Colin Powell speaks

Colin Powell emerged from wherever he was during the Republican National Convention and said the following recently:

1. About Iraqi WMD:

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who made the case to the world that pre-war Iraq had stocks of chemical and biological weapons, says he now thinks these will probably never be found.

"I think it's unlikely that we will find any stockpiles," Mr Powell told US lawmakers....

As early as January Mr Powell had said it was an "open question" whether or not such arms would be found.

He conceded the possibility Iraq might not have had any when the war began.

2. On Kerry and the "war on terror":

On NBC's "Meet the Press," Mr. Powell said he could not predict how Mr. Kerry would respond to a terrorist incident were he president but said he did not think the Massachusetts Democrat would react nonchalantly.

"As commander in chief, I think he'd respond to it in a robust way," said Mr. Powell, who later added: "No commander in chief, no president of the United States, would not respond to terrorism. Now, how he would respond, what strategies that individual would use - I can't predict the future."

3. On the Saddam-al Qaeda link:

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," said he had "seen nothing that makes a direct connection between Saddam Hussein and that awful regime and what happened on 9/11."

I'm still angry about the UN briefing, but it is good to see that Powell is trying to recover his image.



Notes: Hesiod of Counterspin Central is back! Like a lot of other bloggers, he's been focusing on the Bush Guard memos revealed last week by CBS News.

I miss Billmon.