Lawrence Wilkerson :
Thanks for having me.
Rob Kall: Now, you ' ve got some really unique experience . What I just described is just the tip of the iceberg of all the things you ' ve done in your life.
You worked with Colin Powell, not just when he was U.S. Secretary of State , but you were with him as well when he was involved, deeply involved, in the military as well. So that, I assume gave you a great insight into how the military works.
Is that right?
Lawrence Wilkerson:
I think that ' s a fair ass essment.
I was with him at U.S. Forces Command in Atlanta, and then I was with him in the four years that he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . A nd something a lot of people don ' t know, I was also with him after that for about two and a half years as a private consultant when both he and I had left the Armed Forces, but before we joined the State department.
Rob Kall: So I have to ask you this , because when people ask me how I starte d my website " OpEdNews.com , ' I ha ve a pat answer.
I watched Colin Powel l give his U.N. speech, and I said to myself, " this is B .S. I don ' t believe it ! ' And that inspired me to start my website.
Now I understand that it didn ' t make you very happy either.
So I ' d I love to hear your perspective on what happened there.
And I know you ' ve talked about it before, but can you indulge me and talk a bit about it now?
Lawrence Wilkerson:
I think it ' s wonderful that there has been a positive development of that presentation , [laughing with Rob] what you ' ve just told me. A s I ' ve said many times before, it will go down in my history book as the lowest point in my professional and personal life. N ot trying to rationalize or make excuses, but the Secretary of State ha s very little to go on in terms of, depending or not depending on intelligence, other than the advi ce of
those at the top of the hundred billion dollar plus [<$100B] now intelligence world. In the case of that presentation, there was George Tenet, the Director of Central Intelligence, and even more importantly and often overlooked, his Dep uty, John McL aughlin, who was an intelligence professional unlike George.
George is a politician .
He ' d worked in intelligence on the hill and elsewhere , but really a politician. John McLaughlin was the quintessential professional, thirty years in the C.I.A.
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