In a rather late attempt to shut the stable door, former American secretary of state Colin Powell has called on the CIA and Pentagon to explain how he was given unreliable information which proved key to the US case for invading Iraq.
Source The Telegraph.
Showing posts with label Colin Powell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Colin Powell. Show all posts
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
No Link To al-Qaida
A detailed review by the the Institute for Defense Analyses (sponsored by the Pentagon) of over 600,000 Iraqi documents, captured after the 2003 US invasion, has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network.
The review, "Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents", is not due to be published officially to Congress until tomorrow.
The Defence Secretary (Donald Rumsfeld) claimed in September 2002 that the United States had "bulletproof" evidence of cooperation between the al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein.
Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed that there were many links between Saddam and al-Qaida in a February 2003 speech to the United Nations Security Council designed to rally support for the invasion.
Seemingly all of these statements made by Rumsfeld and Powell were based on false/misinterpreted intelligence.
The review was completed last year. However, it has been sat on since then as people have been reluctant to declassify it.
The review, "Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents", is not due to be published officially to Congress until tomorrow.
The Defence Secretary (Donald Rumsfeld) claimed in September 2002 that the United States had "bulletproof" evidence of cooperation between the al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein.
Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed that there were many links between Saddam and al-Qaida in a February 2003 speech to the United Nations Security Council designed to rally support for the invasion.
Seemingly all of these statements made by Rumsfeld and Powell were based on false/misinterpreted intelligence.
The review was completed last year. However, it has been sat on since then as people have been reluctant to declassify it.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Powell Calls For Closure of Guantanamo Bay
Former United States Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday that the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay for foreign terrorism suspects should be immediately closed, and its inmates moved to the US.
Mr Powell, who in a 2003 speech to the UN Security Council made the case for war against Iraq for possessing weapons of mass destruction that were never found, described the prison in Cuba as a "major problem" for the US's image abroad and has done more harm than good.
Quote:
"Guantanamo has become a major, major problem ... in the way the world perceives America, and if it were up to me I would close Guantanamo, not tomorrow but this afternoon ... and I would not let any of those people go. I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our federal legal system.
Essentially, we have shaken the belief the world had in America's justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like the military commission. We don't need it and it is causing us far more damage than any good we get for it."
That's all very well, but why did he not say this several years ago?
Mr Powell, who in a 2003 speech to the UN Security Council made the case for war against Iraq for possessing weapons of mass destruction that were never found, described the prison in Cuba as a "major problem" for the US's image abroad and has done more harm than good.
Quote:
"Guantanamo has become a major, major problem ... in the way the world perceives America, and if it were up to me I would close Guantanamo, not tomorrow but this afternoon ... and I would not let any of those people go. I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our federal legal system.
Essentially, we have shaken the belief the world had in America's justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like the military commission. We don't need it and it is causing us far more damage than any good we get for it."
That's all very well, but why did he not say this several years ago?
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