. He should have just quietly retired and go out w/a tiny bit of dignity. Paraphrasing Rush, melatonin before all else.
lol some of you people must live in an alternate reality (or more likely, selectively ignore the facts) if you don’t think Cheney is a criminal. Even Reagan Jr. said it. Cheney is also a draft dodger as well….funny how those who love war never seem to serve a day in the military, eh?
Let’s not forget that he advocated torture on anyone deemed a “terrorist”, including American citizens. Cheney even goes as far to admit he’s a war criminal in his latest book (which I’m guessing none of you have read).
To say that Cheney or Bush aren’t war criminals is saying that Obama isn’t a war criminal or power hungry usurper…but go ahead giving one side a pass while condemning the other FOR DOING THE SAME EXACT THINGS.
I swear, Neocons are just like Liberals; completely and willfully ignorant of the facts.
Cheney = National Treasure
Even Reagan Jr. said it.
—————————————————————————–
So a ballet dancing progressive said Cheney is a war criminal? Not like that’s happened before.
“Even Reagan Jr. said it.”
———-
Even Rosie O’Donnell thinks….
Even Michael Moore thinks….
Even Bill Maher thinks….
Even Hugo Chavez thinks….
Even Chris Mathews thinks….
Even Keith Olbermann thinks….
I wear a t-shirt with cheney on it, thats how awsome cool he is.
http://www.cafepress.com/+patriot_cheney_dark_tshirt,411923397
“Reagan jr.”–truly a bastion of unbiased analysis.
Hard to believe I once wanted this guy to run for President. Too bad he turned out to be a spineless douche. Who does he think will believe him? No one with any sense or basic knowledge of the facts. Put him in with the left’s other useful idiots like Meghan McCain, David Brooks, etc. to be trotted out when they need a “Republican” to bash Republicans.
I would suggest the fearful one in this discussion is Powell. He is the one who has publicly declared himself a racist having voted for the racist in the White House simply because he’s half black. I figure racists are craven, spineless cowards – just like this turncoat, race baiting ersatz warrior called General Powell. He’s a disgrace to men and a disgrace to mankind. Cheney fearful indeed. What a candyass whiner.
Colin Powell is such a disappointment.
I remember a time when many of us thought he should run for President.
I’ll be reading Dick Cheney’s book. I want to know all of what he has written there because excerpts can be deceiving.
Colin Powell is getting rich from his salaries from the “non-profits” he chairs. He loves him some big big government. Doesn’t want a POTUS or administration to yank his cash cow.
I’m thinkin’ Dick Cheney isn’t likely afraid of much of anything…. and I second Chinarider’s “Cheney=National Treasure.”
Sad to see brave heroic men who have honorably served their country behaving like spiteful little schoolgirls.
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
@JCM ditto
THE Constitution
Art.1
Sect.9
Par.3 No Bill of Attainder or Ex Post Facto Law should be passed.
Look it up Col.
The only way our National Treasure, Vice President Cheney would EVER be brought up on the phony charges that YOU SIR are lending FALSE CREDENCE to by your Rank, Service and Past Service, would be IF the current potus and Att Gen Politically decided to Cede some of our U.S. Sovereignty to the Marxists in Belgium.
Shameful.
Not such an unlikely occurrence CONSIDERING Holder (My People(Black Panthers)) has a TEAM putting a Case together to Accuse and Bring to Trial CIA Agents who were implementing our National Policy (Policy SIGNED OFF on by Pelosi, Harmon, Rockefeller, et. al.)
@ sp & ESPECIALLY @John McDuufus
The longer your posts, the more ridiculous you reveal yourself to be.
I think you will get more recognition if you stick with the hit and run comments more. and we ALL know you crave acknowledgement.
Glad to help. Tool.
@sp
You used the adjective, ‘neocon’.
But you revealed in your use that you don’t know what that word means.
Do you often talk with Both Feet in your mouth?
No that there’s anything WRONG with that
Cheney has nothing to lose at this point and want’s to insure the records are straight before history has it’s way with them.
Maybe Colon Pyle should be tried as a fake conservative?
Not sure I care what Colin Powell’s butt boy/hand maiden has to say about anything. Or Colin for that matter.
Don’t you as***holes have an ounce of sense of decency and honesty left in you? Why are you attacking General Powell. You elevate the draft doger to the status of a god, cult worshippers
Limp dick chicken hawk cheney, the five time draft doger, the war profiteer, the hailburton tsar, the puppet master of the chimp aka bush jr (who used his dad’s court to steal the 2000 election from VP Al Gore, wrote a stinking little book.
okay. Read the book first before you shoot your mouths.
Limpy dick then instead of becoming for at least once in his life time to be reflective, took the opportunity to take “cheap shots” as General Powell said at those who served in the Bush administration. The General is a true patriot who has worn the uniform for most of his life and served his beloved country with honor and dignity.
Limpy is a closet patriot who attacks and defiles Gays and Lesbians to curry favor with right wing loonies while at the same time raising a lesbian daughter, classic example of the kettle calling the pot
Most memoirs and autobiographies with the age and service of the writer actually end up serving as historical nuggets to be cherished for time, documents of events with golden messages and a brush paint of some philosophical and political summary of the person in question.
But dicky limpy was never known to be a scholar to begin with and once again true to his form, he never disappoints as a vindictive, cheap, ignorant, unpatriotic, backstabbing Judas, a demagogue, an imposter, a vile right wing nut, a zealot, a divisive bastard, a war criminal (he admits
), a “caca” and the one only douche bag that the right wing nuts fall over in love with every time they see limpy dicky. 
limp dicky to others
What’s a “draft doger”, scholar?
‘What ‘s a “draft doger”, scholar?’
Captain Einstein, come on now, do I have to explain everything?
“draft doger” = draft dodger you know as in Cheney, the draft dodger
Got it now little captain einstein?
Did Cheney dodge the draft as much as Slick did?
Hey Captain, I am running late but I will be civil and answer your question without being sarcastic or anything.
Here is the problem. Slick was a pacifist, at least to the best of my knowledge. Most of the “leftist, commies…” etc. as your group calls them to this day, opposed the wars on grounds of principles, ethics and worldoutlook. Say like Mohammed Ali.
The problem with Dick Cheney et al. is that they claimed to be these invincible patriots while others were wimps, traitors and treasonous cheats etc. but when it was time to put their money where their mouths were, they were gone. AWOL.
So without party affiliation, any person with an ounce of integrity that condemns “Slick” cannot in good conscience forgive the hypocrisy of Cheney or look the other way knowing fully what Cheney and the like did then and now.
It is unchristian, unpatriotic and outright racist to condemn and to maligh an honorable man like General Powell just for responding to unwarranted, vicious and cheap attacks by another, i.e. Cheney in the pursuit of profits and extracting a personal vendetta.
Bottomline, Cheney comes up as unrespectable, puny, and worst of all as a curmudgeon and no more.
before you blow off “maligh” should read “malign”
@McDuck
Cheney would have flunked the physical or died in boot camp; it is a moot point. And the fact is, not joining up or claiming exemption did not make someone a “draft dodger” back then. That is such a stupid thing to say it is simply incredible.
If you had been alive at the time you would know better rather than being a parrot mouthing talking points you find on DKos…Not that facts ever show up in your spew to begin with.
What are you, 17 years old? You really think you know anything about anything? You clearly don’t even know not to shit in your pants.
Thank you for the civil response, John; I will try to do the same. Before I responded to you previously I looked up in Snopes “Bill Clinton draft dodger”. I think Snopes is made up of a bunch of lefties that tries to do a good job of being objective, and they report (for some reason I can’t swipe on their text) that “he used political connections to gain favors, and made promises and commitments that he later failed to honor”. There is no entry in Snopes for “Dick Cheney draft dodger” which, to me, means that it doesn’t rise to the level of credibility to be debunked by them. Looking at Wiki indicates that Cheney asked for and received 5 deferments of which there was no controversy; they were the standard deferments for students and people with children which were available to all. Also the Snopes entry for Clinton mentions that he wasn’t eligible for a conscientious objector status because he said he was opposed only to the Vietnam war.
Regarding Powell, I would have more respect for him if he’d have resigned in protest over policy differences rather than sniping from the sidelines; that would’ve been a principled stand of which I might disagree but would respect.
I don’t totally disagree with you in that Cheney made at least one poorly advised statement on why he didn’t join the military that didn’t reflect well on him. Other than that we have differing opinions.
Colon Powell is the Poster Child of elimination of Afirmative Action starting with the military