BC-US-Obit-Powell, 16th Ld-Writethru

Oct 18, 2021 10:33 AM

WASHIINGTON (AP) — Colin Powell, former Joint Chiefs chairman and secretary of state, has died from COVID-19 complications. In an announcement on social media Monday, the family said Powell had been fully vaccinated. He was 84. Powell was the first African American to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state. But his reputation was forever stained 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.