Episode 7: Pot of Gold
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How did Colin Powell use the anthrax attacks to justify the Iraq invasion?
It's early 2003 in the Oval Office of the White House, and Colin Powell, the U.S. Army General and now Secretary of State, is in a bind. After almost 18 months, the FBI still hasn't been able to point to the person behind the anthrax attacks. So in the absence of a clear answer, Powell's boss, President George W. Bush, has come up with his own. Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime... has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade. President Bush has a personal history with Iraq. His own dad had launched a war there when he'd been president. And that war is where Colin Powell had made a name for himself. He turned into a decorated war hero, a trusted military veteran. So now the younger Bush is coming to Powell, his secretary of state, wanting to use that trust.
He said, what should we do? I said, well, we should first and foremost take it to the United Nations. And we then had a meeting a week or so later, and every member of the national security team agreed with the judgment that we take it to the U.N.
By taking it to the U.N., Powell means standing in front of the United Nations and asking them to go to war. So he's got to make that case. But there's something he wants to do before he goes out on that limb. His reputation is on the line.
So... I spent four days and nights out at the CIA going over it and asking every way I could, are you sure of this? You have multiple sources on this. And I got those assurances. They're the same assurances that the intelligence community gave to the president, the same assurances the intelligence community gave to the Congress four months earlier.
Then, on February 5th, 2003, with those assurances in hand and a special prop in his pocket, Powell makes his case to the UN Security Council.
Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, distinguished colleagues, I would like to begin by expressing my thanks for the special effort that each of you made to be here today. This is an important day for us all as we review the situation with respect to Iraq and its disarmament obligations under UN Security Council Resolution 1441.
He sits at a large desk in a dark suit and a red tie. Serious-looking men sit behind him.
I cannot tell you everything that we know, but what I can share with you, when combined with what all of us have learned over the years, is deeply troubling.
It's a commanding image, the four-star general soberly presenting the facts to a room full of world leaders.
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.
The UN already knows that Iraq admitted to having anthrax back in 1995. So as Powell continues on with his new intel on Iraq's so-called weapons of mass destruction, he has an opportunity to make that threat feel real. He calmly reaches over and picks up a prop, a small, transparent tube full of white powder.
This is just about the amount of a teaspoon. Less than a teaspoonful of dry anthrax in an envelope shut down the United States Senate in the fall of 2001. This forced several hundred people to undergo emergency medical treatment and killed two postal workers just from an amount just about this quantity. that was inside of an envelope. But Saddam Hussein could have produced 25,000 liters. This amount would be enough to fill tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of teaspoons.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Colin Powell use the anthrax attacks to justify the Iraq invasion?
0:42–8:05
2
Who was initially suspected in the FBI's anthrax investigation?
8:05–9:51
3
Why did Agent Scott Decker begin doubting Stephen Hatfield as the anthrax culprit?
9:51–13:21
4
Who is Dr. Bruce Ivins and why did he become a suspect?
13:21–18:25
5
How did the FBI and scientists use genetic research to track the anthrax sample?
18:25–23:53
6
What forensic challenges did the FBI face analyzing the anthrax letters and envelopes?
23:53
7
How did the political focus on Iraq affect the anthrax investigation?
15:53–17:04
8
What breakthroughs did the Human Genome Project contribute to the anthrax case?
17:04–40:35