Colin Powell in four-letter neo-con 'crazies' row



By Martin Bright


Sunday Observer, UK, 12 September 2004: 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 *****
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.