Thread: Colin Powell hospitalized after having dinner with Clinton

http://www.aspendailynews.com/article_14843

Powell fine following hospital visit
Troy Hooper - Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Fri 07/07/2006 08:01PM
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Former Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared in good health and good spirits Friday morning, hours after he was briefly hospitalized for a fleeting illness.

The four-star general was among five panelists speaking at the "Order, Law and Governance in the 21st Century" seminar at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Powell arrived to the seminar on time and did not show any signs that he had been sick the night before.

"I'm fine. I look healthy, don't I?" he asked in an interview after the hour-long panel discussion ended. "I started hyperventilating a little and was feeling a little altitude sickness I think. I probably would have been OK but they said, 'Oh god, let's take a look at him.' They took me to the hospital, gave me a quick examination and let me go."

Powell, 69, fell ill while having dinner at Campo de Fiori with former President Bill Clinton and several other friends. At about 11 p.m., he was seen inside an ambulance parked outside the Italian eatery as two paramedics cared for him while his wife, Alma Vivian Johnson, and an aide sat at his side.

He was eventually examined at Aspen Valley Hospital, where former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay was rushed to and pronounced dead less than 48 hours earlier.

Powell served as the nation's 65th secretary of state from 2001 to 2005, after a four-year stint as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During that time, he acted as the chief strategist of the 1991 Persian Gulf War against Iraq. Powell has earned numerous honors including two Presidential Medals of Freedom, the President's Citizens Medal and the Congressional Gold Medal.

He is among dozens of luminaries in town for the Aspen Ideas Festival, an Aspen Institute conference that attracts some of the world's leading thinkers. The other four panelists speaking at the Friday morning seminar with Powell were U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah), former National Security Agency Director Mike McConnell, and University of Texas School of Public Affairs Dean James B. Steinberg.
Republican operative Karl Rove speaks ON Sunday.

"No no Mr. Powell,

You smoke the cigar, not eat it..."

I'd fall sick too if I had to eat w/ Clinton. Especially if I had to look at his ugly ass wife Hillary.

sippy, Hum, you took the words right out of my mouth!