Powell backs war speech to UN

UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said yesterday that no apology was needed over the quality of the intelligence he used in trying to convince the UN Security Council a year ago of the need to invade Iraq.

But UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the use of apparently flawed intelligence in the Iraq debate may have caused "damage that will probably take some time to heal."

"People are going to be very suspicious when one talks to them about intelligence, and they are going to be very suspicious when we try to use intelligence to justify certain actions," Annan told reporters during Powell's visit to UN headquarters to raise money for rebuilding Liberia.

"The bar has been raised as to how you convince people," Annan said.

Powell, armed with satellite pictures, a vial of simulated anthrax, diagrams, and audiotapes of intercepted communications, had appeared before the Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003, to make the case that Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and was reconstructing its nuclear arms program and building advanced missiles.

But no stockpiles have turned up, and no evidence has been found that Baghdad had again been pursuing nuclear arms.

A year and a day later, Powell was asked whether Washington owed an apology to the Security Council for his presentation or whether US intelligence officials owed him an apology for the material they had given him.

"I don't think any apologies are necessary," he said yesterday.

Powell said his address to the Security Council, a speech by President Bush on Iraq to the UN General Assembly in September 2002, and the president's decision to go to war were based on "a solid body of advice, a solid body of information."

"The intelligence base on which our decision rested was a solid intelligence base," Powell said.

"And his [Bush's] action was totally justified by the information that he had, the intelligence he was provided, the record of this individual," he said, referring to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

What Washington was not sure of "was the nature of [Hussein's] stockpiles, and so it is the stockpile question that we are still examining," Powell added.

In Iraq yesterday, US forces captured six people near Tikrit "closely tied" to Hussein and his regime for suspected anticoalition activities, including attacks on helicopters, an American commander said. A roadside bomb exploded in Baghdad, wounding two US soldiers. The explosion that wounded the soldiers took place about 3 p.m., the US command said, without elaborating.

Roadside bombs are a major threat to US troops across the country. A review of Pentagon reports on casualties shows that of 39 deaths in January that the Army attributed to hostile action, 23 involved attacks with homemade bombs.

In Fallujah, residents said two men suspected of having been informants for the Americans were slain by insurgents late Thursday and early yesterday.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.