- A furious row has broken out over claims in a new book
by BBC broadcaster James Naughtie that US Secretary of State Colin Powell
described neo-conservatives in the Bush administration as 'fucking crazies'
during the build-up to war in Iraq.
-
- Powell's extraordinary outburst is alleged to have taken
place during a telephone conversation with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
The two became close friends during the intense negotiations in the summer
of 2002 to build an international coalition for intervention via the United
Nations. The 'crazies' are said to be Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.
-
- Last week, the offices of Powell and Straw contacted
Public Affairs, the US publishers of Naughtie's book, to say they would
vigorously deny the claims if publication went ahead. But as no legal
action
was threatened, the US launch of the book, The Accidental American: Tony
Blair and the Presidency, will proceed as planned this week.
-
- Naughtie stands by his claims and is said to be privately
delighted that Powell and Straw have reacted so violently to the suggestion
that the former US general had fallen out with the 'neo-cons'.
-
- Provocatively, the phrase 'fucking crazies' will be
quoted
on the jacket of the book, according to a source at the publisher. 'We
were surprised to receive calls from the offices of Jack Straw and Colin
Powell within 24 hours of each other,' the source said.
-
- Naughtie claims that Powell and Straw spoke on an almost
daily basis. Powell's concerns were said to have chimed with Straw's and
those of Blair himself - that if America acted without UN sanction, allies
would be lost.
-
- Cheney and his allies were preparing for a spring war
and did not wish to be deflected by the UN inspection process. Powell is
thought to have been terrified that the strategy of the 'crazies' would
alienate the Blair government, which believed it needed UN backing to win
over Parliament and the British public.
-
- John Kampfner, political editor of the New Statesman
and author of Blair's Wars, said Naughtie's characterisation of the
feverish
political atmosphere of the summer of 2002 was entirely accurate. 'The
British government saw Powell as the most significant voice of sanity in
the US administration. At different times during this very difficult
period,
the Brits used Powell to get across their point of view to the White House.
But, bizarrely, Powell sometimes also used Blair to pass messages to
Bush.'
-
- Kampfner's book, which covers the Blair government's
military adventures in Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, as well as
Iraq, reported that in July 2002 Blair sent his foreign policy adviser
David Manning on a secret mission to Washington to deliver a letter hinting
that, without a second UN resolution, Britain would not be able to join
a war in Iraq.
-
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5014153-110878,00.html
|
