Colin Powell dies from COVID-19

The former Secretary of State died from COVID-related complications, his family announced. He was 84.

By

National News

October 18, 2021 - 10:10 AM

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton share a laugh during Powell's portrait unveiling ceremony at the State Department in Washington, DC, on December 7, 2009. (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/TNS)

WASHIINGTON (AP) — Colin Powell, former Joint Chiefs chairman and secretary of state, has died from COVID-19 complications, his family said Monday. He was 84.

In 1989 Powell became the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In that role he oversaw the U.S. invasion of Panama and later the U.S. invasion of Kuwait to oust the Iraqi army in 1991.

But his reputation suffered a painful setback when, in 2003, Powell went before the U.N. Security Council and made the case for U.S. war against Iraq. He cited faulty information claiming Saddam Hussein had secretly stashed away weapons of mass destruction. Iraq’s claims that it had not represented “a web of lies,” he told the world body.

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