Powell 'Confident' in Iraq Inspectors
Secretary of State Says Bush Hopes for Peaceful Resolution
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Listen: Listen to an expanded version of Michele Kelemen's interview with Colin Powell.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, left, and chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix at the State Department, Oct. 4, 2002.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says he's "confident" in international inspectors who have begun looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
In a Morning Edition interview with NPR's Michele Kelemen, Powell says the Bush administration hopes for a peaceful resolution to the Iraq issue but warns that if war does come, the United States and other nations will be ready to "accomplish the mission of disarmament."
Of the inspectors, which include officials from the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency, Powell says, "I'm confident that they're going to do their job... they are experts in this field and they know what the Iraqis have done in the past. They know how the Iraqis have deceived previous inspection regimes..."
"I think they'll be aggressive. I think they will try to get to the truth of the matter," he says.
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