Still more on Colin Powell and Col. Wilkerson (UPDATE)

Although Billmon (as noted below) does an effective job of demolishing the emailed rumor about Colin Powell, I'm still thinking about Powell's position in all this -- and about the powerhouse blast his aide Col. Larry Wilkerson leveled against the administration. Billmon:

Powell is the ultimate bureacratic ninja fighter -- by the time you know he's near you, you've already been disembowled. He's also been remarkably silent since he resigned, to the point where Powell's chief of staff, Larry Wilkerson, claims to have had a falling out with him over his unwillingess to go public about the neocon "cabal" (Wilkerson's word, as well as mine.)

Wilkerson attributes this to the fact that Powell is the "world's loyal soldier" -- which is true, in the sense that Powell has been enormously loyal to himself and the advancement of his career, and is no doubt just as loyal now to the protection of what remains of his reputation. It's very easy to imagine Powell dropping a dime -- a whole roll of dimes -- on Cheney, Bolton or any other neocon dirt bag who might be on Fitzgerald's target list. But I'd be very surprised if he did it outside of the grand jury room. Colin really has nothing to gain by going public, and much to lose if it focuses fresh attention on his role in the Iraq WMD debacle. When it comes to hamstringing your enemies, a stilletto usually works better than a meat axe.

My theory: Perhaps the "falling out" is fictional, and Wilkerson is the stilletto.

On the other hand, do a little research on Wilkerson and you'll find indications that this man has been ready to explode for some time. A major source of his fury stems from the fact that men who never braved a battlefield are now recklessly sending soldiers into harm's way. This Scout Prime post from last May offers some good background on the man.

You can listen to Wilkerson here, or read this partial transcript. If you can get past his worshipful attitude toward the elder Bush, you'll find that the Colonel says some wise and bold things. One section jumped out at me:

And I would say that we have courted disaster, in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran, generally with regard to domestic crises like Katrina, Rita and I could go on back, we haven’t done very well on anything like that in a long time. And if something comes along that is truly serious, truly serious, something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major American city, or something like a major pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take you back to the Declaration of Independence. Read it some time again.

...Read in there what they say about the necessity of people to [inaudible - background voice] tyranny or to throw off ineptitude or to throw off that which is not doing what the people want it to do.

As for Powell: I'd say the best way he can help his reputation at this point is to say out loud what everyone knows he thinks about this administration. The Colonel has proven that he has a pair. Time for the General to demonstrate same.

Incidentally, today's Washington Post includes this brief summary of what we know about the memo seen during the July, 2003 Africa trip:

On that flight aboard Air Force One, then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had a memo that mentioned Wilson's wife, in a section marked "S" for secret, according to some administration officials. But Powell said on CNN this week the memo he saw did not mention Plame

.Does that clarify or confuse matters?

Update: Now that I've heard Wilkerson's speech -- heard the way he spoke -- I have to apologise for suggesting that his falling out with Powell might be a subterfuge. I urge readers to listen to the question and answer session following Wilkerson's speech.