Powell Rejects Kerry 'Undercut' Claim
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:12 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell rejected as ``absolute nonsense'' Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's claim that Powell has been undercut by Bush administration hawks led by Vice President Dick Cheney.
In an interview aired Tuesday on National Public Radio, Powell said he is President Bush's principle agent for relations with China, Russia and the rest of Europe and has been working for months toward finding solutions to problems with Liberia, the Sudan and Libya.
The New York Times, based on an interview with Kerry, reported Sunday that the Massachusetts senator believes divisions within the foreign policy team of the administration have prevented Powell from doing his job.
``I think simply Powell, who I know, like and admire, has been never permitted to be fully a secretary of state in the way that I envision the secretary of state,'' said Kerry, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. ``I think Powell -- I'm not sure they didn't lock the keys to the airplane up sometimes.''
``That's absolute nonsense,'' Powell told NPR. ``Senator Kerry really would be well served by not throwing such charges around in a political campaign. I work very closely with the president.''
Powell said his staff is working with the Libyans on turning in all of their weapons of mass destruction and putting them on a path toward normalization of relations with the United States. In addition, he said, he is preparing those who will take over the mission of U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer in Iraq.
``And so I can assure you that I have not had my keys either locked up or lost,'' Powell said. ``I'm doing what the president wants, and the president and I spend a lot of time talking about what he wants. And so these kinds of charges are unfortunate, but they are to be expected in this kind of political campaign.'' |
