Secretary of State Colin L. Powell asserted today that a 1988 poison gas attack that killed an estimated 5,000 Kurds in this farming town nestled in Iraq’s barren northern mountains was ample evidence that former president Saddam Hussein’s government possessed weapons of mass destruction and justified the U.S. decision to go to war. In an emotional defense of the invasion of Iraq, Powell visited a mass grave site, toured a new museum commemorating the attacks and listened as Kurdish political leaders proclaimed that the Halabja massacre provided sufficient legitimacy to go to war. “If you want evidence of the existence and the use of weapons of mass destruction, come here now to Halabja today and see it,” Powell said after walking through the museum. “What happened over the intervening 15 years? Did [Hussein] suddenly lose the motivation? Did he suddenly decide that such weapons would not be useful? The international community did not believe so.” Full Story
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