Powell

PROVIDENCE — Former Secretary of State and four-star Gen. Colin Powell yesterday said he has no interest in running for vice president should presumptive Republican nominee John McCain ask him to join the GOP ticket, as has been speculated recently in media reports.

“I am not interested in political life and I am not a candidate for any office,” Powell said at a small news conference.

Nor is he ready to endorse McCain or Democratic presumptive nominee Barack Obama –– but he seemed to leave open the door to an endorsement as the campaign progresses.

“Right now, my only responsibility as a citizen is to vote,” Powell said. “What else I might do remains to be seen.”

Powell was in Rhode Island to speak to participants and friends of the 2008 U.S. Scholar-Athlete Games, which are hosted by the Institute for International Sport and held at the University of Rhode Island. “An Evening With Colin Powell” was held at the Providence Performing Arts Center.

“As a citizen,” Powell told reporters, “I am going to judge the two candidates on the basis of their policies and on the basis of the vision that they have for the country and which one I think will do the very best job, which one will bring the competence to government that the American people are looking for –– and especially the economic policies that they might bring as president.”

Powell urged voters to make their decisions based on such factors, not personal preference.

“What I am saying to all Americans is: ‘Don’t vote simply on the basis of race or color or ethnicity or how long you’ve known somebody. At this stage in our national life, you may be a Republican or a Democrat but take a broader look at where the country is and where the country is going and where you want it to go and make your judgment that way.’ ”

Powell said that Americans are “fortunate to have two very, very excellent candidates representing the two parties. I know them both.”

Asked if he would accept an invitation to join the Cabinet of whoever wins in November, Powell seemed to leave that door open, too.

“I’ve been pleased to serve in government in many positions, including a Cabinet position. When a president asks you to do something, you have to stop and look at it. But I have no interest in a Cabinet position, I think it unlikely that I’m going to be asked and I don’t expect to be.”

Powell paused, then said with a laugh: “I’m not biting on your question!”

But Powell nibbled.

“I’ve had 40 years of public service,” he continued. “I have been an Army officer for 35 years, I have been a national security advisor, I have been a deputy national security advisor, I’ve served in the Energy Department, I’ve served in the Pentagon, the State Department, and I have been secretary of state.

“I have 40 years of public service and I’m very much enjoying my private life and I have no plans to leave private life. But I would have a conversation with anybody who wished to have a conversation with me about it –– but I’m not throwing this out as a worm to be bitten on because I’m very happy in private life. I’ve reached that age where I enjoy the life I have and the hours I keep and my grandchildren.”

Powell turned 71 in April.

The retired general spoke of his pleasure at being in Providence again –– but there was no pleasure in his voice when responding to a question about whether he had misled the world in his February 2003 United Nations speech in which he said “there can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more. And he has the ability to dispense these lethal poisons and diseases in ways that can cause massive death and destruction.” The invasion of Iraq soon followed.

“The United States Congress passed a resolution based on the same intelligence three months before my U.N. speech,” Powell said yesterday. “The commanders of our armed forces who went into Iraq went into Iraq prepared to fight in an environment that might include chemical and biological weapons. Without exception, the Western intelligence community believed that there were weapons of mass destruction there.”

Powell acknowledged, as he has repeatedly, that the information he and Congress were given proved wrong: no weapons of mass destruction were ever found. That information was ultimately approved by then-CIA director George Tenet.

“Were we deceived in the first place, or was he trying to pretend that he had them, or let us think that he had them, I don’t know the answer,” Powell said.

gwmiller@projo.com