Hope Springs Eternal

by sarabeth

No, this is not a U.S. women’s soccer story.
After all this time, Duke president President Richard Brodhead has suddenly apologized to the lacrosse team players and their families.
Maybe Donald Rumsfeld will still apologize for bungling the Iraq war? Or George Bush? Or Prick Cheney, or Paul Wolfowitz, or Douglas Feith, or George Tenet, […]

Rumsfeld Abides

by matt

Rumsfeld on Fox News (9/14/07):
Rumsfeld responded by claiming it’s impossible to follow events when you’re “on the outside.” He then added that he doesn’t have time to follow what’s going on in Iraq because he’s too busy with administrative tasks:
I’ve been very busy doing a series of things: setting up an office and hiring staff, […]

He’s Not Reading the Papers Either

by matt

Rumsfeld: Afghanistan a ‘Big Success’ - AP (9/10/07):
In an interview billed as his first since leaving the top Pentagon post, Donald Rumsfeld calls Afghanistan “a big success,” but says U.S. efforts in Iraq are hampered by the failure of Iraq’s government to establish a foundation for democracy.
“In Afghanistan, 28 million people are free. They have […]

Is Rummy Lying Now, or Was He Lying Then?

by matt

Yesterday Sarabeth brought you the following exchange between annoying Congressman Dennis Kucinich and our thankfully former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld:
Kucinich: Did the WH have a press strategy on the Iraq war?
Rumsfeld: If there was, it obviously wasn’t very good.
The amount of mendacity, straight up lying, in a statement that short was previously thought beyond […]

Rumsfeld Lies To Congress. Again.

by sarabeth

(1)
I liked Kucinich’s question to Rumsfeld yesterday at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Pat Tillman hearing:
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, demanded to know whether there was a White House and Defense Department strategy to manage press portrayals of the war and other events.
“Well, if there was, it wasn’t very good,” Rumsfeld remarked.
“Well, you know, […]

Taguba Speakout Fallout

by sarabeth

Would you trust a man called Rita?
Especially when his output smells like this:
When (Taguba) briefed Rumsfeld the day before a May 7, 2004 congressional hearing, he said that Rumsfeld had complained then about not having a copy of his report. But Taguba said he had submitted copies to superiors two months earlier.
Lawrence Di Rita, a […]

Shame And Dishonor: Rumsfeld’s And The Pentagon’s LIES About Abu Ghraib

by sarabeth

Seymour Hersh has a story in The New Yorker about how Army Major General Antonio M. Taguba was shafted by the Pentagon in the time of Rumsfeld. For doing exactly what the U.S. military has always called on its high-ranking officers to do — upholding the honor and proud traditions of the U.S. military, […]

The Guantanamo Escapees

by sarabeth

Very rarely indeed do I post something where the entire post consists of a newspaper or wire service quote. But this AP story by Andrew O. Selsky truly needs no comment or amplification:
The Pentagon called them “among the most dangerous, best-trained, vicious killers on the face of the earth,” sweeping them up after Sept. […]

War As Soap Opera, And Other Rumsfeldian Revelations

by sarabeth

Could this be why the war on Iraq was so thoroughly buggered up? Donald Rumsfeld, who used to kind of preside over the war, has some really strange notions about this war. Here’s one that he revealed only recently, in a post-termination interview with syndicated columnist Cal Thomas:
CT: With what you know now, […]

The Rumsfeld Farewell Tour

by sarabeth

When was the last time someone you know got fired from a corporation, and got to make a farewell tour of the production facilities at stockholder expense? A tour in which they got to make speeches to the employees about what policies should be followed after they are gone:
“We feel great urgency to protect […]