Powell's U.N. Speech, One Year Later
Feb. 5 -- When Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the U.N. Security Council last year about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, CIA Director George Tenet sat directly behind him. It was a powerful sign of support.
Powell was there to make the case that Saddam Hussein's Iraq possessed and was hiding weapons of mass destruction in open defiance of numerous Security Council resolutions.
But Powell's U.N. speech was nothing like the one Tenet gave today at Georgetown University — the spy chief's first public defense of prewar intelligence.
Tenet said analysts had varying opinions on the state of Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs before the United States headed into war with Iraq.
But instead of discussing Iraq's weapons in terms of "possibilities" or "estimates," Powell spoke before the United Nations last February with certainty.
"These are not assertions," Powell told the Security Council. "What we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence."
Powell qualified only one of his remarks during the 75-minute presentation, saying there was some "controversy" over the intended use of high-strength aluminum tubes. On all other issues, Powell left no room for debate. He used the phrase "we know" 32 times.
"We know — we know from sources — that a missile brigade outside Baghdad was dispersing rocket launchers and warheads containing biological warfare agents to various locations," Powell said.
CIA Cleared Powell's Speech
Powell told The Washington Post in a recent interview that Tenet was in on the preparation of the speech and that the intelligence community "cleared every word."
During his U.N. speech, Powell backed up his statements with satellite imagery, including what he said was a "chemical complex called al Musayyib."
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