Corrections: 1. SUBJECT: Deptartment Of Defense Iran Policy Office
FALSE CLAIM:
FACT:
- The claim that a "Pentagon Unit has drafted a report" on U.S. radio broadcasts into Iran is incorrect in every respect. An individual DoD employee -- because of specific language skills -- was asked by an interagency committee on Iran policy to monitor and personally evaluate U.S. broadcasting into Iran. She did so. There was no "Pentagon report."
- The charge made that there is a "gambit" underway by the Pentagon to take control of Iranian broadcasts is simply untrue.
2. SUBJECT: Planning For Post-War Iraq:
FALSE CLAIM:
- Secretary Rumsfeld "had forbidden military strategists to plan for securing postwar Iraq" and "threatened to fire" anyone who did so. (E.g. "Fire Rumsfeld," The Buffalo News, 9/15/2006)
FACT:
- The general quoted to support this claim, Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid, disputed the original article used as a source, explaining it was a "manipulation of my words to stir controversy."
- The U.S. military began planning for post-Saddam Iraq in 2002. Planning included input from and consultation with all parts of the U.S. Government - including the Secretary's own policy office, the State Department, and the National Security Council.
- A group of American and Allied officers at Central Command was specifically assigned the task of preparing for "Phase IV" - the transition from major combat to security and stability operations.
- In January 2003, after these months of preparation, the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance was created to plan for and facilitate the administration of post-Saddam Iraq.
3. SUBJECT: General Eric Shinseki:
FALSE CLAIM:
- Secretary Rumsfeld "fired the man who would not be silenced," General Eric Shinseki. (E.g. "Intimidation And Deception," Chattanooga Times Free Press, 9/14/2006)
FACT:
FALSE CLAIM:
- "President Bush finally has some real terrorists in Guantánamo Bay." ("A Sudden Sense of Urgency," The New York Times, 9/ 7/2006)
FACT:
- Since its inception, terrorists that have been held at Guantánamo Bay have included personal bodyguards of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda recruiters, trainers, and facilitators, and Mohamed al-Kahtani, believed to be the intended 20th hijacker for the September 11th attacks.
- That these men are terrorists intent on doing America harm is not a simply an assertion made by the U.S. government, but something many detainees themselves have claimed -- indeed boasted - about:
- In open commission hearings on March 1, Mr. Al Bahlul boasted five times that he was a member of Al Qaeda involved in an ongoing war against America.
- In open commission hearings on April 27, Mr. Al Sharbi said, "I'm going to make this easy for you guys: I'm proud of what I did and there isn't any reason of hiding ... I fought against the United Stated. I took up arms."
- Fifteen individuals held at Guantanamo are known to have again taken up arms against the United States after their release.
5. SUBJECT: Secretary Rumsfeld's Speech To The American Legion:
FALSE CLAIM:
- Secretary Rumsfeld's "compared critics of the administration to those who sought to appease Hitler in the buildup to World War II." (E.g. "The Islamofascists," Newsweek, 9/11/2006)
FACT:
- Secretary Rumsfeld did not once mention critics of the Iraq war -- much less did he compare those critics to appeasers of Hitler.
- A September 19 correction in The New York Times noted, "He did not call the critics 'appeasers.'"
- The Secretary recounted the unfortunate history of the 1930s because success in the current war requires a clear understanding of the lessons and mistakes of the past.
- The Secretary believes that dismissing real and gathering threats while focusing on American imperfections -- rather than on the nature of the enemy -- can undermine our nation's ability to prevail in what will be a long and difficult struggle against violent extremists. (Sec. Rumsfeld, Address To American Legion, 8/29/2006).
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