Colin Powell takes his first foreign trip as Secretary of State, to the Middle East. He stops in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, Jordan, Kuwait, and Syria. In Riyadh, he meets with King Fahd, Crown Prince Abdullah and other high-ranking officials. He then travels on to Damascus, where he meets with President Bashar Assad. Powell hears an earful throughout the Middle East as to opposition of continued rigid sanctions against Iraq. There is no evidence that terrorism was discussed in any of his visits.
There would be many, many more Powell trips before 9/11. He flies to Belgium after the Middle East. He is then in Canada, France, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina in April. He is in Hungary, Mali, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa in May. He is in Spain, Slovenia, Egypt, Jordan, and the West Bank in June. He is in Italy, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and China in July.
On August 27, the administration says that Powell would not attend the UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa. But on 9/11, he is back on the road, in Lima, Peru, attending meetings of the Organization of American States, with plans to fly on to Colombia. Powell flies back to Washington arriving in time for an evening Cabinet meeting. But he is also out of touch for most of the day and has little or no interaction with Bush or Cheney on that day, a symbol of his secondary status in the unfolding war against terror.