On the way back from vacation last week, I decided to finish reading Bob Woodward’s excellent book ‘State of Denial: Bush At War, Part III‘. Interesting snippet, and not completely off-topic. Time of the incident: July 2003.
As the public face of the American declaration before the United Nations that Saddam had WMD, Powell had almost as much stake as Bush. (David) Kay gave Powell basically the same briefing that he had given to Bush – inconclusive but basically a neutral to negative report.
“This is my personal e-mail address,” Powell said, handing Kay a card as he turned to leave. “Write me if you have any concerns or any questions.”
Kay looked at the card when he got back to Langley and almost died laughing. Powell had given him a regular, commercial, America Online e-mail address, a communication method about as secure and confidential as spray-painting graffiti on a highway overpass.
“Here I am sitting in the CIA headquarters,” Kay though. “I’m going to send something to an AOL account?”
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