Colin Powell

Colin Powell is presented as a senior U.S. official whose public positions and administrative actions intersect with the book’s critique of counterterrorism policy. The account links him to a proposed review of terrorism laws, reported pressure on Qatar to curb Al Jazeera, and the renewal of the U.S. list of designated foreign terrorist organizations. Together, these episodes place Powell at the intersection of security policy, executive authority, and disputes over public information and political labeling.

Public Statements and Terrorism Law

After the attacks on the United States, Powell said the government would review terrorism laws, including the 1976 prohibition on assassinating foreign nationals. The discussion situates that announcement within a broader concern: whether responses to terrorism could be used to extend surveillance and restrict civil liberties. Rather than treating legislative revision as an abstract question, the book asks readers to consider how loosening constraints on state violence might work in practice.

The same exchange points to a tension in the official language of counterterrorism. The book compares the U.S. definition of terrorism—calculated violence or its threat for political, religious, or ideological ends, including intimidation and coercion—with the government’s doctrine of low-intensity warfare. It argues that the two definitions closely resemble one another, and that terrorism, under the official definition, can be a component of state action. Powell’s announced review of the laws therefore appears against a critique of how legal definitions and state practices may be applied unevenly.

Qatar and Al Jazeera

A separate account reports that Powell pressed Qatar’s emir to persuade Al Jazeera to soften its reporting. The emir, who also chaired the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said that the current U.S. administration, like the previous one, had asked Qatar to restrain the influential Arabic-language channel. The report was attributed to Al Jazeera and cited by the BBC through Reuters.

The episode is presented as part of a larger conflict over news and political speech. Al Jazeera had angered several Middle Eastern governments by giving airtime to political dissidents and reporting on human-rights abuses. The book also notes that the channel broadcast interviews with Osama bin Laden and material from Afghanistan, while Western coverage made comparatively little use of those interviews and reports. Powell’s reported intervention thus stands beside the channel’s role as both a source of information and an object of pressure.

Foreign Terrorist Organization Designations

In October 2001, Powell renewed the designation of twenty-six of the twenty-eight foreign terrorist organizations then listed and consolidated two groups previously listed under separate names, Kahane Chai and Kach. The designation process described in the book placed the decision with the secretary of state, following review of a comprehensive report assembled from intelligence agencies and confidential and public sources.

The consequences of designation extended beyond the act of naming. The accompanying account lists measures affecting designated organizations and their representatives, as well as broader aims: discouraging donations, raising public awareness, communicating U.S. concerns to other governments, and stigmatizing and isolating the organizations internationally. The secretary of state’s decision was supported by a detailed administrative report prepared in coordination with the State, Justice, and Treasury departments and intelligence services; Congress was notified confidentially seven days before a designation appeared in the Federal Register.

Political Context and Significance

Powell’s actions and statements are set within an argument that the language of terrorism can obscure state violence and distribute moral judgment according to political alignment. The book contrasts the literal U.S. definition of terrorism with a propagandistic usage that reserves the label for enemies, while presenting the official doctrine of low-intensity warfare as closely resembling that definition. It further argues that vague descriptions such as “war” can displace questions of individual responsibility and evidence.

The post-September 11 setting gives Powell’s role additional weight in the account. The book describes governments using the attacks to intensify repressive policies and the U.S. administration invoking fear and patriotism while pursuing domestic and international objectives. Within that frame, Powell is not developed as a private character with an independent narrative arc; he appears through the consequences of official decisions—legal review, pressure on a broadcaster, and the administration of designations—that show how counterterrorism policy operates through both public rhetoric and institutional procedures.