Rumsfeld denies making claims Iraq had WMDs

Rumsfeld denies making claims Iraq had WMDs

In this article in my hometown Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Eric Rosenberg puts the lie to the Secretary of Defence's statements on Iraq with quotes from his own mouth! You can't make this up!


The Money:

Rumsfeld said, according to an official Pentagon transcript. "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."

His comments in Atlanta were in line with an earlier attempted revision.

Six months after the invasion, on Sept. 10, 2003, Rumsfeld revisited the WMD issue in remarks at the National Press Club.

"I said, 'We know they're in that area,' " referring to the weapons. "I should have said, 'I believe we're in that area. Our intelligence tells us they're in that area,' and that was our best judgment."

...

On Feb. 20, 2003, a month before the invasion, Jim Lehrer asked Rumsfeld on PBS' "NewsHour" program whether he thought the invasion would "be welcomed by the majority of the civilian population of Iraq."

"There is no question but that they would be welcomed," Rumsfeld said, referring to American forces in Iraq.

He then tried to merge the earlier invasion of Afghanistan with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"Go back to Afghanistan. The people were in the streets playing music, cheering, flying kites, and doing all the things that the Taliban and the al-Qaeda would not let them do," Rumsfeld continued. "Saddam Hussein has one of the most vicious regimes on the face of the Earth. And the people know that."

On Sept. 25, 2003 -- six months after the invasion and a day on which one U.S. soldier was killed in an ambush, eight Iraqi civilians died in a mortar strike and a member of the U.S-appointed governing council died after an assassination attempt five days earlier -- Rumsfeld was asked about his prewar claims.

"Before the war in Iraq, you stated the case very eloquently, and you said ... they would welcome us with open arms," Sinclair Broadcasting anchor Morris Jones said to Rumsfeld as the prelude to a question.

The defense chief quickly cut him off.

"Never said that," Rumsfeld said, according to the official Pentagon transcript. "Never did. You may remember it well, but you're thinking of somebody else. You can't find anywhere me saying anything like either of those two things you just said I said. I may look like somebody else."

There's more! Rummy sounds like a kid who has his hand stuck in the cookie jar telling his mom that there's no way he could have ever tried to take a cookie. I especially love the blatant "You can't find anywhere me saying anything like either of those two things you just said I said. I may look like somebody else." He is literally daring reporters to find is lies.

Thanks Eric! What a good find!