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Former Secretary of State Colin Powell sits down with NBC’s Raj Mathai to discuss his controversial role in the Iraq war, President Obama and his unique hobby. (Published Thursday, Jun 7, 2012)

Updated at 3:21 PM PDT on Friday, Aug 31, 2012

It's not uncommon that former Secretary of State Colin Powell is in the Bay Area. He usually slips in without any fanfare.

He's a consultant for the local venture capitol firm, Kleiner Perkins, but his most recent visit is different. General Powell is on his latest mission, to tell his side of the story in a controversial chapter in American History, the now infamous speech to the United Nations where he outlined the U.S. plan to attack Iraq.

His outline it turned was based on information that was wrong.

In his new book, "It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership," General Powell faces his critics head-on. In a one-on-one interview with Raj Mathai, he talks about what he calls one of his most momentous failures.

"How does the Secretary of State talk to the United Nations and be misled?" Raj asked the General. "I don't like the word misled because we didn't think we were being misled," Powell answered Raj. "I still don't think we were misled. We had bad information and wrong analysis."