Powell aide regrets U.N. speech

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- A former top aide to Colin Powell says he regrets his involvement Powell's presentation to the United Nations on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a longtime Powell adviser who served as his chief of staff when Powell was U.S. Secretary of State, is one of several people interviewed for the documentary "Dead Wrong -- Inside an Intelligence Meltdown," scheduled to air on CNN Sunday night.

"I wish I had not been involved in (Powell's U.N. presentation)," said Wilkerson. "I look back on it, and I still say it was the lowest point in my life."

The CNN documentary is billed as an account of the events leading up to what turned out to be the mistaken intelligence on WMD that Bush administration officials used to make the case for invading Iraq in march 2003. Powell's U.N. speech on Feb. 5, 2003, is widely credited with convincing much of the public that war was necessary to eliminate WMD and remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.

Wilkerson told CNN much of the information in Powell's presentation initially came from a document he described as "sort of a Chinese menu" provided by the White House.