uncovers an explosive document buried at the end of the recent Senate

Intelligence report. It shows that before Colin Powell’s

now-discredited U.N. speech justifying war in Iraq, State Department

analysts told Powell and top administration officials about “dozens of

factual problems” in the address (which was written by Vice President

Cheney’s staff). According to the Jan. 31, 2003 memo, there were

problems with 38 of the claims made in the speech draft, which was

crafted at the behest of the White House. (It was “intended to be the

Bush administration’s most compelling case” for war in Iraq.) In

response, 28 were either “removed from the draft or altered” – but the

others were left in. Powell was reportedly irate when first given the

speech: According to the 9/3/03 U.S. News & World Report,

Powell threw the speech in the air, yelling, “I’m not reading this.

This is bulls–t.” This past May, he reiterated his displeasure with

the speech, saying, “It turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and

wrong, and in some cases deliberately misleading.”” (Center for American Progress)