Powell Again Blames CIA For Fabrications And Lies-By-Omission In U.N. Speech

As much criticism as Colin Powell has received for his Iraq presentation at the UN, it hasn't been anywhere near what he deserves. While they've been little noticed, declassified memos from Powell's own intelligence staff at the State Department conclusively prove Powell was aware much of what he said was false or shaky. (I've previously gone through this in detail here.)

So far Powell has blamed everything on the CIA. He did it again yesterday when questioned outside Face the Nation by Sam Husseini of the Institute for Public Accuracy. Here are the details, along with background and the actual video.

#1: Fabricated electronic intercept

According to some, the most impressive elements of Powell's speech came when he played intercepted radio conversations between Iraqi soldiers. According to Powell, this is how one of them went:

"They're inspecting the ammunition you have, yes.''

"Yes."

"For the possibility there are forbidden ammo."

"For the possibility there is by chance forbidden ammo?''

"Yes."

"And we sent you a message yesterday to clean out all of the areas, the scrap areas, the abandoned areas. Make sure there is nothing there.''

Powell then explained:

This is all part of a system of hiding things and moving things out of the way and making sure they have left nothing behind.

In fact, Powell had simply made up the parts in bold. According to the official State Department translation, the Iraqi soldier merely said:

"And we sent you a message to inspect the scrap areas and the abandoned areas."

In other words, Powell took evidence of the Iraqis doing what they were supposed to do—i.e., searching their ammunition dumps to make sure they weren't accidentally holding onto banned chemical weapons—and doctored it to make it look as if Iraq were hiding banned weapons.

And this isn't just my interpretation; it was first reported in Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack. As Woodward writes:

[Powell] had decided to add his personal interpretation of the intercepts to the rehearsed script, taking them substantially further and casting them in the most negative light...Concerning the intercept about inspecting for the possibility of "forbidden ammo," Powell took the interpretation further: "Clean out all of the areas... Make sure there is nothing there." None of this was in the intercept.

When Sam Husseini asked Powell about this yesterday, this was Powell's barely responsive response:

POWELL: Everything that was in that presentation that I gave—

HUSSEINI: Do you acknowledge that you did that [i.e., add words the Iraqi soldier did not say]?

POWELL: You've asked a question. I'm about to answer it. Everything that was in that presentation that I gave was approved and edited by the intelligence community. The Director of Central Intelligence and the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence and all of their principal assistants. And if there were anything in that the script that they didn't think was appropriate or was not accurate, it was removed. Thank you.

The video is below. And here are some obvious follow up questions, if there are any journalists in the D.C. area who feel like practicing journalism:

1. Do you acknowledge that what you said was inaccurate?
2. If you do acknowledge this, you must be furiously angry at George Tenet and the CIA. What actions have you taken to make sure the people responsible for this fabrication have been held accountable?

#2: Lie-by-omission

This appears in another section of Powell's presentation:

Iraq's record on chemical weapons is replete with lies. It took years for Iraq to finally admit that it had produced four tons of the deadly nerve agent, VX. A single drop of VX on the skin will kill in minutes. Four tons.

The admission only came out after inspectors collected documentation as a result of the defection of Hussein Kamal, Saddam Hussein's late son-in-law.

This was accurate. However, Powell left out some extremely important details. Kamel defected in 1995. Iraq had produced this VX before the Gulf War, in 1991—and according to Kamel, Iraq had secretly destroyed it soon after the war. Then they lied about ever producing it. But according to Kamel, they weren't lying when they said they no longer had it.

Indeed, in the U.N.'s notes from Kamel's debriefing, he says Iraq had no remaining WMD of any kind:

All chemical weapons were destroyed. I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons -- biological, chemical, missiles, nuclear were destroyed.

And if that weren't enough, Kamel also said this in an interview on CNN:

SADLER: Can you state here and now -- does Iraq still to this day hold weapons of mass destruction?

KAMEL: No. Iraq does not possess any weapons of mass destruction. I am being completely honest about this.

But in 1996 Kamel returned to Iraq, where he was killed by Saddam's regime. Thus the U.S. could safely take a witness who truthfully had said Iraq had no remaining banned weapons, and pretend his testimony indicated the exact opposite.

Here's what Powell said on Sunday.

HUSSEINI: You cited Hussein Kamel in your U.N. testimony. Did you know he said there were no WMDs?

POWELL: I only knew what the intelligence community told me.

HUSSEINI: But did you know that fact?

POWELL: Of course not!

HUSSEINI: You didn't know that, even though it was reported?

POWELL: I've answered your question!

The video is below. And here are some more obvious follow up questions:

1. When and how did you learn that Hussein Kamel said Iraq had no WMD?
2. Have you ever discussed this publicly before?
3. Again, you must be furiously angry about this. What actions have you taken to make sure the people responsible for this have been held accountable?

And that's it. I hope anyone reading this can see the possibilities for better journalism that exist with blogs, YouTube, etc. All that's required is effort and organization on our part.

Finally—don't miss other Washington figures being questioned by Sam Husseini at Washington Stakeout.