#18: Colin Powell — The U.N. Weapons Presentation (2003)
Colin Powell’s 2003 presentation to the U.N. Security Council used satellite images, diagrams, intercepted conversations, and claims about mobile biological weapons labs to argue that Iraq had hidden WMD capabilities. The presentation was polished, grave, and devastatingly persuasive at the time. Later, the core claims collapsed. Powell himself came to describe the speech as a painful blot on his record. Few moments show how badly authority, visuals, and bad intelligence can combine into world-changing misinformation.
