Lawrence B. Wilkerson

Lawrence Wilkerson testimony in United Press International | 'Witness: Cheney Probably Knew of Torture'

Communications — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:17:00 -0400

New America in the News:

A former U.S. military official says U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney may have known military personnel were using torture techniques on Iraqi detainees.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson told a House panel he thought leadership failed "at the highest levels of the Pentagon, in the vice president's office and perhaps even in the Oval Office," The Washington Times reported Thursday.

Wilkerson's testimony followed a report by a human rights group that detainees in U.S. military facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba., Iraq and Afghanistan were subjected to beatings and other aggressive interrogation techniques... LINK

Lawrence Wilkerson in the Atlantic | ''Disgrace', Ctd.'

Communications — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:37:00 -0400

New America in the News:

[The Daily Dish:]...Larry Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff explains what this means in terms any morally responsible person would understand:

"As I compiled my dossier for Secretary Powell, as I did further research, and as my views grew firmer and firmer, I needed frequently to reread that memo. I needed to balance, in my own mind, the overwhelming evidence that my own government had sanctioned abuse and torture which, at its worst, had led to the murder of 25 detainees in a total of at least a 100 detainee deaths. Death, Mr. Chairman, seems to me to be the ultimate torture, indisputable and final. We had murdered 25 or more people in detention; that was the clear low point of the evidence..." LINK

Steve Clemons and Lawrence Wilkerson in Financial Times | 'A Family Business'

Communications — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:15:00 -0500

New America in the News:

'A Family Business' (Finanical Times Analysis Online)

To the generation of Cuban exiles that has spent almost half a century dreaming of the day Fidel Castro left power, last week came as a cruel disappointment.

While the legendary revolutionary leader finally stepped down as head of state, the communist government he set up maintains its grip on a calm and stable Cuba. With no sign of a fundamental policy shift in Havana, Washington is also continuing the economic embargo introduced by John F. Kennedy. ...

“I don’t believe this administration, with its tin ear, is going to be productive in any way,” says Col Lawrence Wilkerson, formerly Colin Powell’s chief of staff at the State department, speaking about Mr Castro’s resignation. “But I do believe this might spark the two Democratic [presidential] candidates and perhaps the Republican candidate to begin a policy review,” he adds, saying that such a move could lead to the end of restrictions on visiting the country and an easing of the embargo.

Steven Clemons, a foreign policy expert at the Washington-based New America Foundation, says loosening trade and travel restrictions with Cuba would be the most effective and low-cost means for the next US president to signal a new way of engaging with the world. He expects little resistance to a policy change among the broader US population as fear of communism fades. “The contradiction between trading with China and Vietnam on the one hand and maintaining the embargo with Cuba on the other is becoming more difficult to sustain,” he says. ...

“People are having to choose between returning for their mother’s funeral or their father’s funeral because, if both die within three years of each other, they cannot attend both,” says Mr Clemons.

Lawrence Wilkerson in USA Today | 'U.S. Cuba Policy Could Get New Look'

Communications — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:11:00 -0500

New America in the News:

U.S. Cuba policy could get new look (USA Today)

...Retired colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, co-chair of the U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative [New America Foundation] and chief of staff to former secretary of State Colin Powell, said it was clear to most Americans that "our Cuba policy is a failure." more

U.S. Cuba Policy: Ending 50 Years of Failure

American Strategy — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:33:00 -0500