Colin Powell Has Died of COVID-19 Complications, Family Says

WASHIINGTON (AP) – Colin Powell, former Joint Chiefs chairman and secretary of state, has died from COVID-19 complications, his family said Monday.

In an announcement on social media, the family said Powell had been fully vaccinated. He was 84.

Powell was the first African American to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state.

But his reputation also suffered a painful setback when, in 2003, Powell went before the U.N. Security Council and made the case for U.S. war against Iraq. He cited faulty information claiming Saddam Hussein had secretly stashed away weapons of mass destruction. Iraq’s claims that it had not represented “a web of lies,” he told the world body.