Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Powell recalls war speech 'blot'

Powell recalls war speech 'blot'
From correspondents in Washington
09sep05
FORMER US secretary of state Colin Powell has said his UN speech making
the case for the US-led war on Iraq was "a blot" on his record.
In the February 2003 presentation to the UN Security Council, Mr Powell
forcefully made the case for war on the regime of Saddam Hussein, offering
"proof" that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
The presentation included satellite photos of trucks that Mr Powell
identified as mobile bioweapons laboratories.
After the invasion US weapons inspectors reported finding no Iraqi
nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
"It's a blot" on my record, Mr Powell said in an interview with America's
ABC News to be aired today.
"I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world,
and (it) will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It's painful
now."
Mr Powell spent five days at the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters
ahead of the speech studying intelligence reports, many of which turned
out to be false. He said he felt "terrible" at being misinformed.
He did not, however, blame then CIA director George Tenet. Mr Tenet "did
not sit there for five days with me misleading me," he said. "He believed
what he was giving to me was accurate."
However some members of the US intelligence community "knew at that time
that some of these sources were not good, and shouldn't be relied upon,
and they didn't speak up," Mr Powell said.
"These are not senior people, but these are people who were aware that
some of these resources should not be considered reliable," he said. "I
was enormously disappointed."
Mr Powell also said that he had "never seen evidence to suggest" a
connection between the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the US and the
Saddam regime.
As for post-Saddam Iraq, Mr Powell said there was little choice but to
keep investing in the Iraqi armed forces.
"What we didn't do in the immediate aftermath of the war was to impose our
will on the whole country, with enough troops of our own, with enough
troops from coalition forces, or, by (quickly) recreating the Iraqi
(armed) forces," he said.
"It may not have turned out to be such a mess if we had done some things
differently."
Mr Powell also voiced concern over a possible civil war in Iraq.
"A way has to be found for the Sunnis to be brought into the political
process. You cannot let Iraq devolve into a mini-state in the north, a
larger mini-state in the south, and sort of nothing in the middle," he
said.
"The mission we set for ourselves at the beginning, and which we told the
Iraqis that we were going to do, is to keep this as a single state. And
that's the challenge that we have now."
Mr Powell downplayed his reported differences with Vice President Dick
Cheney and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, and said he was on good
terms with President George W. Bush.
"There are some who say, well, you shouldn't have supported (the war), you
should have resigned. But I'm glad that Saddam Hussein is gone," Mr Powell
said.
On Washington's differences with Tehran, Mr Powell also said he did not
see "a clear military option with respect to Iran."
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,16543679%255E401,00.html
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Clas che dice Powell? Non e' che tu eri tra i pirla che sbandieravano
le prove USA per giustificare l'attacco all'Iraq?
-- 
cocktail maisele: 1/3 arduino, 1/3 debora faith, 1/3 S. De Ce' . Agitare.
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le prove USA per giustificare l'attacco all'Iraq?
Quando avra' finito di spendere le monetine faticosamente guadagnate nei
parcheggi dei centri commerciali che sono sorti come funghi lungo il GRA
(cit.) ti dira' che Powell e' la dimostrazione che le lobbies di sinistra
sono al governo mondiale.
-- 
Jolly