Colin Powell on WMD Blot
Colin Powell comes about as close as he can to saying he was duped like many others in this country. So if you are someone who came around late don't feel so bad.
Powell calls pre-Iraq U.N. speech a 'blot' on his record
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday his prewar speech to the United Nations accusing Iraq of harboring weapons of mass destruction was a "blot" on his record.
"I'm the one who presented it to the world, and (it) will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It is painful now," Powell said in an interview with Barbara Walters on ABC-News. (Related story: The story of WMDs that weren't)
The presentation by the soldier-diplomat to the world body in February 2003 lent considerable credibility to President Bush's case against Iraq and for going to war to remove President Saddam Hussein.
In the speech, Powell said he had relied on information he received at Central Intelligence Agency briefings. He said Thursday that then-director George Tenet "believed what he was giving to me was accurate."
But, Powell said, "the intelligence system did not work well."
"There were some people in the intelligence community who knew at the time that some of those sources were not good, and shouldn't be relied upon, and they didn't speak up," Powell said.
"That devastated me," he said.
Powell in the TV interview also disputed the Bush administration's linking of Saddam's regime with terrorists.
He said he had never seen a connection between Baghdad and the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001. "I can't think otherwise, because I'd never seen evidence to suggest there was one," he said.
Still, Powell said that while he has always been a "reluctant warrior" he supported Bush on going to war the month after his U.N. speech. "When the president decided that it was not tolerable for this regime to remain in violation of all those U.N. resolutions I am right there with him with the use of force," Powell said.
posted by Brian at 9:25 AM
5 Comments:
"The system didn't work well"..said Powell
What the hell is a system?...a system is flow chart of responsibilities and organziation put together by PEOPLE.....
And in recent memory...20 years or so...not a single PERSON in GOVERNMENT has been held responsible for anything but staining a blue dress.
P.S.
If being a "yes man" is required for military command we can buy some of those new Japanesse robots programed to say yes sir and fall on their swords at their expiration date.
Nuts to Powell.
Bulls*t, I called the State Department myself and managed to get through to an aide and told him that Powell's UN speech was based on a 10 year old plagerized student thesis.
A friend of mine with two brothers in the US military called every single member of Congress and gave them the name of the the thesis and the writer, both of which had been reported in the UK press.
Powell is a liar, and if he ever tries to run for President all anyone has to do to stop him is dig up the UK press articles about the plagerized thesis. Well, that and the Downing Street Memos...
bulls**t squared. I knew at the time
a. That the intel was nonsense
b. That Powell knew it
My contacts inside the intel business unanimously said there were no WMDs...
but they were not going to speak out.
His body language told the story on whether he believed what he was saying. He simply saluted and said "yassuh."
He should have resigned.
I lost all respect for him at the time. This certainly doesn't change that.
I remember that anonymous....
It is amazing how many absolutely ridiculous stunts this adm has pulled and how soon we forget them.
Someone needs to start a list of everything this crew has done.
But it take so long they would be gone before we could finsih it.
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