Colin Powell has died of COVID-19 complications, family says

Colin Powell has died of COVID-19 complications, family says

FILE - In this May 5, 2006 file photo, former Secretary of State Colin Powell gives the closing keynote at the World Congress of Information Technology in Austin, Texas. 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. (AP Photo/Jack Plunkett)

Colin Powell, exemplary general stained by Iraq claims, dies

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.

Photo:FILE – In this May 5, 2006 file photo, former Secretary of State Colin Powell gives the closing keynote at the World Congress of Information Technology in Austin, Texas. 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. (AP Photo/Jack Plunkett)