Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, another man of honor

We have a new blogger in the family! When I got home tonight, Beth is asking me if I'd heard the news. One of Powell's staff is spilling the beans!

Damn. Beth, as far as I know, won't even read this blog. Now she's my source. I can handle that. Cool. So thanks to Google News, I figure out that she heard Larry Wilkerson on NPR.

And here it is. First the Editor & Publisher report based on the NPR interview. Then we have links to the audio interview itself.

Check it out. Really. Listen to the interview. He names names. David Addington in particular. This is important stuff.

First the news report, that puts the interview in the context of Wilkerson's other recent revelations. Wilkerson Charges Cheney Responsible for Prisoner Abuse:

His initial blast, on Oct. 19, at a luncheon in Washington, D.C. drew wide press attention. Now Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, is at it again. In an interview for National Public Radio he charged that Vice President Cheney's office--and new chief aide David Addingtoon--was responsible for directives which led to U.S soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Here is the NPR interview: Ex-Powell Staffer Discusses Cheney Role in Iraq War:

Steve Inskeep talks with Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, about the influence of Vice President Dick Cheney's office over Iraq war policy. Wilkerson claims the vice president and others bypassed the rest of the government to control key decisions.

I transcribed what I thought was the high point. But there were many other blockbuster allegations. On the role of the VP and SecDef in detainee abuse:

I'm privy to the paperwork, both classified and unclassified, that the Secretary of State asked me to assemble, on how this [detainee abuse] all got started, what the audit trail was. ...It was clear to me that there was a visible audit trail from the Vice President's office through the Secretary of Defense down to the commanders in the field that, in carefully couched terms -- I'll give you that, that to as soldier in the field meant two things. We're not getting enough intelligence. And you need to get that evidence. And, oh by the way, here're some ways you probably can get it. And even some of the ways that they detailed were not in accordance with the spirit of the Geneva Conventions and the Law of War.