Lawrence Wilkerson on CNN

Lawrence Wilkerson--who obviously hates America a great deal--is on CNN right now. He says:

* Colin Powell and the State Department had little to do with the planning for Iraq. The administration elected to put the Pentagon in the drivers' seat. Defense only contacted the State Department to demand

* The decision to invade was a strategic mistake. The #1 winner in the Middle East has been Iran.
Its biggest enemy, Iraq, has been eliminated without firing a shot, and it basically owns southern Iraq.

* Eliminating Saddam was a plus, but the way he was eliminated made the U.S. and Israel less safe.

* Having been involved and having spent the time since doing academic research on the question, there is "no question in [his] mind..." that certain members of the administration distorted/cherry-picked the evidence about Iraq. Specifically: Feith, Cheney (who continues to assert a link between Saddam and 9/11). I think he said Rumsfeld didn't so much.

* Powell tried to filter out the bad "evidence" before his UN presentation. We "threw out the packet that the White House had given us" almost immediately. There was still bad information in it.