Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks to newsmen in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, September 14, 1990, after visiting American troops who are deployed in the country. Powell asked troops to keep up their morale after six weeks of Gulf duty. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
In this April 4, 2002, file photo Secretary of State Colin Powell looks on as President Bush makes a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House. Powell, a Republican who was President Bush’s first secretary of state, endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008, and criticized the tone of Republican John McCain’s campaign. (AP Photo/Doug Mills,File)
U.S. Lieutenant General Colin L. Powell, commander of the 5th U.S. corps, salutes while his wife Alma V. (left) stands in attention during farewell ceremony at the headquarters in Frankfurt on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 1986. Powell returns to Washington to become deputy assistant for national security affairs. (AP Photo/Udo Weitz)
Lt. Gen. Colin Powell, the sent number two man on the National Security Council, has been nominated by President Reagan to succeed Frank Carlucci as his National Security Adviser and toad the NSC. Powell is shown at a White House ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 5, 1987 in Washington for outgoing Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. Carlucci has been named to succeed Weinberger. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
Gen. Colin Powell testifies at Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 1989 in Washington before the Senate Armed Service Committee which was holding hearings on his nomination to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (AP Photo/John Duricka)
U.S. President George H. Bush arrives for a briefing on the lawn of his Kennebunkport home in Kennebunkport, Maine, Wednesday, August 23, 1990 with Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Bush answered reporters questions after a briefing on the Middle East crisis with his advisers. (AP Photo/Doug Mills)
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Colin Powell takes part in a Pentagon briefing in Washington to give reporters the latest news on the multinational invasion against Iraqi forces in Iraq and Kuwait, Jan. 17, 1991. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks to member of a F-117 Stealth fighter wing on Sunday, Feb. 11, 1991 at a secret airbase in Saudi Arabia. Powell and Defense Sec. Dick Cheney wound up their weekend mission to Saudi Arabia with a visit to the base, then departed for the U.S. (AP Photo)
General Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addresses U.S. troops at the Diyarbakir military base in southeastern Turkey on Thursday, May 31, 1991. Powell is visiting Turkey to talk with the American troops involved in the allied operation to save the Iraqi Kurds. (AP Photo)
Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks about the issue of gays and lesbians serving in the military during his commencement address at Harvard University on Thursday, June 10, 1993 in Cambridge, Mass. Powell, whose appearance at Harvard was controversial, said he would implement whatever decision was arrived at. (AP Photo/Jon Chase)
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Colin Powell gestures during a news conference at the Pentagon on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 1993 in Washington to discuss the Defense Department?s Bottom up Review. The Pentagon unveiled the plan on Wednesday which calls for a five-year defense strategy that further shrinks the U.S. military in favor of a ?lean, mobile, high-tech force? that would enable America to fight wars on two fronts. (AP Photo/Marcy Nighswander)
U.S. President Bill Clinton meets reporters at the White House, Monday, Sept. 19, 1994 in Washington, along with, from left, former President Jimmy Carter, Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., and former Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell, to discuss the situation in Haiti. Carter, Powell and Nunn returned from a trip to Haiti past weekend after negotiating a settlement. (AP Photo/Denis Paguin)
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell addresses a crowd at an event called “An Evening With Colin Powell,” held for the 2008 U.S. Scholar-Athlete Games, in Providence, R.I., Tuesday, July 1, 2008. As secretary of state under President Bush, Powell made the case for the Iraq war in a February 2003 presentation to the United Nations Security Council. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
FILE – In this Dec. 1, 2010 file photo, former Secretary of State Colin Powell meets with President Barack Obama, in the Oval Office at the White in Washington. Powell is declining to renew the endorsement he gave Barack Obama four years ago, when he called Obama “a transformational figure.” Pressed in a network interview to say whether he’s backing Obama, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff demurred Tuesday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Colin Powell, right, and his wife Alma Powell pose backstage with the President’s Award at the 42nd NAACP Image Awards on Friday, March 4, 2011, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)
America’s Promise Alliance Chair, former Secretary of State General Colin Powell prepares to leave the White House in Washington, Monday, July 18, 2011, after speaking to reporters following a meeting with President Barack Obama. Obama hosted an education roundtable with business leaders to discuss transforming the American education system. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Gen. Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, uses the head of Air Force Sgt. Thaddeus Fernandez of Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas as a writing desk to autograph a Saudi riyal (monetary note) during a visit to an air base in Saudi Arabia Friday, December 21, 1990. (AP Photo/Bob Daugherty)
President Ronald Reagan, accompanied by national security adviser Colin Powell, leaves the White House in Washington, Dec. 16, 1988 for a trip to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He is expected to expand on his decision to open direct talks with the PLO. (AP Photo/Barry Thumma)
In this Jan. 8, 2004, file photo, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell speaks at a news conference in Washington at the State Department. A document circulating among White House staff says a Senate report on the CIA’s interrogation and detention practices after the 9/11 attacks concludes that the agency initially kept Powell and some U.S. ambassadors in the dark about harsh techniques and secret prisons. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
