Wilkerson arrived as an Army officer piloting an OH-6A Cayuse observation helicopter and logged about 1100 combat hours over a year. He flew low and slow through South Vietnam, and was involved in one incident in which he says he prevented an atrocity by purposely placing his helicopter between a position that was full of civilians, and another helicopter that wanted to launch an attack on the position. He also had many vocal disagreements with his superiors and his own gunner crew over free-fire zones, including an incident in which one of his crew shot a wagon that wound up having a little girl inside it.[5] He went on to Airborne School and Ranger School before receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and graduate degrees in international relations and national security.
Wilkerson was executive Assistant to Admiral Stewart A. Ring, United States Navy Pacific Command and Director of the United States Marine Corps War College.[3]
Wilkerson continued his supporting role to Powell when the latter became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff through the Gulf War, following Powell into civilian life and then back into public service when President George W. Bush appointed Powell Secretary of State.[6]
Wilkerson was responsible for the review of information from the Central Intelligence Agency used to prepare Powell for his February 2003 presentation to the United Nations Security Council. His failure to realize that the evidence was faulty has been attributed to the limited time (only one week) that he had to review the data. The subsequent developments led Wilkerson to become disillusioned: "Combine the detainee abuse issue with the ineptitude of post-invasion planning for Iraq, wrap both in this blanket of secretive decision-making...and you get the overall reason for my speaking out."[4]
Later career
Wilkerson has worked as a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William & Mary since January 2006, and taught national security affairs in the Honors Program at George Washington University from January 2006 until December 2011.[7]
Wilkerson is one of the people interviewed in the 2007 documentary film No End in Sight, a film that is very critical of the way the occupation of Iraq was handled in the spring of 2003.[citation needed]
In 2020, he was named a non-resident fellow of the Quincy Institute.[9] Wilkerson was involved in funding meetings for the Institute.[10]
Political positions and statements
Since his retirement from the public sector Wilkerson has on several occasions spoken out against what he perceives as the poor planning and execution of the Iraq War as well as the global politics leading up to and following it. In particular he has denounced the decision-making process of the Bush administration and Vice PresidentDick Cheney's and Secretary of DefenseDonald Rumsfeld's parts in it, and regularly describes the Bush administration as having been run by a neoconservativecabal.[11]
Wilkerson made comments in a radio interview in November 2005 that the Vice President had decided that the Third Geneva Convention (regarding treatment of POWs) would not apply to "al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda look-alike detainees"[13] and that the February 2002 White House memorandum regarding the "Humane Treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda Detainees" contained a loophole designed to avoid applying the Geneva convention to the detainees. According to Wilkerson, the phrase "the detainees (should) be treated humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of Geneva"[14] was a way to appear to play by the rules while in reality, the "military necessities" would always overrule concerns about the plight of the detainees.[13] Wilkerson said that this was result of Cheney and Rumsfeld working in collaboration to undermine the standard decision-making process of the White House (which included his superior, Colin Powell).
And so what I'm saying is, under the vice-president's protection, the secretary of defense moved out to do what they wanted to do in the first place even though the president had made a decision that was clearly a compromise.
— Lawrence Wilkerson, BBC Radio 4, November 25, 2005
Iraq war intelligence was "a hoax"; the war was for oil and Israel
At a congressional hearing recorded on C-SPAN in June 2005, he gave his analysis of the Iraq war's motivation: "'I use the acronym OIL,' he said, 'O for oil, I for Israel and L for the logistical base necessary or deemed necessary by the so-called neocons – and it reeks through all their documents – the logistical base whereby the United States and Israel could dominate that area of the world.'" He said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "has our president wrapped around his little finger" and that Bush has been "mesmerized" by Sharon.[15]
During an October 19, 2005 speech at the New America Foundation, Wilkerson criticized the intelligence community which compiled the Iraq War intelligence:
I can't tell you why the French, the Germans, the Brits and us thought that most of the material, if not all of it, that we presented at the U.N. on 5 February 2003 was the truth
In a 2006 interview, Wilkerson said that the speech Powell made before the United Nations on February 5, 2003—which laid out a case for war with Iraq—included falsehoods of which Powell had never been made aware. He said, "My participation in that presentation at the UN constitutes the lowest point in my professional life. I participated in a hoax on the American people, the international community and the United Nations Security Council."[18] Wilkerson said in 2011 that his preparing of the presentation was "probably the biggest mistake of my life", he regrets it, and that he regrets not resigning over it.[19]
He stated in the 2006 interview that neither CIA Director George Tenet nor the CIA analysts that gave Powell information on mobile biological laboratories explained that there were disputes about the reliability of the informants who had supplied the information—information which was used in the speech. Wilkerson also agreed with the interviewer that Cheney's frequent trips to the CIA would have brought "undue influence" on the agency. When asked if Cheney was "the kind of guy who could lean on somebody" he responded, "Absolutely. And be just as quiet and taciturn about it as-- he-- as he leaned on 'em. As he leaned on the Congress recently-- in the-- torture issue." Wilkerson stood by his earlier description of Cheney and Rumsfeld as having formed a cabal to hijack the decision-making process: "I'm worried and I would rather have the discussion and debate in the process we've designed than I would a diktat from a dumb strongman... I'd prefer to see the squabble of democracy to the efficiency of dictators."[20]
An Iranian overture, 2003
Wilkerson said in an interview on the BBC's Newsnight, January 17, 2007, that an Iranian offer to help stabilise Iraq after the American invasion, was positively received at the State Department, yet turned down by Dick Cheney.[21][22] The reported offer consisted of help in stabilizing Iraq, cutting ties with Hezbollah and greater transparency in its nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions and dismantling the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, an organisation working to overthrow the Iranian government.
In April 2007, Wilkerson was featured in VPRO's Tegenlicht Dutch documentary The Israel Lobby. He said that "the Jewish lobby in America" and "AIPAC in particular" played an outsize influence in the run-up to Iraq war. Wilkerson noted Jewish officials such as Elliott Abrams, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle in particular, and called their loyalty to the United States into question.[9][23][24]
These comments about Israel, and Jews, and his other associations with suspected antisemites, raise questons about the extent of Wilkerson's antisemitism and his usefulness as an expert is middle east and military affaiirs. His stong criticism targetting Israel also focuses on Jews.[9][23][24] Such collective criticism of Israel and Jews is characterized by the Internation Hollocaise Remembrance Alliance as antisemitic.[25]
Guantanamo continues to hold innocent men
In March 2009, Wilkerson wrote on The Washington Note blog that he knew from briefings as a Bush administration official that it was soon recognized that some of the captives in Guantanamo were innocent.[26][27] Wilkerson said the Bush administration was willing to continue to detain innocent men who might nevertheless be aware of useful information about the Afghanistan "mosaic":
It did not matter if a detainee were innocent. Indeed, because he lived in Afghanistan and was captured on or near the battle area, he must know something of importance.
...sufficient information about a village, a region, or a group of individuals, that dots could be connected and terrorists or their plots could be identified.
Wilkerson stated in 2009 that Guantanamo Bay detention camp continues to hold innocent men.[26]
Wilkerson said that he felt compelled to come forward after hearing former Vice President Dick Cheney state that President Barack Obama's plans to close Guantanamo made the public less safe.[28]CommanderJeffrey Gordon, a Guantanamo spokesman, declined to comment on Wilkerson's specific observations. Gordon said that "dealing with foreign fighters from a wide variety of countries in a wartime setting was a complex process."[26]
In The New Republic, Jamie Kirchick criticised the plausibility of Wilkerson's allegations, calling him a "third-rate conspiracy theorist and a borderline bigot".[23]
Chemical weapons in Syria
In 2013, Wilkerson speculated that Israel had used chemical weapons in Syria.[29] This opinion and many other related comments about Israel have raised serious concerns about Wilkerson's antisemitism and reliability.[23][24]
In a March 20, 2015 CNN interview, Wilkerson said,
I would say very, very candidly that Iran is probably the most democratic country in the Persian gulf region right now. My Republican colleagues will boil their eyes at that, but it is the most democratic country. It's a theocracy, no question about it. But it is possessed of the democratic tendencies that far outweigh those of, say, Bahrain or Saudi Arabia or even Egypt.[32]
Antisemitism controversies
In 2016, Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute criticed Wilkerson for having "descended into a fevered swamp of conspiracy and hate." Rubin cited his Israel false flag theories about chemical weapons, alleged he "has flirted on the margins with 9/11 conspiracy theories", is regularly a guest on antisemitic state broadcasters Russia Today and Press TV, and is close to Lyndon LaRouche associate Robert Dreyfuss.[24]
In his comments strongly critiquing Israel he sometimes refers to Jewish lobbying. [23][24] The working defintion of antisemitism developedby the Internation Hollocaise Remembrance Alliance includes such collective criticism of Israel and Jews.[25]
On November 17th, 2023, in an interview to Dialogue Works, Wilkerson drew parallels between the zionist movement to the national socialist movement by saying, "These Zionists who are so zestful for other people's property and other people's territory, they don't seem to have a closure to their appetite. You know who they remind me of in that regard? They remind me of Adolf Hitler." [33] Made in the wake of the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, this statement is an antisemetic argument that is often used to demonize Israel and is a common false analogy used by Palestinian nationalists.
In September 2018, Wilkerson further said that the neoconservative agenda regarding war on Syria and Iran also threatens conflict between the U.S. and Russia and the long-term bogging down of U.S. military forces in major conflict. Wilkerson stated: "My serious concern is about the way U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton and others in their positions of power now are orchestrating a scenario whereby Donald Trump, for political reasons or whatever, can use force in a significant way against Assad and ultimately Iran, because Iran's forces are there, and ultimately against Russia, because their forces are there in Syria, and this is most disquieting." The neoconservatives' military plan, argues Wilkerson, is "a recipe for" the U.S. military being in the region for "the next generation" with significant force "mired even deeper in this morass" and with the "day after day" attrition of dollars and lives.[36][37][non-primary source needed][unreliable source?]
Wilkerson stated in a 2022 Massachusetts Peace Action YouTube video, that climate change and nuclear war overshadow all other concerns.[38] In a May 2022 editorial for the Quincy Institute, he considered the role of the U.S. and other militaries in coping with famines that result from climate change and war.[39]
Personal life
Wilkerson married in 1966, just before he entered the Vietnam War. They had two children, a son and a daughter who both served in the military.[4] His wife, Barbara Ann Wilkerson, passed away in 2021 at the age of 71.[40]
Wilkerson heads the Colin Powell Leadership Club, a group of MacFarland middle school students in Washington, D.C..[4]
Awards
Wilkerson was the 2009 recipient of the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence.[41]
United States Army
Colonel
