Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations Security Council

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| image = File:Colin Powell anthrax vial. 5 Feb 2003 at the UN.jpg

| partof = the lead-up to the Iraq War

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| image_alt = Powell seated before a sign reading "UNITED STATES", brandishing a model vial filled with white powder

| caption = Colin Powell holding up a model vial of the supposed weaponized anthrax.

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| native_name_lang = English

| date = February 5, 2003

| time = 10:30 a.m.

| timezone = Eastern Time Zone

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| venue = United Nations Security Council at the Headquarters of the United Nations

| location = Manhattan, New York City

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| type = PowerPoint presentation

| theme = Rationale for the Iraq War

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| outcome = Invasion of Iraq, U.S. reputation damage, Powell accused of having lied

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| notes = {{wikisource-inline|Colin Powell's February 5, 2003 address to The United Nations Security Council|the presentation|single=yes}}

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On February 5, 2003, the Secretary of State of the United States Colin Powell gave a PowerPoint presentation{{Cite news |last=McBrien |first=Tyler |date=2023-02-08 |title=Why the Military (Still) Can't Quit PowerPoint |language=en-US |work=Slate |url=https://slate.com/technology/2023/02/military-powerpoint-memes-colin-powell.html |access-date=2023-04-18 |issn=1091-2339}}{{Cite news |date=2003-02-07 |title=PowerPoint of view |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2003/feb/07/comment.comment |access-date=2023-04-18 |issn=0261-3077}} to the United Nations Security Council. He explained the rationale for the Iraq War which would start on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq. The decision to invade Iraq had already been made prior to the presentation being given.

The content of the presentation was based on unreliable evidence. Powell was criticized for lying, while the U.S. saw its credibility heavily damaged.

Selection and preparation

On February 5, 2003, Powell appeared before the UN to prove the urgency to engage a war with Iraq. In 2016, Powell would say, "[A]t the time I gave the speech on Feb. 5, the president had already made this decision for military action." Powell was selected to deliver the speech based on his credibility, and he stated in 2016 that it had been written by the vice president's office:{{cite web |title=Colin Powell: U.N. Speech 'Was a Great Intelligence Failure' |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/colin-powell-u-n-speech-was-a-great-intelligence-failure/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519134118/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/colin-powell-u-n-speech-was-a-great-intelligence-failure/ |archive-date=May 19, 2016 |access-date=May 19, 2016 |website=pbs.org }}

The speech supposedly had been prepared in the White House in the NSC [National Security Council]. But when we were given what had been prepared, it was totally inadequate, and we couldn't track anything in it. When I asked Condoleezza Rice, the national security advisor, where did this come from, it turns out the vice president's office had written it.

CIA analyst Nada Bakos has stated that the speech's language differed from what the CIA prepared for Powell and from the copies the CIA received in advance of the presentation.{{Cite web |title=The Secret History of ISIS – Transcript |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/the-secret-history-of-isis/transcript/? |access-date=2021-09-18 |website=FRONTLINE |language=en-US}}

Content

{{Quote|quote=My second purpose today is ... to share with you what the United States knows about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction ... Iraq's behavior demonstrate that Saddam Hussein and his regime have made no effort ... to disarm as required by the international community. Indeed, the facts and Iraq's behavior show that Saddam Hussein and his regime are concealing their efforts to produce more weapons of mass destruction ... every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence.|author=Colin Powell|source=Address to the United Nations Security Council{{cite web |title=Remarks to the United Nations Security Council |publisher=US Department of State |first=Secretary Colin L. |last=Powell |location=New York City |date=February 5, 2003 |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/secretary/former/powell/remarks/2003/17300.htm |access-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-date=February 5, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205163122/http://2001-2009.state.gov/secretary/former/powell/remarks/2003/17300.htm |url-status=live }}}}

Powell claimed that Iraq harbored a terrorist network headed by al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (in a small region controlled by Ansar al-Islam). He also claimed that Iraqis visited Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and provided training to al-Qaeda members, although thousands of Arabs from many countries did the same. US intelligence agencies have found no evidence of any substantive collaboration between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.

= Media =

File:Iraq-030205-17300pf-shortmirage.webmsd.webm

File:Iraq-030205-17300pf-nerve-gas.webmsd.webm

File:Iraq-030205-17300pf-warhead.webmsd.webm

File:Iraq-030205-17300pf-mod-vehc.webmsd.webm

= Slides =

File:IRAQ Failing to Disarm slide 1.svg|Iraq Failing To Disarm

File:IRAQ Failing to Disarm slide 2.svg|Iraq Is Hiding Evidence

File:IRAQ Failing to Disarm slide 3.svg|Iraq Is Muzzling Its Scientists

File:IRAQ Failing to Disarm slide 4.svg|Iraq Is Hiding Dangerous Weapons

File:IRAQ Failing to Disarm slide 5.svg|Iraq Still Seeks Nuclear Weapons

File:IRAQ Failing to Disarm slide 6.svg|Iraq Is Harboring Terrorists, Including Al Qaida

File:IRAQ Failing to Disarm slide 7.svg|Iraq Has Refused To Disarm Peacefully

Reactions

= Iraqi reaction =

Ansar al Islam invited 20 journalists to a compound that should have been a 'poison factory'.{{Cite news |last=Chivers |first=C. J. |date=2003-02-09 |title=THREATS AND RESPONSES: THE EVIDENCE; Islamists in Iraq Offer a Tour of 'Poison Factory' Cited by Powell |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/world/threats-responses-evidence-islamists-iraq-offer-tour-poison-factory-cited-powell.html |access-date=2023-04-18 |issn=0362-4331}}

= Others =

Although the presentation failed to change the fundamental position of the Security Council, including France, Russia, China, and Germany, Powell succeeded in hardening the overall tone of the United Nations towards Iraq. While Colin Powell's statement to the UN may have been accepted as proof by many in the US, this was not the case in Europe.[https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/feb/06/pressandpublishing.usnews What the international papers say] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108045920/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/feb/06/pressandpublishing.usnews|date=January 8, 2019}}, February 6, 2003, The Guardian

Powell himself stated later:The Daily Show, June 13, 2012 "I, of course, regret the U.N. speech that I gave, which became the prominent presentation of our case. But we thought it was correct at the time. The President thought it was correct. Congress thought it was correct." "Of course I regret that a lot of it turned out be wrong," he said.

Powell's Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson later said that he had inadvertently participated in a hoax on the American people in preparing Powell's erroneous testimony before the United Nations Security Council.{{Cite news |last=Brancaccio |first=David |date=February 3, 2006 |title=Iraq Pre-War Intelligence |work=NOW |publisher=PBS |url=https://www.pbs.org/now/politics/wilkerson.html |url-status=dead |access-date=February 3, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140312155935/http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/wilkerson.html |archive-date=March 12, 2014}}

Analysis

David Zarefsky noted that the speech mainly relied on the argument from ignorance.{{Cite journal |last=Zarefsky |first=David |date=2007 |title=Making the Case for War: Colin Powell at the United Nations |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41940146 |journal=Rhetoric and Public Affairs |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=275–302 |issn=1094-8392}}

The Guardian dubbed the speech a decisive moment in undermining the credibility of the United States.{{Cite web |date=October 18, 2021 |title=Colin Powell's UN speech: a decisive moment in undermining US credibility |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/18/colin-powell-un-security-council-iraq |access-date=2022-03-13 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}

The New York Times Magazine considered the speech one of the most indelible public moments of the Bush administration.{{Cite news |last=Draper |first=Robert |date=July 16, 2020 |title=Colin Powell Still Wants Answers |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/magazine/colin-powell-iraq-war.html |access-date=2022-04-21 |issn=0362-4331}}

FAIR analyzed the media coverage of the week before and the week after the presentation and urged the media to broaden their coverage.{{Cite web |date=2003-03-18 |title=In Iraq Crisis, Networks Are Megaphones for Official Views |url=https://fair.org/take-action/action-alerts/in-iraq-crisis-networks-are-megaphones-for-official-views/ |access-date=2023-04-18 |website=FAIR |language=en-US}}

Further developments

In a 2005 interview, Powell stated that he did not lie because he did not know the information was false.{{Cite news |title=Iraq War role was a stain on Powell's record — one he openly said he regretted |language=en-US |work=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/colin-powell-iraq-war/2021/10/18/179d66bc-3023-11ec-a880-a9d8c009a0b1_story.html |access-date=2022-03-13 |issn=0190-8286}}

{{Quotebox

| quote = "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."

| source = Colin Powell, September 9, 2005

| align = right

| width = 250px

| salign = right

}}

References

External links

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhWlPo3qxak From 2003: Colin Powell Addresses United Nations Security Council On Iraq], NBC News
[https://www.un.org/press/en/2003/sc7658.doc.htm Briefing security council, us secretary of state powell presents evidence of iraq's failure to disarm], United Nations

Category:Colin Powell

Category:2003 controversies in the United States

Category:2003 in international relations

Category:2003 in New York City

Category:2003 speeches

Category:2003 in the United Nations

Category:2000s in Manhattan

Category:February 2003 in the United States

Category:Causes and prelude of the Iraq War

Category:Propaganda in the Iraq War

Category:United Nations Security Council

Category:United Nations and the Iraq War