well it looks as if Woodward has already been proven a liar....
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040419/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/powell_interview_1

Quote:

Powell Denies He Was Out of Loop on Iraq

31 minutes ago Add White House - AP Cabinet & State to My Yahoo!


By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON - Denying he was out of the loop or hesitant about taking on Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said Monday he was committed to President Bush (news - web sites)'s war plan in the event diplomacy failed at the United Nations (news - web sites) last year.


AP Photo



"I was as committed as anyone else to seeing an end to this regime, the destruction of this regime that put people in mass graves," Powell told The Associated Press in an interview.


Disputing an account by Bob Woodward in a new book, "Plan of Attack," Powell said Bush and all his national security advisers had agreed in August 2002 to ask the U.N. Security Council to seek a peaceful resolution and to go to war if the effort failed.


Powell dismissed Woodward's suggestion that Bush already had made up his mind by Jan. 11 last year to go to war against Iraq (news - web sites) and that Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar, had been informed of the decision that day.


Asserting that the final decision did not come until March, Powell said he was "intimately familiar with the plan and I was aware that Prince Bandar was being briefed on the plan."


"I knew as much as anybody," Powell said.


Asked about Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) — Woodward wrote that the two were barely on speaking terms — Powell described the relationship as excellent.


On another subject, Powell said one or two countries may follow Spain's lead and withdraw its troops from Iraq. He said he expected the United Nations to approve a resolution on peacekeeping before the end of the U.S. occupation June 30.


And, on the Middle East, Powell said the Palestinians should seize the opportunity of a promised Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and part of the West Bank. He said Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia was being undercut by Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) as predecessor Abu Mazzen had been before resigning.






.....here comes the fun part, waiting to read whomods denial......