Low

"Put all my credibility on 11 black and let it ride!"

A former top aide to Colin Powell says his involvement in the former secretary of state's presentation to the United Nations on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was "the lowest point" in his life.

"I wish I had not been involved in it," says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a longtime Powell adviser who served as his chief of staff from 2002 through 2005. "I look back on it, and I still say it was the lowest point in my life."

[...]

Powell's speech, delivered on February 14, 2003, made the case for the war by presenting U.S. intelligence that purported to prove that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Wilkerson says the information in Powell's presentation initially came from a document he described as "sort of a Chinese menu" that was provided by the White House.

"(Powell) came through the door ... and he had in his hands a sheaf of papers, and he said, 'This is what I've got to present at the United Nations according to the White House, and you need to look at it,'" Wilkerson says in the program. "It was anything but an intelligence document. It was, as some people characterized it later, sort of a Chinese menu from which you could pick and choose."

Wilkerson and Powell spent four days and nights in a CIA conference room with then-Director George Tenet and other top officials trying to ensure the accuracy of the presentation, Wilkerson says.

"There was no way the Secretary of State was going to read off a script about serious matters of intelligence that could lead to war when the script was basically un-sourced," Wilkerson says.

CNN

Computer-generated image of an alleged mobile production facility
for chemical weapons, presented by Colin Powell at the UN Security Council.
Absence of more substantial proofs undermined the credibility of the speech on
the international scene. Russian experts have always questioned the likelihood
of such mobile facilities, which are extremely dangerous and difficult to manage.

"Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agents. We have first-hand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails."
Colin Powell, US Secretary of State, February 2003 address to the United Nations

A satellite photo presented by Colin Powell to the UN as proof of Iraq's WMD capability.

I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it just now.
- Colin Powell, remarks to reporters, May 4, 2003

Secretary of State Colin Powell during a
presentation at the UN Security Council
in February 2003.
Photo:Reuters

"I'm very sore. I'm the one who made the television moment. I was mightily disappointed when the sourcing of it all became very suspect and everything started to fall apart.

[...]

"The problem was stockpiles. None have been found. I don't think any will be found. There may not have been any at the time. It was the best judgment of the intelligence community, not something I made up. Clinton had been told the same thing."

[...]

"I will forever be known as the one who made the case."

- Colin Powell, Telegraph interview, 26/02/2005

A blood-covered girl screams after her parents were fatally
shot by soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Stryker
Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division after
the family failed to stop driving their car. The girl was uninjured.
(GETTY IMAGES PHOTO/CHRIS HONDROS) January 18, 2005


If you're lucky, Colin, we'll only remember for the rest of your life.