Rumsfeld, why did you lie?

[anitram]

Rumsfeld was confronted in Atlanta today by an ex-CIA intelligence analyst.

The video is here.

Transcript:

QUESTION: So I would like to ask you to be up front with the American people, why did you lie to get us into a war that was not necessary, that has caused these kinds of casualties? why?

RUMSFELD: Well, first of all, I haven't lied. I did not lie then. Colin Powell didn't lie. He spent weeks and weeks with the Central Intelligence Agency people and prepared a presentation that I know he believed was accurate, and he presented that to the United Nations. the president spent weeks and weeks with the central intelligence people and he went to the american people and made a presentation. i'm not in the intelligence business. they gave the world their honest opinion. it appears that there were not weapons of mass destruction there.

QUESTION: You said you knew where they were.

RUMSFELD: I did not. I said I knew where suspect sites were and -

QUESTION: You said you knew where they were Tikrit, Baghdad, northeast, south, west of there. Those are your words.

RUMSFELD: My words -- my words were that -- no, no, wait a minute, wait a minute. Let him stay one second. Just a second.

QUESTION: This is America.

RUMSFELD: You're getting plenty of play, sir.

QUESTION: I'd just like an honest answer.

RUMSFELD: I'm giving it to you.

QUESTION: Well we're talking about lies and your allegation there was bulletproof evidence of ties between al Qaeda and Iraq.

RUMSFELD: Zarqawi was in Baghdad during the prewar period. That is a fact.

QUESTION: Zarqawi? He was in the north of Iraq in a place where Saddam Hussein had no rule. That's also...

RUMSFELD: He was also in Baghdad.

QUESTION: Yes, when he needed to go to the hospital.

Come on, these people aren't idiots. They know the story.

(PROTESTER INTERRUPTS)

RUMSFELD: Let me give you an example.

It's easy for you to make a charge, but why do you think that the men and women in uniform every day, when they came out of Kuwait and went into Iraq, put on chemical weapon protective suits? Because they liked the style?

(LAUGHTER)

They honestly believed that there were chemical weapons.

(APPLAUSE)

Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons on his own people previously. He'd used them on his neighbor (AUDIO GAP) the Iranians, and they believed he had those weapons.

We believed he had those weapons.

QUESTION: That's what we call a non sequitur. It doesn't matter what the troops believe; it matters what you believe.

MODERATOR: I think, Mr. Secretary, the debate is over. We have other questions, courtesy to the audience.

 

[bonoman]

It was sweet!

 

[Diemen]

Wow. It'd be great to see this kind of debate happen more often, rather than:

Question: Mr. Rumsfeld, I want to thank you for doing your best to protect us and I just want to ask: why do liberals hate America?

Which seems to be the typical level of "questioning" we get at any administration appearance.

Props to Rumsfeld for letting the guy stay on mic a little longer than the handlers wanted, though.

 

[BVS]

If the media would fuckin step up and take a harder stance, just like this, they would put Fox news out of business!

You have an administration playing semantics, fear, and outdated "intelligence".

The only leg they have to stand on is that if they pull out now everything we did up to this point will be a failure. And they are right!!! We have to finish what we started. It's sad and unfortunate, but we have to do it.

In the long run, this has nothing to do with terrorism, for we won't stop it this way. In a way we only feed it.

We're fucked, and now we have to deal with it. Unfortunately this administration will go unchecked...

And someone else will have to take care of the mess they made.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Props to Rumsfeld for letting the guy stay on mic a little longer than the handlers wanted, though.

They asked the CIA guy (can't remember his name) about that on CNN last night and he said essentially that Rumsfeld did that for pr, it would have looked bad if he had been thrown out and it was televised-since he didn't yell, scream, etc.

I guess a lie ceases to be a lie if you tell yourself enough that you never lied. Something like that. Depends on what your definition of a lie is, something like that. Truthiness.

 

[hiphop]

Incredible that these liars and murderers are still running America.

 

[deep]

"Which way to Little Bighorn?"

 

[verte76]

Incredible that these liars and murderers are still running America.

Not to mention frustrating to millions of Americans.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

that picture is too funny