31 Facts About Lawrence Wilkerson

Lawrence B Wilkerson was born on June 15,1945 and is a retired United States Army Colonel and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Since the end of his military career, Wilkerson has criticized many aspects of the Iraq War, including his own preparation of Powell's presentation to the United Nations Security Council, as well as other aspects of American policy in the Middle East, as well as criticizing Israel.

Lawrence Wilkerson arrived as an Army officer piloting an OH-6A Cayuse observation helicopter and logged about 1100 combat hours over a year.

Lawrence Wilkerson 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.

Lawrence Wilkerson 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.

Lawrence Wilkerson 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.

Lawrence Wilkerson attended the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and later returned there to teach.

Lawrence Wilkerson later served as deputy director of the Marine Corps War College at Quantico.

Lawrence Wilkerson spent some years in the United States Navy's Pacific Command in South Korea, Japan and Hawaii, where he was well regarded by his superiors.

Lawrence Wilkerson had a stint as staff member to Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Lawrence 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.

Lawrence Wilkerson endorsed Jim Webb against incumbent George Allen in the 2006 US Senate election in Virginia.

Lawrence Wilkerson made comments in a radio interview in November 2005 that the Vice President had decided that the Third Geneva Convention would not apply to "al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda look-alike detainees" 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.

Lawrence Wilkerson said that this was result of Cheney and Rumsfeld working in collaboration to undermine the standard decision-making process of the White House.

Lawrence Wilkerson did a full-length audio commentary for the documentary Why We Fight.

Lawrence Wilkerson agreed with the interviewer that Cheney's frequent trips to the CIA would have brought "undue influence" on the agency.

Lawrence Wilkerson said that "the Jewish lobby in America" and "AIPAC in particular" played an outsize influence in the run-up to Iraq war.

Lawrence 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.

In March 2009, Lawrence Wilkerson wrote on The Washington Note blog that he knew from briefings as a Bush administration official that it was recognized that some of the captives in Guantanamo were innocent.

Lawrence 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":.

Lawrence Wilkerson stated in 2009 that Guantanamo Bay detention camp continues to hold innocent men.

In 2013, Lawrence Wilkerson speculated without evidence that Israel had used chemical weapons in Syria.

Specifically, Lawrence Wilkerson suggested the Ghouta chemical attack was an Israeli false flag operation to discredit Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria.

In 2016, Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute said Lawrence Wilkerson had "descended into a fevered swamp of conspiracy and hate".

Lawrence Wilkerson showed concern over the current Trump administration's foreign policy behavior, particularly on Iran and Trump's work against the Iran nuclear deal.

In September 2018, Lawrence Wilkerson further said that the neoconservative agenda regarding war on Syria and Iran threatened conflict between the US and Russia and the long-term bogging down of US military forces in major conflict.

Lawrence Wilkerson stated in a 2022 Massachusetts Peace Action YouTube video, that climate change and nuclear war overshadow all other concerns.

Lawrence Wilkerson married Barbara Ann Lawrence Wilkerson in 1966, just before he entered the Vietnam War.

Barbara Ann Lawrence Wilkerson passed away on November 28,2021 at the age of 71.

Lawrence Wilkerson is a lifelong Republican and on the political right.

Lawrence Wilkerson was the 2009 recipient of the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence.