Parole et serment d’expert

Parole et serment d’expert

Parmi les divers témoignages et déclarations loin des pompes grotesques des cérémonies de commémoration de 9/11, on notera celle de Lawrence Wilkerson, qui fut chef de cabinet de Colin Powell de 2001 à 2005, au département d’Etat. Wilkerson a déjà été loin dans ses critiques de l’administration Bush au cours de diverses interventions, mais il nous semble qu’il expose cette fois, pour son propre compte et en s'impliquant lui-même, une position jamais exprimée publiquement à Washington par un ancien haut fonctionnaire en activité durant la période incriminée, à un poste d'une telle responsabilité. Wilkerson estime qu’il serait justifié de faire passer en jugement certains officiels de l’administration Bush, et il serait lui-même prêt à témoigner à charge dans de tels procès.

C’est à Russia Today que Wilkerson s’est confié dans ce sens, ce 11 septembre 2011. Le reste de ses déclarations se résume en une critique extrêmement vive du comportement actuel des USA.

«“We seem to think that we are exceptional, so exceptional that we don’t have to think about other people,” says Lawrence Wilkerson. This position can be maintained only by a strong state, strong as Rome in its day, notes Wilkerson. “But we are no longer that powerful,” he admits.

»The reckoning is coming for the US, believes Wilkerson. “The reckoning when we are just another country in the world. And that day is coming.” “This is going to be a hard time for Washington, because we no longer going to have the money, we no longer going to have the economic might, we no longer going to have the military might,” he explains. [..]

»According to Wilkerson, former Vice President Dick Cheney is convinced he prevented greater evil with his actions, especially torture. However, the former official argues: “Ends never justify the means… You never know if your lesser evil action actually prevented the greater evil.”

»He believes some of the Bush administration members deserve to be put on trial, and he would be ready to testify against them. “George Tenet [the head of the CIA] told Dick Cheney what Dick Cheney wanted to hear: ‘Oh, yes! It’s working, Mr. Vice President! We’re getting great information and we are stopping terrorism.’ That is utter BS!” Wilkerson said.

»They did not stop anything through enhanced interrogation techniques, Wilkerson claims, referring to the information from some of the most respected people in the FBI and the intelligence community. Wilkerson underlines that Cheney believes that the Americans can torture other people, but no one can torture Americans. And 40 per cent of people in the US agree with it, he claims. […]

»That overreaction to the tragic events of 9/11 has led to profound change – now the US has an executive power beyond any check by the people, by the Congress, by the courts for war. “We could go to war by a drop of a coin… We’ve reached the point now where the president of the United States can kill people for state purposes any time he or she feels the need.” “When you combine the power to initiate war with the power to execute it you have a chief tyranny,” Wilkerson concluded, quoting American statesman James Madison.»

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