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<DIV><FONT size=4><EM>NY Times</EM>:</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV class=timestamp>September 9, 2005</DIV><NYT_HEADLINE version="1.0"
type=" ">
<H1>Powell Calls His U.N. Speech a Lasting Blot on His
Record</H1></NYT_HEADLINE><NYT_BYLINE version="1.0" type=" ">
<DIV class=byline>By <A title="More Articles by Steven R. Weisman"
href="http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=STEVEN R. WEISMAN&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=STEVEN R. WEISMAN&inline=nyt-per"><FONT
color=#000066>STEVEN R. WEISMAN</FONT></A></DIV></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody>
<P>WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 - The former secretary of state, Colin L. Powell, says in
a television interview to be broadcast Friday that his 2003 speech to the United
Nations, in which he gave a detailed description of Iraqi weapons programs that
turned out not to exist, was "painful" for him personally and would be a
permanent "blot" on his record.</P>
<P>"I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the <A
title="More news and information about United States."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/unitedstates/index.html?inline=nyt-geo"><FONT
color=#000066>United States</FONT></A> to the world," Mr. Powell told Barbara
Walters of ABC News, adding that the presentation "will always be a part of my
record."</P>
<P>Asked by Ms. Walters how painful this was for him, Mr. Powell replied: "It
was painful. It's painful now." Asked further how he felt upon learning that he
had been misled about the accuracy of intelligence on which he relied, Mr.
Powell said, "Terrible." He added that it was "devastating" to learn later that
some intelligence agents knew the information he had was unreliable but did not
speak up.</P>
<P>Mr. Powell also implied in the interview that the United States did not go to
war in <A title="More news and information about Iraq."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/iraq/index.html?inline=nyt-geo"><FONT
color=#000066>Iraq</FONT></A> with sufficient troops to secure the country and
failed to keep sufficient Iraqi forces to help stabilize the country. </P>
<P>"What we didn't do in the immediate aftermath of the war was to impose our
will on the whole country with enough troops of our own, with enough troops from
coalition forces or by re-creating the Iraqi forces, armed forces, more quickly
than we are doing now," he said.</P>
<P>But with Iraq still violent and plagued by sectarian conflict, the United
States has "little choice but to keep investing in the Iraqi armed forces and to
do everything we can to increase their size and their capability and their
strength." </P>
<P>Since leaving office in January, Mr. Powell has declined interview requests.
But his expressions of regret about the weapons intelligence and the lack of
troops were consistent with many of his statements in office, especially after
it became clear that Iraq had none of the weapons that Mr. Powell had said it
was stockpiling.</P>
<P>He acknowledged several times that intelligence failures lay behind his
presentation on the eve of the Iraq war two years ago, but he has never
expressed any regret about the war itself. Asked by Ms. Walters, "When the
president made the decision to go to war, you were for it?" Mr. Powell said,
"Yes."</P>
<P>Asked about editorials asserting that he had put loyalty "ahead of
leadership," Mr. Powell parried the question. "Well, loyalty is a trait that I
value, and yes, I am loyal," he replied. "And there are some who say, 'Well, you
shouldn't have supported it, you should have resigned.' But I'm glad that Saddam
Hussein is gone."</P>
<P>Mr. Powell said he did not blame George J. Tenet, then the director of
central intelligence, for the failures and did not believe that Mr. Tenet tried
to mislead him.</P>
<P>"No, George Tenet did not sit there for five days with me, misleading me," he
said, referring to the week he spent at the Central Intelligence Agency
reviewing the evidence on Iraq before making his presentation to the United
Nations. "There were some people in the intelligence community who knew at that
time that some of these sources were not good, and shouldn't be relied upon, and
they didn't speak up. That devastated
me."</P></DIV></NYT_TEXT><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>