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This is it. Right here. I'm going on record right now to make this prediction. If this is true, this will be the end of the Bush adminsitration. Via Andrew Sullivan, we have Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, on record stating that there is a paper trail showing Cheney and Rumsfeld worked together to undermine a directive from the President of the United States himself that ordered continued adherence to the Geneva Conventions.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, then the secretary of state, told National Public Radio he had traced a trail of memos and directives authorizing questionable detention practices up through Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's office directly to Cheney's staff. "The secretary of defense under cover of the vice president's office," Wilkerson said, "regardless of the president having put out this memo" - "they began to authorize procedures within the armed forces that led to what we've seen." He said the directives contradicted a 2002 order by President George W. Bush for the U.S. military to abide by the Geneva conventions against torture. "There was a visible audit trail from the vice president's office through the secretary of defense, down to the commanders in the field," authorizing practices that led to the abuse of detainees, Wilkerson said.

Not enough to bring down the administration, you say? It gets worse. Much worse:

He said that Powell had assigned him to investigate the matter after reports emerged in the media about U.S. troops abusing detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both men had formerly served in the U.S. military. Wilkerson also called David Addington, the vice president's lawyer, "a staunch advocate of allowing the president in his capacity as commander in chief to deviate from the Geneva Conventions." On Monday, Cheney promoted Addington to his chief of staff to replace I. Lewis Libby, who has been indicted over the unmasking of a CIA agent. Wilkerson also told National Public Radio that Cheney's office ran an "alternate national security staff" that spied on and undermined the president's formal National Security Council. He said National Security Council staff stopped sending e-mails when they found out Cheney's staff members were reading their messages. He said he believed that Cheney's staff prevented Bush from seeing a National Security Council memo arguing strongly that the United States needed many more troops for the March 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Get Powell on the phone. Find out what he has to say about this. And then ask the President.

This isn't a minor allegation from a minor player. This is the former Chief of Staff of the Secretary of State accusing the Secretary of Defense and Vice President of treasonous behavior. He is accusing them of creating their own national security structure to spy on the President's national security staff.

Don't believe the hype? Listen for yourself. The article I linked to above doesn't really do justice to what he says in the NPR interview.

I guess until now I hadn't really internalized what Wilkerson was saying. But the new details he offers here are shocking. No. Earth shattering.

Powell needs to speak out. Is what Wilkerson says true? This is his Chief of Staff, and he directly states that Powell ordered him to investigate this. He makes the claim that Powell knew exactly what was going on. Powell needs to speak. And he needs to do it now. I understand loyalty. But loyalty to country first and always.

Speak, Gen. Powell. Speak.

UPDATE: On the flip side, Cheney refuses to speak. Sully is right. Just who the hell does he think he is? He works for us, not vice versa.

UPDATE II: Want to know how Bush can save his presidency? Blame it all on Cheney. All of it. Throw him under the wheels of the bus and don't look back. Announce a full, complete, independent investigation into how the VP of the United States hijacked the President's foreign policy apparatus. Fire anyone and everyone who even had a tangential relationship with this mess. And ask for forgiveness.

Or just call daddy and ask him to ask his old CIA buddies to take care of it for you.

Odds on either of those happening?

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