February 5, 2003 Colin Powell's UN Speech
Colin Powell delivering UN speech
On February 5, 2003 Colin Powell went before the UN (United Nations) and spoke in favor of sending US troops into Iraq in order to remove Saddam Hussein from power in their government. He claimed that US intelligence has reasonable evidence to believe that Saddam Hussein was still attempting to harbor weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) which was a direct violation of UN Security Council resolution 1441 (passed on November 6, 2002). Resolution 1441, passed on November 8, 2002, was “a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations”. This disarmament agreement had been made several times before in the 1990s during the first gulf conflicts. Powell stated that by violating resolution 1441 and possessing WMDs, it justified the US going over there to remove Saddam from power and dismantle and remove these WMDs. Powell also showed satellite images taken of, what were at the time thought to be, munitions factories. Powell gave other evidence to suggest that the Iraqi government was trying to conceal WMDs, including a list of 3,500 names of scientist associated with projects designed around WMDs. Powell provided stories of various defectors and evidence of various attempts at chemical and biological warfare (anthrax, gas gangrene, plague, typhus, tetanus, cholera, camel pox and hemorrhagic fever). Powell cites the development of UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) as reasonable evidence at an attempt to develop a method to distribute these biological weapons. Powell moves on to discuss al-Qaeda presence in Iraq, showing pictures of suspected training camps that satellites found in northern Iraq. Colin Powell's speech spurred the movement for the United States to invade Iraq.
