Posted on 05/04/2006 8:36:30 PM PDT by STARWISE
Protesters repeatedly interrupted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld during a speech Thursday and one man, a former CIA analyst, accused him of lying about Iraq prewar intelligence in an unusually vociferous display of anti-war sentiment.
"Why did you lie to get us into a war that caused these kind of casualties and was not necessary?" asked Ray McGovern, the former analyst, during a question-and-answer session.
"I did not lie," shot back Rumsfeld, who waved off security guards ready to remove McGovern from the hall at the Southern Center for International Studies.
With Iraq war support remaining low, it is not unusual for top Bush administration officials to encounter protests and hostile questions. But the outbursts Rumsfeld confronted on Thursday seemed beyond the usual.
Three protesters were escorted away by security as each interrupted Rumsfeld's speech by jumping up and shouting anti-war messages. Throughout the speech, a fourth protester stood in the middle of the room with his back to Rumsfeld in silent protest. Officials reported no arrests.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Rummy's statement is totally mischaracterized -- he was composed and calm and said, "1st thing - I did not lie."
But the writer chooses to color the truth:
"I did not lie," shot back Rumsfeld,"
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How he waved off the security guards, stood there totally composed, patiently listening to the McGovern's barbs and yet giving civil responses is beyond me. God bless Rummy!!!
Dude, it's Rummy. He's hardercore than anyone, ever.
LOL ... they threw away the mold when they cast him. He's one of a kind, God love him.
Heckling the Clintoon Administration would get you an IRS audit.
Or worse.
If you're getting flak...
you're over the target.
go Rummy!
I saw a clip on FNC and reading the article I thought the writer was referring to another incident. Sec Rumsfeld was cool and collected.
The terrorist lived for another thirty hours.
ENEMY WITHIN .. Ping
Precisely. Hardcore.
Stories like this always help our side. Hope it gets lots of publicity. Lunatics just can't fake being normal.
Right On!
Man you just don't know how true that is. You just don't know.
"If you allow someone like Saddam Hussein to get nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, chemical weapons, biological weapons, how many people is he going to kill with such weapons?
He's already demonstrated a willingness to use these weapons.
He poison-gassed his own people.
He used poison gas and other weapons of mass destruction against his neighbors.
This man has no compunction about killing lots and lots of people...."
-- Al Gore, Dec. 16, 1998
Another example of why the CIA needs a major house cleaning.
I wonder if this is a new DNC strategy....to send out at least one of these wackos to every event...and try to disrupt and ask dumb questions???
We know that McGovern is working closely with Conyers and the "impeach Bush" group...so I am sure it is all planned.
ex-CIA Ray McGovern proves once again, the CIA makes mistakes.
Here is what Rumsfeld said in an interview on March 30, 2003.
"MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: 'And is it curious to you that given how much control U.S. and coalition forces now have in the country, they haven't found any weapons of mass destruction?'"
SEC. RUMSFELD: 'Not at all. If you think -- let me take that, both pieces -- the area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.'"
In the same interview:
"MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: 'Do you think we'll still be fighting in Iraq six months from now?'
SEC. RUMSFELD: 'Oh, goodness, you know, I've never -- we've never had a timetable. We've always said it could be days, weeks, or months and we don't know. And I don't think you need a timetable. What you really need to know is it's going to end and it's going to end with the Iraqi people liberated and that regime will be gone.'"
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/t03302003_t0330sdabcsteph.html
Rumsfeld told a lie. The evidence for weapons of mass destruction was mixed, and Rumsfeld claimed certainty, and it tripped him up. He should have been honest and said that we couldn't afford to be uncertain about Iraq's capabilities given Saddam's abominable dictatorship.
The second quote was either designed to mislead Americans or he didn't have a clue about how long it would take, but he chose to guess again, instead of simply saying "We don't know."
I've been very critical of Rumsfeld's performance for a long time. I think President Bush is making a big mistake in keeping Rumsfeld, and our troops and innocent Iraqis are paying the price. It is possible to be loyal to a fault.
And them McGovern spends time with Anderson Cooper and little Tucker Carlson. Does anyone believe CNN and MSNBC did not have advance warning of this man's plan? Does anyone believe he wasn't vetted and groomed for this? Does anyone still believe that CNN and MSNBC do not have an agenda? If so, you are probably a voter in Mass., RI, NJ, or NY.
Dude, it's Rummy. He's hardercore than anyone, ever.
LOL! I can't top that one.
Thanks for the ping, Starwise :)
One wonders. And yet, didn't Rummy get the briefing with the photos and all that? Maybe he did, and knew exactly who this *ssclown was. Did he reveal this to the MSM at the event? So many questions.
RUMMY RULES!!! :P
**Rumsfeld told a lie**
I was unaware that Rummy was in charge of the entire intelligence community. I think you should get lost and hang out with the other DU trolls.
It would be interesting to see what area McGovern worked in at CIA since he's obviously interested in damaging the US anti-terrorist effort. The CIA seems to tolerate quite a few leftists troll employees like McGovern and the Plame dame. If I were Rumsfeld, I'd have their work reviewed for deviant or espionage activities.
Hey punk McGovern,
Didn't your agency provide Rumsfeld intelligence about Iraqi WMDs?
Yes - that's right - punk.
Ha! With Iraq and now with Iran, the proper approach is to wait till exactly 7 big towns In Europe have been blasted to smithereens. Really. They'll thank us for being so sensitive, won't they? They won't? Back to the drawing board, Igor.
So many questions...but, Rummy is the BEST at answering...
I love watching one of his press briefings..
Agreed!
There was also a teenage girl yelling something at Rumsfeld so I would guess this was a coordinated shadow government event.
Looks like you might get a McGovern template ready.
Is "hardercore" in the dictionary yet? I sumbit that "hardercore" and "hardestcore" are the proper comparative and superlative renditions, respectively, of "hardcore."
That is so true.
No.
You tell a lie.
Your quote provides NO indication of certainty. Rumsfeld says he "knows" where the weapons are. This was based on intelligence. The intelligence MAY have been wrong [since there is good evidence the weapons were moved.]
Individuals like yourself need to be called on this relentless nonsense.
It is a determined effort on your part to discredit a war which brought to an end a regime which killed more than 1.5 million people.
Your arguments are immoral because they rationalize the continuation of Saddam's regime. You full well know that and persist despite the actuality of mass barbarism by this former state.
Your ethics are in question-- not Rumsfeld's.
You're telling a lie. Rumsfeld, Tenet, and the previous SECDEF and DCI both said it with certainty at all times. AND WE DON'T KNOW TODAY WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WEAPONS WE KNOW HE HAD WHEN THE INSPECTORS LEFT IN 1998 AND BEFORE. Furthermore, the fact that some dude here or there says that Saddam didn't have WMD doesn't mean you throw out all of the voluminous information that says he does. You go with what seems most logical. Given that Saddam refused to allow inspections and was continuing to fire on our aircraft in the north and south on a near-daily basis, and that he tried to assassinate Bush 41 via a terrorist attack, Bush did a very logical thing given the post-9/11 world.
You are perpetuating a lie about a non-existent lie. As someone who was an active duty Army intelligence officer throughout the 1990s, I can attest that the intel was not "mixed." Everyone felt, for good reason, that he had them. And he most likely did. The question you should be asking is, where did they go and when?
LOL, yes they all lied, to go into Iraq so that everyone could catch them in their lies!
Yea, that's the ticket.
An Olberman droid obviously, or Chrissy, (the same talking points of the night), the consprazoids must have daily dose of drama!
The worn-out, former CIA analyst, nasty old wormjerk turncoat exhibitionist, Ray McGovern (did I leave anything out?):

Rockefeller did you "teller?"- XXI- When VIPS attack!
"You know that the traitorous rogues are getting desperate when they go on the road to attack the Secretary of Defense.
Ray McGovern is one such traitor.
McGovern showed his anti-semitic ass in Atlanta today to go toe-to-toe with Rumsfeld and got said ass handed to him in spades. McGovern came off as half cocked and ready for the mothership Cindy Sheehan, while Rumsfeld held his cool spoke eloquently and basically handled him with more dignity than he could ever deserve. Basically a class act. Something these dupes will never possess.
McGovern, like most of these idiots of the antiwar left they all read from the "Bush lied, people died" script which as we begin to get more and more of the picture from new evidence reference to Saddam's documents, is being shown to be nothing more than rabid imagination.
Funny thing is how all three major evening newscast reported McGovern as simply an "ex-CIA analysts, without explaining that he is also the leader of the leftist group Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), that was formed conveniently in 2003 after being funded by George Soros, simply to perform a bloodless coup on the present Administration.
Of course it didn't work. Since Bush handily won the 2004 election they continued on their baseless rants about "cooked" intel". This is the same group that has ex-op Larry C. Johnson who couldn't see (or didn't want to see) 9/11 for the towers.
Fact is that Mary Loose Lips is singing and singing loudly and that has these cats worried because not only was she Dana Priest's tipster, but leaked it up pretty with this group too. I told you that this would happen and it's going to get even more crazy as their house of cards comes down on their nappy little heads.
And make no mistake, like the rabid dogs they are they won't go without a fight.
Yet it is a fight that they will loose, because their plan is falling apart faster a '85 Toyota breaking the Sound Barrior.
Bang of a Summer - Yup!
UPDATE: Rumsfeld to McGovern: "why do think the troops wore chemical suits - because they liked the style?"
Slam!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cnn has a more complete video on their front page
The difference is he said he knew where they were. I never heard that claim from anybody else, in this country or any other. We now know that the evidence was not conclusive, and presumably Rumsfeld had total access to all the intelligence. He had to know better than anybody in 2003 that the intelligence was unclear. Since it turned out there were none, I think he was guessing at locations and passing it off as the truth because he was so sure there would be some. After we got there we found out why the intelligence was unclear. It was because Saddam wanted everybody to think he had weapons, but he really didn't.
But that didn't mean we shouldn't have invaded Iraq in order to sure, and incidentally remove a horrible dictator from a position where he could do damage to his own citizens and outside his country. That was where the emphasis should have been when they were rallying Americans in support.
As you say, history will be the judge. But if Iraq isn't standing on its own by 2008, then both President Bush's legacy and that of Rumsfeld will be in the hands of the next president. I blame that on Rumsfeld's poor management of the war, and I think that his reference to a war that "might" last as much as months shows that he didn't know what he was doing.
I'm saying that the reasons given for the war should have been based on uncertainty, which we could not risk.
Are any of these people going to prison or is the Chinese chick the only one who faces charges in this country?
I just read the quote on another blog. I cannot repeat it verbatim, but this is close, "Why do you think the troops wore chemical suits in 120 degree heat? Because they liked the fashion?"
Rummy is priceless.
Every battle plan changes the minute the troops hit the ground.
You know, you second-guessers on Rumsfeld have a certainty that no one else has about how Iraq could have been managed better. In truth, you don't know what you're talking about, but you have a certainty anyway.
During the 1990's I'm sure the intel was different. As I understand it, they did not have any access to direct, human-sourced information after the 90's. They relied heavily on out of date information from people who had been out of the country for years. It would have been better to have relied on Saddam's non-compliance with weapons inspectors, his treatment of his own people and our uncertainty about his weapons capability than to claim certainty.
Thats as much bio as the AP provides of this fearless, plain-speaking truthteller. Journey back in time with me now to June 2005, where well join WaPo reporter Dana Milbank at John Conyerss kangaroo court impeachment hearings already in progress:
The session took an awkward turn when witness Ray McGovern, a former intelligence analyst, declared that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration neocons so the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world. He said that Israel should not be considered an ally and that Bush was doing the bidding of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation, McGovern said. The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic.
Jacob Laksin of FrontPage has more:
McGovern was not above retailing anti-Israel conspiracy theories. Hence he claimed, inter alia, that an Israeli company had advanced warning of the 9/11 attacksan accusation echoed in literature passed out by Democratic activists at the hearing.
And more still:
That Israel pulls the strings of American foreign policy is not the only conspiracy theory propounded by McGovern. While maintaining that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence information to justify the war against Iraq, McGovern has allowed for the possibility that WMD may be found in Iraq. But he hastens to add that any weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq will likely have been planted by American forces. Some of my colleagues are virtually certain that there will be some weapons of mass destruction found, even though they might have to be planted, he told Agence French Presse in April of 2003, darkly insisting that that would justify the charge of a threat against the U.S. or anyone else.
If McGoverns name sounds familiar, it should: hes been popping up on TV and in newspaper articles lately as one of the medias go-to guys for quotes defending accused CIA leaker Mary McCarthy. Evidently, believing that Jews have their hands up the back of a U.S. puppet government isnt quite the mainstream credibility-killer it once was.
But theres more still. McGovern belongs to a group of ex-intel officials known as Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, or VIPS. VIPS is infamous for no, Im not kidding encouraging intelligence operatives to undermine the Bush administration by breaking their confidentiality agreements and leaking information. As McGovern himself put it in a September 2004 op-ed, [l]eaking can be patriotic. Heres Rick Morans lengthy post about VIPS from April 25th speculating about the groups possible role in the flood of leaks Porter Goss is hard at work trying to stop.
Bear all this in mind when those statues start going up.
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