Powell later described the presentation as one of the biggest blunders of his career, a mistake he would attribute to sloppy intelligence and wishful thinking at senior levels of the Bush administration. In reality, every word of the Zarqawi portion of the speech had been written by senior officials of the CIA after weeks of rancorous debate with White House officials over what should and should not be left out. To his credit, Powell rejected out of hand an earlier script written by White House aides, one that included much stronger claims about terrorist links gleaned from untested informants
...more
I remember how damaging this was to Powell. He was chosen to deliver this message because of his impeccable credibility. Many citizens wanted him to run for President (even though he persisted that that was not something he wanted). Regardless, he clearly became stained from this debacle.
