At a news conference on January 8, 2004, Secretary of State Colin Powell was asked, if given another chance, would he have ‘rephrased’ his speech to the U.N. Security Council on February 5, 2003. ” ‘No,’ Powell replied firmly. ‘I knew exactly the circumstances under which I was presenting that speech…the whole world would be watching, and there would be those who would applaud every word, and there would be those who were going to be skeptical of every word.’ Whatever doubts were now being raised, he said, the basic conclusions had been solid. ‘I am confident of what I presented last year. The intelligence community is confident of the material they gave me; I was representing them…they stand behind it.’ ”
– Karen DeYoung, Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell, Page 487