Associated Press
http://start.earthlink.net/newsarticle?cat=8&aid=D85EQ0S01_story
Powell Regrets Iraq Weapons Claim for War
October 1, 2004 01:22 PM EDT
ATLANTA - Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday he regrets
the Bush administration claimed that Iraq had stockpiles of
weapons of mass destruction in its argument for war, but he
believes the world is better off without Saddam Hussein.
Following a speech to the Atlanta Press Club, Powell defended the
bulk of his presentation to the United Nations in February 2003 in
which he made the case for war in Iraq.
"The only thing where we got it wrong and where our presentation did
not hold up was the actual stockpiles," Powell said. "We've seen
nothing to suggest that he had actual stockpiles. That was not
right."
He added, "As we've gone back and looked through the intelligence,
there are indications that we had bad sourcing that we should have
caught. For that I am disappointed and regret that that information
was not correct."
A Senate Intelligence Committee's report on prewar intelligence
about Iraq found that much of the information provided or cleared
by the CIA for inclusion in Powell's speech to the United Nations
"was overstated, misleading or incorrect."
Nevertheless, Powell noted that the war has led to the ouster of
Saddam, and for that,he said, the world will be safer. He noted
that Saddam had used weapons of mass destruction against his own
people and Iraq's neighbors.
"So, he had a history, the intention of doing it, he was hiding
things, he was not responding to the demands of the international
community," Powell said.
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