is undermined democracy to consolidate their power through the eyes of those who dare to stand and defy it. our country deserves so much for them being ruled boyd april after chronic dictatorship, opposing autocracy. democracy may be on al jazeera. ah, hello, i'm marianna mozy in london, a quick look at the headlines now. a u. n. a flights been forced to a bought a mission into the rest of ethiopian region of tag raw after it was targeted by the federal military. the ones previously accused the government of an effective blockade on the region preventing aid from getting in the agency for children. the says the number of youngest is going hungry, his son, with more than 18 and a half 1000, admitted to hospital, was severe malnutrition between fabri, in august, more than double the figure for the whole of last year. a un humanitarian light that departed addis ababa. this morning was bris,

forced to turn back in the midst of it by ought to asked rights began in macau i can confirm that the government was informed of that site or it took up. as of course, all court will say confirmed that the fight was forced to turn back in mid air because it be about some of the good. while we're still ascertaining all of the facts in relation to this events are obviously banned about what has taken place to day and what it means. monitoring operations in northern europe, moving forward, samuel got to chew as a journalist and addis ababa and says it's hard to get the full pitcher from either the federal government or the tig wry people's liberation from the t p l. f. decided serious allegations that the un and even the fuel in human rights commission, which is a government agency, said they would look closely and investigate and find out exactly what happened. you know, for the good part of the year, we had no access to the, to great region. we haven't had access for the money weeks since june. so again,

it's allegations going back and forth between the ethiopian side and the t p a left . but what we know for certain as that 1000000. so if your parents have become displaced, there are conditions of famine that's going on, not just within to grade, but within the hour for region and i'm part of region. so a conflict begun integrate is really heading to other regions and making it a real concern ethiopians far in the are they to a band side and says that the pin left out preventing aid from heading to the region. the japan side accuses of some of the un agencies and even among the few of them at some mainstream concerns that the u. n. is providing resources to the t p a left and that the peer left is accusing ethiopia of really preventing it from arriving to it's region. so it's one of those conflicts that you need to really be careful. and without a way to verify some of this allegations, it's really,

really difficult to know. the fact he opinion says extremely concerned about the growing number of refugees and migrants crossing from batteries to keep the countries government of what it called states on said. smuggling issue has been dominating discussions on the final day of the european lita summit. and he is accused present. alexander, look, a shank of running a human trafficking ring to largest government, is helping people to cross illegally into neighboring countries in response to your sanctions. and all the day has brought new records in washes, worsening corona, virus outbreak over a 1000 new deaths. and more than $37000.00 new infections reported on friday. she's are imposing more restrictions in the coming weeks, including a paid week off work and most shops and entertainment venue closing in moscow. and they've renewed calls for people to get vaccinated only around a 3rd of russians are fully in not kill 8. it just means water and you prove to be honest, we're not even outraged anymore. we just feel sorry for these people,

because even if you take our hospital, i can tell you the out of every 50 admitted only one or 2 of them are vaccinated. the whole i see you is full of highly critical condition patients and all of them are on vaccinated. and the actor alec baldwin says there are no words to convey his shock and sadness after shot and killed a member of a film crew with a prop gun. cinematographer helena hutchins was airlifted to hospital, but died on the accident. on a film sat new mexico police, a bolden voluntarily submitted to questioning. he said he was in touch with helena . hutchins husband saying his heart was broken for him. and the sun rose headlines this hour. the bottom line with steve clemens is coming up next on al jazeera oh i

hi, i'm steve clements and i have a question. what kind of legacy does the late colon powell we behind, let's get to the bottom line. ah, the united states was one of its most legendary military and diplomatic leaders last week, regardless of how history judges, colon pal. one thing is clear, he was an exceptional man who had a story, life and b. p. odds to become one of america's most influential shapers of national security. he was one of the 1st black men in american history to become a 4 star general. and he was the 1st black american to become secretary of state, serving under president george w bush. and that position, one of his main jobs, was to make the case for the iraq war in 2003, especially since at that time, he was one of america's most trusted leaders. he did his job loyally but later regretted it. although we did stop short of admitting that his famous speech at the

united nations was packed with a lot of lies. after the war he left the bush administration. he became known as a voice of moderation in the republican party until the very end. and he endorse democrats, barack obama in 2008, and joe biden last year. so what was he? was he upon and a much bigger game, was the national hero, or loyal soldier, or brilliant statesman. today we're talking with pulitzer prize winning journalist, karen to young, who is a veteran reporter and editor for the washington post. and she's the author of the biography soldier, the life of colon pow tracking him from his childhood in the bronx till his life after the white house here. and it's great to be with you today. let me just open up with a question and ask why you chose colin pal. what drove you? what was the spark at that moment and said, wow, this is the person i want to profile. when you wrote this biography. many years ago, been one of the most interesting things to me was that he came rows up in the world

at a particular point in american history, with the confluence of a lot of things and civil rights movement, the desegregation of the military. and the, you know, immigrant parents, ah, the ah, the ability of people who came from a background such as his, who went to a, a sort of populist college, not ivy league by any stretch. um and he, you know, he used all of that and he had the intelligence and the, the manner to use it. and so he, he was a guy who was in the right place at the right time, at many junctures in his history, but also had the personality and the intellect and the ambition to, to utilize that. and i don't know exactly how to ask this,

but i know that that i know his general power sector pals was his. and colin powell, when he joined the army, he joined right after it became des, segregated. and. and i'm always interested in whether or not at that moment whether he began to rise above the racism and division that used to exist in the military or whether he became the star token, ought to swear other leaders were trying to show that they were in fact trying not to be as racist as they were. do you have any sense of that? i think arguably, it's both of those things. i think that he, you know, the harry truman desegregated the military officially in 1948. but there were still black only your nets until the mid fifty's actually, when power came in and you know, it was at the beginning of the 60s. and i think that there was no official segregation in the military. but he once said something that i think he meant in

a sort of sarcastic way, which was, i ain't that black. he said, you know, he was relatively light skinned. he grew up a not in an african american community, but in an inter immigrant community. and he could, he could exist in a lot of different orals. and so i think he was well aware of the fact that white people and white people of power felt safe around him if i can, can use that word. and again, whatever one might say about his race and his attitude to his race and attitudes toward his race by others. and he was consistently very good at what he did. and therefore he made it easy for people around him to want to promote him . what was the moment? why i guess what was the breakout moment for colin powell?

what was the moment that everyone said, aha, we want to make him a chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. we want to make him national security advisor. we want to consider, we want to make him secretary of state, we want to consider him. and i mean people who may not recall this, but he was a potential candidate for president united states running in a 3rd party or as an independent. and i remember president bush's team being nervous about that prospect. yeah, i think that he, you know, and it was sort of a gradual thing where he basically succeeded in a series of the usual sort of stops along the line for military promotion and was probably promoted faster than others. he had a very good record in, in vietnam. he was wounded, he rescued his commanding officer from death. and so by the time he at was a went, it went to george washington university and got a master's degree there. and he then applied to be a white house fellow,

and that took him into the upper essentially his 1st step out of the military hierarchy and into the bigger political world. he was assigned as a white house fellow to the office of management and budget. wouldn't seem a natural fit for him, but that's nevertheless, where he ended up. and he and his boss was caspar weinberger, who was the head of that agency at the time. and the other person high up there was frank carlucci. and so when weinberger became ronald reagan's secretary of defense, he thought of bringing power. so in the military to be his, his mil at chief military aid. every secretary defense has a mid level officer who, who is his essentially for day to day life. his liaison, the military, he is his eyes and ears in the military. and so

he became very close to weinberger. he was very astute, politically and, and by the time that carlucci became reagan secretary of state and was looking for someone to be his deputy. he went back to pal and said, come and be my deputy carlucci later left that office and break it. and power became regan 6 than last national security advisor. and i think acquitted himself well. he was still a military officer on pay dish military. and that was sort of an unusual thing. but i think that he was seen as someone who sort of edit at a time when reagan was in the view of many people kind of starting to lose a little bit out, kept him on the stage straight and narrow and was viewed as kind of keeping that

institution and matt afloat at that time, but just keeping it organized, you know, he's a very, very organized guy. and he kept the national security council very organized. and you know, meetings started on time options were presented to the president and things work the way, theoretically they were supposed to work. so after he finished that, he went back into the military, had several commands. and then when, when george bush senior was president, and he was looking for someone to, to be his chairman of the trench staff. it was actually dick cheney who had, who had suggested jenny, with the defense secretary suggested power, which required power to jump over several other 4 start generals. he was the most junior at the time. and,

and then there he was. and of course then the persian gulf war came out, which is where power really became known to the american people. you know, he was the guy standing at the saw the press conferences every day. he was the guy speaking crisp, military language, all of which he learned in military schools where he excelled in briefing, which is actually a skill right now the terry by another dimension of, of secretary power was his time overseeing and working on conflicts. and so one of these was the 1st iraq war, and then you had later the 2nd iraq war during the 1st iraq war on the team with president george h. w bush. he was a, he was largely a hero of that along with other other general sort of looking at it and then pulling out us forces. when then later, the 2nd walk war came in after 911. and you know, the debate in 2003 doors,

w bush brought him into van. and i think it's one of the most controversial moments in colon power life was being used to sell that war to sell that war to allies, to sell that war to the american public. because he had a volved is one of the most trusted americans in the world. and i'm just interested if you ever talk with him deeply about that moment in which we now know. in hindsight, the material that he presented at the united nations was deeply flawed. deeply wrong that they've been duped by a and intelligent sort. name curveball i be interested in, in what your thoughts are about that, that i'm trying to figure out how this guy became such a pawn in that moment. well, let me go back just a little bit to when he was terms of the joint chiefs which was under bush senior, merge h w bush. that's when he, as i said, 1st came sort of to national prominence on. and he that was where he was known for what, what came to be called the pal doctrine,

which was if you're going to go into a war, go big, make sure you know what your mission is and what, what your exit strategy is. and really have the support of all and, and the body politic. mean it's so i think that that years later when yeah, he became when george bush george w bush went to him, a secretary of state. it was no secret that that bush, one of his liabilities in his campaign was that he didn't know much about foreign policy or national security. and so, pal, who at the time as you said, was really the in pulls for years, was the most admired person in the united states. and he brought pow in on the a, his campaign trail really to sort of give him sort of foreign policy credibility. but power was not part of the inner circle. he was not part of this group noticed

the vulcans who were basically rumsfeld cheney condi rice. ah, paul wolf, a wits. and so power came began as an outlier. and his role was very different than it had been when he was a general. he was the diplomat. ah, he was not in the pentagon. he was not making military strategy. so as the bush administration started to in the summer of 2002 started to make its plan for invading iraq. he went to bush and he said, look, you know, i've looked at the plan for this. i don't think it's right. i don't think you have enough troops and i don't think you should do it unless you have support, not only the american public, but from our allies, excuse me, to do it. and so he, he did persuade bush to take it to the united nations,

to the security council and tried to get, try to get support where, where cow was not very successful. the bridge certainly were on board but, but not many others were none of the none of the big players in the european in the european alliance except for britain at that point. and so they, they were worried they. busy they wanted a un resolution to support the invasion. and so in january of 2003, they said wait a minute. here we've got this incredibly popular guy. and if we sent him to the united nations and, and make the case, people will believe him. you know, cheney and rumsfeld them, bush and rice had been talking for months about mushroom clouds and weapons of mass destruction. and they weren't getting a whole lot of traction. but the decision was that power was the most credible,

a sort of weapon they had. mom and dad called palin and said we want you to do this . and you know, pals, a chain of command guy agreed to do it. but said, i, you know, i will say what i want to say. and i will examine the evidence. cheney's folks sent over a script for him to read and he thought it was completely over the top. it was every bit of questionable and ambiguous evidence. they had all put in the worst possible light. and pal and his team went over to the, to the cia and sat there for several days. i mean they, i had about 2 weeks to organize this whole thing and, and cut it back a lot. and pile, i think felt like he had done due diligence. he had come up with the speech for which the. ready evidence was very solid, and he went to the security council and he gave this speech, and i didn't convince too many europeans who were against it, particularly france,

that was running the security council at the time. but it did by and large, convince the american public editorial writers across the country, people who work had been very opposed. mary mcgrory, great liberal column as for the washington post. the next day wrote a column and said, well, i was against the list. i didn't believe the bush administration, but i do believe colon pell. and if paul says it, it must be true. and so of course, they invaded and went to war. and once they had pretty much taken over iraq by the end of 2003, all the inspectors and the u. s. military did not find any weapons of mass destruction. they did not find any biological weapons, laboratories. they did not find hidden stores of uranium and planned to build nuclear weapons. they did not find ties between saddam hussein and canada,

all of which had been had been part of the the case the cow present. and i think that he did watch a few people in the political realm would do. which is to come out and say, this was wrong. i was wrong. never said i lied because he didn't believe he had lied. you believe that he had presented what was given to him, and again, what he had done due diligence and examining it turned out that there was a lot of skepticism at some levels in the cia in the state department. and those were never pursued. and they were so convinced that they wanted to do that. you know, it's hard to say people were lying, but they believed what they set out to believe in the 1st place. well, i remember that time, i remember when richard perle came out after colon pau,

convince president bush to take this to united nations, richard pearl, who was a very leading defense intellectual, a very strong presence in republican circles called him a traitor, a traitor to the united states and i, and i know that during that time we also saw afterward many americans, you know, and many people around the world saw colon paul pow after that gesture, as part of the machine that led to this many called him a war criminal. in fact, after this, and i, and i would often arguing these things, i said, you know, he, he was not in the same boat as some of those that crafted this. but i know his chief of staff, i know his deputy, both were there, but i guess my question is as he digested it later, one of my criticisms of colon pallet the time and i'm wonder where you're at was i was surprised. he was silent for so long that it took him a while to say that he regretted that and that it had been wrong. and it raises the question of whether we should have generals in that role of secretary of state with

some principle in this great man. last because he couldn't resign at that moment or he didn't speak out after he was secretary, that he was still playing the general. but not the person, the civil servant if you will. who is supposed to offer is advice, supposedly to be loyal the president, i'd say it's been at the same time, not lied to the american public. well, again, i'm not sure i do totally disagree with totally agree with you. let me know. i don't think he believed and, and never believed that he had lied him. he believed that he was misinformed, that he was lied to. and, and that, that, you know, if you want to say that, that then continuing that live made him a liar, i guess technically it does. but i don't think he saw it that way. i think that he did fairly soon, certainly in 2004, when he was still secretary of state. he said,

much to the dismay of the, of the bush administration. i believe this was even in 2003 said look, if i knew then what i knew now, should we have gone to war? i don't think so. you know, and, and as the evidence came out of there were various investigations, you know, the senate investigation on the military did an investigation. and i think that as those things came out, he yeah, you know, perhaps he didn't say it strongly enough for you and some others, you know, he said i, you know, i regret this. i know it will always be a blot on my record. busy i, you know, i but i a, well, yeah, again, they didn't believe that consciously, you know, just as you know, to, in part wrap up a discussion about his life and role. another thing he did, and i haven't seen many raises, but he was very, very important in creating the i don't know what to call it the infrastructure.

they've got the track that got the mirror american military to reverse don't ask, don't tell which is the service of gay, lesbian, transgendered people in the us military by overseeing a study with, with former senator sam nunn and through don't ask, don't tell creating again, this is after the iraq war, but lending his legitimacy to a process under president obama that ended one of my views, one of the most outrageous barriers to service in the united states military. and he did do that, and i'm just interested in that moment too because that's where he really did try to change the turn. you know, the change the tide so, so dramatically. i think he became part. i think he became eventually proud of where that went. well, you know, one of the, one of the raps against pedal is that he was in many ways the author don't ask, don't write. he was when he was here. when he was chairman of the joint chiefs and

into the clinton administration, clinton was under a lot of pressure from both sides, certainly by some democrats in congress to, to eliminate the ban on. and homosexuals being in the military. he was under equal pressure inside the military and i think clinton was sort of stuck in the middle and, and had a lot of irons in the fire at that point and didn't want to offend conservatives and congress and didn't want to offend the military. i think it's no accident that if you look at the senior people in the bush administration, the 1st bush administration who were obscene. right. few rightfully as responsible for what became the debacle in iraq. pow was rehabilitated by far more than anyone else. i think that he, you know, when he left government,

i mean bush basically discarded him at the end of the 1st administration. and had to andy card is chief of staff, call him up and say, never mind, we don't need any more. right? you know, can we have your resignation letter tomorrow? so, you know, he spent the rest of his life working on things like this. don't ask, don't tell commission. he went around the world around the country, giving speeches on leadership, american values, the military, virtually every stop. he would go to the local boys and girls club or some other organization that dealt with trouble abuse. that was became a very big part of his life, right. as i said, he started institute at city college in new york, which is still, which is still growing very strong. and i think that at the end of the day, more than anyone else, certainly embedded administration he did,

you did redeem himself. and then when he, when he died was, was pretty admired america. well, karen, the young associate editor at the washington post biographer of the late secretary of state colin powell. i really appreciate these insights into his character and how he mattered. you're very welcome. so what's the bottom line, what a mix legacy that colin powell leaves behind when he retired military after the 1st gulf war. he was one of the most trusted people in america. the son of jamaica immigrants was also an inspiration to countless young men. not just black americans . so why did he lend his credibility to folks like dick cheney and george w bush and others who took advantage of 911 to launch an endless war with iraq, a war that continues till today, with hundreds of thousands of innocent lives last books could be written about the possible motives suffice to say that he didn't walk out and he didn't stand up to the president when he needed to, if that's what he believed. but in other points of his career, like in his work on,

don't ask, don't tell in the military he did stand up for what he believed. either way he did matter. we're going to debate how for many years to come. and that's the bottom line ah compelling. we keeping our distance because it's actually quite dangerous. ambulances continue to arrive at the explosion in spite. i still don't feel like i actually know enough about living under fascism was like on equal to broadcasting. thumbnails have been august night, he was born a happy al jazeera english proud recipient of the new york festivals broadcaster of the year award for the 5th year running. ah,

al jazeera a. with samuel lou and marianne massey and london. a quick look at the main stories now. the un has suspended all flights to the capital of if you of his tag ry region. off to one of its a plains was forced, a bought a landing by government as strikes. the ones previously accused the governments of an effective blockade on the region. preventing aid from getting in. unicef says the number of children going, hungriest surged with more than 18 and a half 1000 admitted to hospital.