Category Archives: Bye-Bye Rummy

Sy Hersh: Abu Ghraib Torture Orders Came Straight From Rummy

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The Gray Zone
How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib
By Sy Hersh for the New Yorker.

The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld’s decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of

Daily Show On Rummy’s Tortured Testimony

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This is from the May 10, 2004 program.
Highlights include Rummy forgetting to bring the chart of the chain of command with him to the hearings:
Mc Cain: “Mr. Secretary, I’d like to know…I’d like you to give the committee the chain of command from the guards to you. All the way up the chain of command.
Rummy: “I think General Myers brought an indication of it…”
General Myers: “We did not bring it.”
Rummy: “Oh my. It was all prepared.”
Myers: “It was!”
Jon Stewart: “Let me get this straight: The two guys in charge of proving that the military has its shit together forgot to bring the chart proving it had its shit together?”

Daily Show On Rummy’s Tortured Testimony (Small – 12 MB)

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Daily Show On Torture Of Iraqi Prisoners By U.S. Military

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This is from the May 6, 2004 program.
Update 05/11/04: new links that work!
Jon clarifies for us, among other things, that this isn’t “abuse” as Rummy and CNN like to call it:
“This is fucking torture.”
(Can you say “electrofied genitals?” I knew you could.)
He also clarifies that, despite all the headlines last week saying “President Bush Apologizes,” he actually did no such thing. He let his press flak do it for him.

Daily Show – Giant Messopotamia (Small – 10 MB)
Rob Courddry also gives us follow up commentary:

Rob Courddry On The US Torture Of Iraqi Prisoners
(Small – 5 MB)











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NY Times: Donald Rumsfield Should Go

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It’s been a long time coming on this one. I sure never thought he’d go out with *such* a bang.
But here it is — something I’ve been saying for a long time now 🙂

Donald Rumsfeld Should Go
(a ny times editorial)

The world is waiting now for a sign that President Bush understands the seriousness of what has happened. It needs to be more than his repeated statements that he is sorry the rest of the world does not “understand the true nature and heart of America.” Mr. Bush should start showing the state of his own heart by demanding the resignation of his secretary of defense.
This is far from a case of a fine cabinet official undone by the actions of a few obscure bad apples in the military police. Donald Rumsfeld has morphed, over the last two years, from a man of supreme confidence to arrogance, then to almost willful blindness. With the approval of the president, he sent American troops into a place whose nature and dangers he had apparently never bothered to examine.
We now know that no one with any power in the Defense Department had a clue about what the administration was getting the coalition forces into. Mr. Rumsfeld’s blithe confidence that he could run his war on the cheap has also seriously harmed the Army and the National Guard.

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Newly-Released Documents Reveal Rummy Supported Saddam Even After 1988 Chemical Weapons Attacks

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Rumsfeld backed Saddam even after chemical attacks
By Andrew Buncombe for the Independent U.K.

The formerly secret documents reveal the Defence Secretary travelled to Baghdad 20 years ago to assure Iraq that America’s condemnation of its use of chemical weapons was made “strictly” in principle.
The criticism in no way changed Washington’s wish to support Iraq in its war against Iran and “to improve bi-lateral relations … at a pace of Iraq’s choosing”.
Earlier this year, Mr Rumsfeld and other members of the Bush administration regularly cited Saddam’s willingness to use chemical weapons against his own people as evidence of the threat presented to the rest of the world.
Senior officials presented the attacks against the Kurds – particularly the notorious attack in Halabja in 1988 – as a justification for the invasion and the ousting of Saddam.
But the newly declassified documents reveal that 20 years ago America’s position was different and that the administration of President Ronald Reagan was concerned about maintaining good relations with Iraq despite evidence of Saddam’s “almost daily” use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops and Kurdish rebels.
In March 1984, under international pressure, America condemned Iraq’s use of such chemical weapons. But realising that Baghdad had been upset, Secretary of State George Schultz asked Mr Rumsfeld to travel to Iraq as a special envoy to meet Saddam’s Foreign Minister, Tariq Aziz, and smooth matters over.
In a briefing memo to Mr Rumsfeld, Mr Shultz wrote that he had met Iraqi officials in Washington to stress that America’s interests remained “in (1) preventing an Iranian victory and (2) continuing to improve bilateral relations with Iraq”.
The memo adds: “This message bears reinforcing during your discussions.”
Exactly what Mr Rumsfeld, who at the time did not hold government office, told Mr Aziz on 26 March 1984, remains unclear and minutes from the meeting remain classified. No one from Mr Rumsfeld’s office was available to comment yesterday.

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Rumsfeld On Meet The Press: More On Why Nobody Knows How Many Troops We’ll Need

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This is from the November 2, 2003 program of Meet the Press.

Complete Video and Photos

Rumsfeld: More On Why Nobody Knows How Many Troops We’ll Need (Small – 5 MB)
Donald Rumsfeld:
“The total number of security forces is made up of three categories: U.S. forces, coalition forces, and Iraqi security forces. Now, the answer as to how many U.S. forces will be there a year from now depends entirely on what happens in the security situation on the ground, first and foremost. Second, it depends on how fast we’re able to build up the Iraqi forces. What’s happening is the total number of security forces in that country have been going up steadily. We’ve come down from 150,- to 130,000 troops. The coalition troops of about 30,000 have stayed about level. And what’s changed is the Iraqi troops have come up from zero to 100,000, heading towards over 200,000 next year.
Now, I can’t — I have trouble believing that the security situation in that country will require additional U.S. troops. We’ll have to rotate our forces, and take the ones who’ve been there awhile out, and put additional troops in. But the total number of troops are going up, because the Iraqis are going up. And then, someone says, well, how many will we have? And the answer is I don’t know. Nobody knows. And that’s a fair answer.”
Tim Russert:
“It could go down?”
Donald Rumsfeld:
“Oh, of course. It’s come down. It’s come down from 150,- to 130,000. And I suspect it will continue going down. That depends on if the security situation in the country permits it. The president’s said he’s going to stay there as long as it takes, and not one day longer, and he has said repeatedly we will put in as many U.S. troops as are necessary and no more. And instead of putting additional U.S. troops in, we’ve been able to build up the Iraqi forces, pass responsibility for security in that country to the Iraqi people, who in the last analysis had the responsibility and the obligation to provide for their own security.”

Rumsfeld On Meet The Press: No Way To Know How Many Troops It Will Take (“It Is Unknowable”)

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This is from the November 2, 2003 program of Meet the Press.

Complete Video and Photos
Rumsfeld: No Way To Know How Many Troops It Will Take (“It Is Unknowable”) (Small – 5 MB)
Tim Russert:
“Time magazine reports this today, that this question was asked in the closed briefing with senators, “‘What troop levels do we expect to have in Iraq a year from now?,’ asked Senator Bill Frist, the Republican leader. And with that, the Pentagon chief began to tap dance.” Do you believe that you have an obligation to tell our leaders in Congress what your best estimate is for troop levels in Iraq a year from now?”
Donald Rumsfeld:
“You know, since — any war, when it starts, the questions are obvious. The questions are: How long is it going to last? How many casualties will there be? And, How many troops will it take?
Now, those questions can’t be answered. Every time someone has answered those questions, they’ve been wrong. They have been embarrassingly wrong. I’ll use another word: They have “misinformed.” By believing they knew the answers to those questions, they’ve misinformed and misled the American people.
I made a conscious decision at the outset of these conflicts to not pretend I knew something I didn’t know. And what I have said is just that. I have said it is not knowable.
Now, if you think about Bosnia, we were told by the administration back then that the American forces would be out by Christmas. That was six and a half years ago. They’re not out yet. That was — that — the effect of that was not consciously misleading — I’m sure they believed it. They were that wrong — six and a half years wrong. I don’t intend to be wrong six and a half years. I intend to have people understand the truth, and the truth is no one knows. But why is that question not answerable?
And Bill Frist knows this. He asked it because others were interested in that question. He’s been very supportive and very complimentary of what we’re doing, and it was not a critical question at all. It was a question that should have been raised. And I said was this: The security situation on the ground is going to determine the total number of security forces that are needed in Iraq.”

Rumsfeld On Meet The Press: On The Shrub Administration’s Refusal To Cooperate With Congress

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This clip includes some harsh criticism from prominent Repubs such as Frank Wolf and Chuck Hagel.
This is from the November 2, 2003 program of Meet the Press.

Complete Video and Photos

Rumsfeld: On The Shrub Administration’s Refusal To Cooperate With Congress (Small – 5 MB)
Tim Russert:
“Let me turn to some of the concerns expressed by Republicans in the Congress. This was Frank Wolf: Republican allies complain of administration arrogance towards Congress: ‘Pride goeth before the fall.’
And this, a prominent Republican Hill staffer: Rumsfeld and Secretary Wolfowitz, your top deputy, ‘just give off the sense that they know better than thou, and they don’t have to answer our questions.’
And this from Chuck Hagel on the Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees, Republican: ‘The Bush administration did miscalculate the difficulty of the war in Iraq. I think they did a miserable job of planning for a post-Saddam Iraq. They treated many in the Congress, most of the Congress, like a nuisance. When we asked questions, we wanted to be helpful, we wanted to participate. And now they are finding out that reality is dominating.’
‘Arrogance?’ ‘Nuisance?’ Not a full appreciation of your fellow Republicans in the Congress?”
Donald Rumsfeld:
“Well, you know, there’s 535 members of the House and Senate, and you are going to find every viewpoint across the spectrum. It’s always been so. You’ve served there — I served in Congress. And there’s always going to be someone who has a different view, and we accept that. We have spent enormous numbers of hours up there — I do. Secretary Powell does. Others in the administration, briefing Senators, briefing House members, briefing staff members. And overwhelmingly they’ve been appreciative of those briefings and felt that they were helpful. We’ve sent up intelligence briefing people on a regularly weekly basis. I think probably there’s been more information back and forth in this conflict during Iraq and Afghanistan than in any conflict in the history of the country.
Now, when people are having their constituents killed, and they see things happening that worry them, understandably they’re going to be worried and concerned about it, and I accept that. And these are tough issues. These are not easy issues. And the fact that there are a variety of views in Congress simply reflects the country. There are a variety of views in the country. And that’s understandable.”







Rumsfeld On Meet The Press: Did He Underestimate The Intensity Of The Resistance?

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This is from the November 2, 2003 program of Meet the Press.

Complete Video and Photos
Rumsfeld: Did He Underestimate The Intensity Of The Resistance? (Small – 2 MB)
Tim Russert:
“Did you underestimate the intensity of the resistance?”
Donald Rumsfeld:
“I don’t know. You know, I don’t know that we — you don’t sit down and make a calibration that the resistance will lead to X numbers of Iraqis being killed per week, or that so many coalition people being wounded per week. That isn’t the kind of calibration you make. What you do is you say, here’s what you have to do to prevail. You have got to get the sovereignty transferred over to the Iraqi people, you have got to get the essential services going, and the economy on a path upward. And you’ve got to get the security responsibility transferred to the Iraqi people. That’s — because it’s their country. We’re not going to provide security in their country over a sustained period of time.
So we’ve gone from zero to 100,000 Iraqis providing security in that country, and our plan calls for us to go over 200,000 by next year.”