Colin Powell's Fateful Lies

Consortiumnews.com, February 5, 2008

By Robert, Sam and Nat Parry

Editor’s Note: Five years ago, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell went before the United Nations Security Council – and the world – to make a case for war that wasn’t true. He falsely claimed that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction.

The importance of Powell’s speech cannot be overstated. It effectively sealed the deal for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, at least as far as the American news media and opinion leaders were concerned.

After Powell’s speech, Consortiumnews.com was one of the few news outlets that wasn’t onboard. We reprised an earlier series about Powell’s real history as a rank opportunist, under the title “Trust Colin Powell?” However, many people did trust Colin Powell and the results have been catastrophic.

On this fifth anniversary of Powell’s speech, we are publishing an excerpt about his testimony from the book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush. The book also contains a chapter on the real history of Colin Powell, but this excerpt concentrates on his fateful speech:

To make his case before the U.N., Bush dispatched the most credible official in his administration, Secretary of State Colin Powell.

By the time Powell was assigned to make the case for war, he counted himself among the growing list of officials nervous about the quality of the WMD intelligence. Indeed, Powell may have been one of the best positioned officials to know that the threat from Iraq was being exaggerated.

Continued . . .