Posted on 12/17/2005 6:14:13 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
THE US administration was never told of doubts about the secret intelligence used to justify war with Iraq, former secretary of state Colin Powell told the BBC in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday night.
Mr Powell, who argued the case for military action against Saddam Hussein in the UN in 2003, told BBC News 24 television he was "deeply disappointed in what the intelligence community had presented to me and to the rest of us."
"What really upset me more than anything else was that there were people in the intelligence community that had doubts about some of this sourcing, but those doubts never surfaced to us," he said.
Mr Powell's comments follow US President George W. Bush's acceptance earlier this week of responsibility for going to war on intelligence, much of which "turned out to be wrong".
US involvement in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion has led to the loss of 2,140 of its troops and badly hit the Republican president's popularity.
The opposition Democrats have increased calls for a timetable for a military withdrawal.
But ahead of this week's parliamentary elections in Iraq, President Bush insisted he was still right to order the invasion and argued a hurried withdrawal would be "a recipe for disaster".
The British government, Washington's key allies in the invasion, has similarly refused to give a withdrawal date for its 8,000 or so troops in Iraq's four southern states, although has said it could happen next year.
For his part, Mr Powell considered the US military could not be deployed in Iraq at its current strength for years to come, raising the possibility of withdrawal from next year.
But he told the BBC that "essentially just to walk away, to say that we're taking all of our troops out as fast as we can, would be a tragic mistake". A US presence would be required in Iraq for "years", he added.
"We've invested a great deal in this country, and the Iraqi people deserve democracy and the freedom that they were promised when we got rid of Saddam Hussein and we have to stay with them... until they decide that they can get it now on their own, they don't need us any longer," he added.
"And even then, I suspect, there will be a continuing relationship and presence of some significance for some years to come."
In the interview, Mr Powell confirmed that White House "hawks" US Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had bypassed him and other colleagues on occasions.
Mr Powell's former chief-of-staff Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson made the damning allegations last month, accusing Cheney and Rumsfeld of running a "cabal" and hijacking US military and foreign policy.
Discussions with Rumsfeld about dealing with the aftermath of the Iraq invasion were "not pleasant", Mr Powell admitted in the interview.
Could be that too.
You liberals are amazing in your lack of logic.
I'd suggest you enlist in the United Ststaes Military and defend Americans; instead of the mamby-pampy pro-this spend America - Tax America /pro-that -Give it to the welfare state unemployed lazy Democrats. When will you Liberals ever become PRO AMERICAN?
"Valerie Plame a WMD analyst at the CIA. The WH did not know of CIA WMD concerns, something that should have come from her desk...."
Back in 2002 her husband was giving speeches around the country opposing the war because he felt Saddam would use WMD on our troops.
They are lying!
Man, did you hit the nail on the head!Saddam had six months to move his WMDs before we attacked. In Oct 2004, it came out that Russian advisors were overseeing the move of the WMDs to Syria for Saddam. The news lasted exactly one news cycle and then disappeared off the radar screen. No one in the MSM picked it up--deliberately.
ROFLMAO !!!
I wonder why Powell waited until there was success in Iraq to spill his guts? Waiting to see which side he should take? I don't blame Rumsfield for not being "pleasant" with Powell either. He was probably part of the leak crowd too.
Thanks for a very coherent, succinct and well phrased post summing it all up beautifully. I can't stand Powell! He is a passive aggressive phony! don't trust the man!
That line caught my eye as well. Just remember, this is what the BBC says that Powell said. The exact context may be different than what the article intimates.
An Iraqi former commander just said this week Saddam moved his WMD's to Syria 6 wks before we invaded Iraq. He said NO one has looked in Syria but that's where they are.
is sheila the one who asked if NASA can swing the mars rover by the area where the usa flag was placed?????????
An Iraqi commander just said this week Saddam moved his WMD to Syria 6 wks before we invaded Iraq. He says there still there...NO one has looked.
I've never really trusted anyone who calls himself "Lawrence"...
[falsetto voice] "Oh, Laaawrence...!"
THANK YOU!!!!!
We are overun by youth in drop-down, baggy pants who don't know who the VP is and Desperate Housewives with yellow ribbons on their SUV's and Kerry stickers! Go figure! With idiots like the mass liberals, who needs Iran's nukes?
I read our satellites have images of truck convoys moving from Iraq to Syria.
What do you think was in them?
Also, people have to stop and think what is WMD? Do we have to find 2 TONS of anthrax, before it's WMD, when, in fact a few ounces can kill thousands of people? And how easy is it to hide a small envelope? How can we discover it when we have an entire country to search and we are not allowed to even inconvenience prisoners, who might know where they are?
The passive aggressive SOB finally got over his temper tantrum and decided he was being forgotten.ha.
Thanks. We needed that!
I suggest we hide her in the desert,and nobody will care if she is there.
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