Analysis of Public Statements made by Secretary of State Colin Powell
This website contains a collection of misleading and inaccurate public statements made by the five Administration officials most responsible for providing public information and shaping public opinion on Iraq. This section covers statements made by Secretary of State Colin Powell. You may also read the introduction or select a different person from the menu bar above.
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| The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq |
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| Secretary of State Colin Powell on Chemical and Biological Weapons: |
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| "It isn't a figment of anyone's imagination that just 15 years ago they gassed and killed 5,000 people with sarin and VX at a place called Halabja I visited just a few weeks ago. They never lost that capability." |
| Source: Remarks After Meeting with Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs, State Dept (10/3/2003). |
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Explanation This statement was misleading because it professed certainty when the intelligence community provided only an "estimate." According to CIA Director George Tenet, "it is important to underline the word estimate. Because not everything we analyze can be known to a standard of absolute proof." In addition, the statement failed to acknowledge the Defense Intelligence Agency position that: "There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons or where Iraq has -- or will -- establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities." | | |
| The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq |
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| Secretary of State Colin Powell on Chemical and Biological Weapons: |
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| "One item I showed was cartoons of the mobile biological van. They were cartoons, artist's renderings, because we had never seen one of these things, but we had good sourcing on it, excellent sourcing on it. And we knew what it would look like when we found it, so we made those pictures. And I can assure you I didn't just throw those pictures up without having quite a bit of confidence in the information that I had been provided and that Director Tenet had been provided and was now supporting me in the presentation on, sitting right behind me. And we waited. And it took a couple of months, and it took until after the war, until we found a van and another van that pretty much matched what we said it would look like. And I think that's a pretty good indication that we were not cooking the books." |
| Source: Press Briefing, State Dept (7/10/2003). |
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Explanation This statement was misleading because it claimed the purpose of the trailers was to produce biological weapons without disclosing that engineers from the Defense Intelligence Agency who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. | | |
| The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq |
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| Secretary of State Colin Powell on Chemical and Biological Weapons: |
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| "Take the mobile vans that we've been talking about, the biological vans. I can assure you, Sean, that when I presented those vans to the world on the 5th of February and described them, all I could put up were pictures or cartoons that we made of them. And later, we actually found them and showed them to the world." |
| Source: Interview on the Sean Hannity Show, ABC Radio Network (7/2/2003). |
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Explanation This statement was misleading because it claimed the purpose of the trailers was to produce biological weapons without disclosing that engineers from the Defense Intelligence Agency who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. | | |
| The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq |
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| Secretary of State Colin Powell on Chemical and Biological Weapons: |
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| "We have uncovered the mobile vans and we are continuing to search." |
| Source: Remarks at Stakeout Following Fox News Interview, Fox News (6/8/2003). |
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Explanation This statement was misleading because it claimed the purpose of the trailers was to produce biological weapons without disclosing that engineers from the Defense Intelligence Agency who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. | | |
| The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq |
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| Secretary of State Colin Powell on Chemical and Biological Weapons: |
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| "And I think the mobile labs are what I think is a good indication of the kind of thing they are doing." |
| Source: Remarks at Stakeout Following Fox News Interview, Fox News (6/8/2003). |
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Explanation This statement was misleading because it claimed the purpose of the trailers was to produce biological weapons without disclosing that engineers from the Defense Intelligence Agency who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. | | |
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