I knew about war plan, says Powell

WASHINGTON - Who knew what, and when did they know it?

United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, Saudi ambassador to Washington Prince Bandar bin Sultan and journalist Bob Woodward argued yesterday over whether Bandar was told of the US decision to go to war in Iraq two days before Powell heard about it.

Woodward sparked the controversy in his book Plan of Attack, which said Powell was not told when President George W. Bush decided to invade.

The Washington Post journalist said Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice-President Dick Cheney told Bandar of the decision in a meeting on January 11 last year, using phrases such as "you can take it to the bank" and "He [Saddam] is toast".

"That's silly, because I participated in the development of the plan," Powell responded yesterday.

"I commented on the plan when it was being developed, and I knew when Vice-President Cheney, Mr Rumsfeld and General [Richard] Myers were going to brief Prince Bandar on a plan, a plan that I was intimately familiar with."

But Woodward told CNN interviewer Larry King that Powell might have known of the plan, but he was not told of the decision to implement it until after the January 11 meeting with Bandar.

Bandar phoned the CNN programme to take issue with Woodward, saying Cheney and Rumsfeld had told him only that war was possible.

"What he [Woodward] said is accurate ... except that I was informed that the President had not made a decision yet."

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq