Media Beat: The Powell Trap: Easing Us Into War

“Media coverage is portraying Powell as a steady impediment to a huge assault on Iraq. But closer scrutiny would lead us to different conclusions.

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Avid participation in deplorable actions has been integral to Powell’s career. A few examples:



# Serving as a top deputy to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Powell supervised the Army’s transfer of 4,508 TOW missiles to the CIA in January 1986. Nearly half of those missiles became part of the Reagan administration’s arms-for-hostages swap with Iran. Powell helped to hide that transaction from Congress and the public.



# As President Reagan’s national security adviser, Powell became a key operator in U.S. efforts to overthrow the elected government of Nicaragua. When he traveled to Central America in January 1988, Powell threatened a cutoff of U.S. aid to any country in the region that refused to go along with continued warfare by the contra guerrillas, who were in the midst of killing thousands of Nicaraguan civilians. Powell worked to prevent the success of a peace process initiated by Costa Rica’s president, Oscar Arias.



# When U.S. troops invaded Panama on Dec. 20, 1989, Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He had "emerged as the crucial figure in the decision to invade," according to British newspaper reporter Martin Walker. Hundreds of civilians died in the first hours of the invasion. Powell declared on that day: "We have to put a shingle outside our door saying, ‘Superpower lives here.’"



# In late 2000, while Bush operatives went all-out during the Florida recount to grab the electoral votes of a state where many thousands of legally qualified African Americans had been prevented from voting due to Republican efforts, Powell went to George W. Bush’s ranch in Texas to pose for a photo-op and show support for his presidential quest.”

F.A.I.R.