Colin Powell Still Wants Answers
Colin Powell privately opposed the 2003 Iraq invasion as foolish and warned President Bush it would end badly, yet he became the war's most persuasive public advocate by delivering the February 2003 U.N. speech presenting allegedly solid intelligence about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The article reveals that C.I.A. analysts and other intelligence officials doubted much of the evidence Powell presented—including claims from a dubious source nicknamed Curveball—and that the speech was constructed under pressure to make an unconvincing case more "slam dunk" persuasive for domestic audiences, with dissenters kept out of the preparation process. Powell later acknowledged he could have simply refused the assignment and resigned, which might have created a political domino effect that prevented the war, but he chose not to because "he's the president."