The 'crazies'
are said to be Vice-President Dick Cheney,
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1302806,00.html
Colin Powell in four-letter neo-con 'crazies' row
Martin Bright
Sunday September 12, 2004
The Observer
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-conservative
in the Bush administration as
'@$#*ing crazies' during the
build-up to war in Iraq.
Powell's extraordinary outburst is
alleged to have taken place during
a telephone conversation with
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
The two became close friends during
the intense negotiations in the summer
of 2002 to build an international coalition
for intervention via the United Nations.
The 'crazies'
are said to be Vice-President Dick Cheney,
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.
Last week,
the offices of Powell and
Straw contacted Public Affairs,
the US publishers of Naughtie's book,
to say they would vigorously deny the
claims if publication went ahead.
But as no legal action was threatened,
the US launch of the book,
The Accidental American:
Tony Blair and the Presidency,
will proceed as planned this week.
Naughtie stands by his claims and is
said to be privately delighted that
Powell and Straw have reacted so
violently to the suggestion that
the former US general had fallen
out with the 'neo-cons'.
Provocatively,
the phrase '@$#*ing 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.