Rumsfeld’s Revisionist History: ‘We Know Where The WMD Suspect Sites Are’
Rumsfeld’s Revisionist History: ‘We Know Where The WMD Suspect Sites Are’
Last night on CNN’s Larry King Live, Donald Rumsfeld was asked about 27-year CIA veteran Ray McGovern, who recently told the Secretary of Defense he lied when he said he knew where the WMD were located in Iraq in March 2003. Rumsfeld refused to acknowledge his error and falsely claimed he was talking about “suspect sites.†Watch it:
Here’s what Rumsfeld said last night:
I said because they’ve just gotten in the southern part of the country and we know, I said something to that effect, that the suspect sites or sites were — meaning suspect sites were up in the area of Baghdad and north. That’s where the intelligence community said them. And we weren’t there yet. We hadn’t covered that piece of real estate.
In fact, Rumsfeld made no mention of “suspect sites†in his entire March 2003 interview on ABC’s This Week. He plainly stated, without qualification, that “we know where [the WMD] are.†Here’s a transcript:
STEPHANOPOULOS: [I]s 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?
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.
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Rummy lying..surley you jest..he wouldn’t lie anymore than Rove would tell Bush to lie..or Dick Cheney would lie about shooting a man in the face
May 26th, 2006 at 11:58 amRumsfeld is a proven outed liar so he must resign ASAP and be tried for war crimes too!
May 26th, 2006 at 12:01 pmRummy, rummy, rummy, where for art thy brains, rummy…….What a scrawney little weasle, I’ve got more balls and branes than this guy……Blessings
May 26th, 2006 at 12:04 pmThe video with this ass and George Stephanopoulos has already showed that this is pure BS and a re-write of reality. CNN of course would oblige him with misleading Americans just as they do. I think it is part of CNN’s mission statement to be as full of misinformation as possible.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:04 pmIf I recall correctly, when asked why he didn’t share this information with the inspectors, he said that it would compromise our intelligence gathering ability. Wish some one would follow up on that. Another nail in this particular coffin.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:04 pmWhen I watched Rummy say “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.” I was under the impression that he didn’t really know where they were, but he did have an idea where he believed they might be. That said, he did say that he knew ” …where they are” and therefore seems to be backtracking now.
Did we think there were WMDs? Sure.
Did I say that I knew where they were? Absolutly.
Did I mean that I knew where they were suspected to be? Then, no. Now, yes.
Were they there? No.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:07 pmSo how long is Rummy’s nose now?
May 26th, 2006 at 12:07 pmHe is completely losing it… I had an uncle who spent 20 hours a day drunk. Rumsfeld’s infintile refusal to acknowledge blatant fact… His juvenile impatience and frustration with the question… It all reminds me of my uncle. This guy’s running a global war on multiple fronts? God help us all.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:10 pmFrom top to bottom, this administration has lied about not knowing about: the threat of the NY trade center being hit by planes, WMD in Iraq, Katrina levies,… and it’s all available on video! These are pure liars. They divided the country to take and keep power. There are no lower forms of life than the people in this administration except for the Senate and Congress which are mere bobble head dolls without brains or a spine.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:13 pmAccording to Zogby, 44% are behind Bush 100% and 11% are not sure on Iraq. So those of us that are against “Bush Men” are in the minority. What does that say about the state of this nation? It used to be that other countries loved the people but hated our policies. Now they have every right to hate the people as well since the majority support the policies.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:17 pmI assume the interviewer had planned to go down this line of questioning. Why not have the STEPHANOPOULOS clip cued and ready to go?
Please, someone, anyone, play the damn clip for the loon and then ask him “Are you a great liar, or the greatest liar?”.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:17 pmCrumby Rummy. Instead of a growing nose, when Crumby Rummy lies his penis shrinks. He now has an innie.
Nice work Dr. StrangeRumsfeld.
-GSD
May 26th, 2006 at 12:17 pmSo they were suspected sites? Then the real reason we invaded Iraq was over ’suspicion’? That is what he just said…
Are they telling that now to the parents and families of the 2400 soldiers who died over their suspicions?
May 26th, 2006 at 12:17 pmRummy felt safe on Larry King because he knew Larry wouldn’t play the tape from This Week/2003 that proved he was lying. So why did Larry even bother asking about it?
May 26th, 2006 at 12:18 pmThese guys can’t stop lying. Somebody stop them and et them treatment. This is pathological.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:19 pmAlso available @ Iraq On the Record, House Gov’t Reform Subcommittee, Waxman Report.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:20 pmA level of morality you wouldn’t accept in a 5 year-old, we have to accept for 8 years from our Secretary of Defense.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:21 pmNice follow up questions, Larry. Not.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:23 pmRummy probably felt all warm and fuzzy after his little chat with Larry, and slept like a baby — as usual.
The Congress has been emasculated (castrated) so do not expect them to do anything about Rumsfeld’s lies and criminality! Full dictatorship arrived today when Hayden got confirmed to run CIA by the Senate!
May 26th, 2006 at 12:24 pmRummy measures his words too much for anyone to believe that he meant to say “suspected sites”
The truth of the matter is that he knew what he was saying at the time… and he knew that he was lying.
He may have sincerely thought that they were there… but he knew that he did not know this for sure… that then makes his original statement a bald face lie!
May 26th, 2006 at 12:26 pmOf course he has to lie. That’s what the Republican Method of Procedure document says you must do.
Never admit a mistake, even when you do.other inanities of the Republican defense of their mistakes here).
You never admit to any real mistakes. “Never give up; never surrender!”
You admit to a mistake in judgement, you admit to your own incompetence, and the Terra-ists have won….
Cheers,
May 26th, 2006 at 12:27 pmGSD, Stop it. I sprayed coffee all over the puter with your innie phrase. You are a riot. Yep! We need more of your humor. Please excuse me while I wipe, the puter off……..Blessings
May 26th, 2006 at 12:30 pmI think we should put the meanings to WMD’s…They should refere to all our representatives. Wasted, mental defects….
May 26th, 2006 at 12:33 pmIt is official > 78 Senators voted YES for General Hayden this morning and 15 NO and 7 were to afraid to vote at all! Unknown the exact number of Dems who voted yes but at least 20+! It is confirmed the shooting incident was used as a distraction for voting Hayden into the CIA!
May 26th, 2006 at 12:43 pmRummy felt safe on Larry King because he knew Larry wouldn’t play the tape from This Week/2003 that proved he was lying. So why did Larry even bother asking about it?
Comment by WC — May 26, 2006 @ 12:18 pm
Larry asked so that Rumsfeld could cast doubt on the issue.
For the people that support Bush - 50% would believe Rummy even if they saw the tape… the other 50% would believe Rummy only if he said that he didn’t lie and they didn’t see the tape.
This way the question gets brought up… Rummy gets the opportunity to assure Bush supporters that he didn’t lie… and being on Larry King they will never have to be bothered with the actual evidence that this too is a lie… so to them Rummy must be telling the truth.
Its part of the republican “stop loss” policy… stop doing interviews with people that will expose your lies and you will stop loosing supporters.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:43 pmLarry King is just as inept as Rumfield. Neither are competent to do their jobs, both should be fired. Why don’t these “journalists” call these liars out?
May 26th, 2006 at 12:45 pmRummy would have been more believable if he would have responded to McGovern this way:
“I did not lie in March 2003. Our intelligence told us where the WMD’s were located. Unfortunately, our intelligence turned out to be incorrect.”
This makes what Rummy said in 2003 a non-story.
But consider this:
Rummy has succeeded in drawing the focus onto his comments (”You lied.” “No I didn’t!” “Yes you did!” “No I didn’t!” etc…etc…) and away from further questions of fixed intelligence.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:47 pmThey’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.
If you allow Rummy a wee bit of latitude,(and longitude) his remarks about knowing where the WMD is in not completely wrong..given that if you go enough in the right east west south north direction you could end up at Dugway Proving grounds..or Johnson Atoll…or even his house…he was just being a wee bit vague about the somewhat
Hell now with the “suspected sites” and just a little latitude (and of course longitude) he could mean Iran….
May 26th, 2006 at 12:49 pm#24 - Jay, if I remember correctly from this morning, 4 Dems voted yes on Hayden, 14 Dems voted no, and 1 Republicrook (Specter) voted no. Specter was blathering on this morning on C-Span about how he voted no on Hayden as some sort of protest against Bush keeping stuff from Congress. I didn’t catch it all, so I could be mistaken.
May 26th, 2006 at 1:04 pmAnd that ends the inning, current score Reality 10, Rumsfeld in Neverneverland 0 and falling.
Hopefully Rummy will graduate from high school debate and realize that repeating a lie a thousand times may convince the speaker, but the intelligent world at large isn’t going to bite.
May 26th, 2006 at 1:10 pmI had to switch channels, I just cannot stand watching this lying sack talk at all. Bush affects me the same way. Its either switch channels or I end up yelling at the TV.
King does not always act confrontational. His style is more like Merv Griffin used than the frontal head buts Mike Wallace used to deliver in interviews. He will uncover a lie, but rarely throws it back in their face, just his style. He tries to be neutral and get as much info as he can.
That being said, its too bad he didn’t get Mike Wallace to do a sub job last night, so Dumbsfeld could have had hislies handed right back at him
May 26th, 2006 at 1:27 pmDon’t these guys ever get tired of having to change their burning pants?
May 26th, 2006 at 1:30 pmDon’t these guys ever get tired of having to change their burning pants?
Comment by Jane E. Schneider
It is a requirement for anyone in the Bush administration to wear fireproof underwear, for health insurance reasons /snark
May 26th, 2006 at 1:45 pmPost 29 Zookeeper > Press is reporting that 78 Senators voted YES for Hayden to run CIA! There are 55 Repub members of Senate, 44 Dems and 1 Independent, so for 78 votes that means about half the Dems voted YES for Hayden! > Officially 15 voted NO so 14 are Dems and Specter perhaps? 7 Senators were too scared to vote yes or no!
May 26th, 2006 at 1:52 pmWayne, that could explain some of their other problems as well ;-)
May 26th, 2006 at 2:06 pmOf course the trolls don’t want to touch this lie with a ten foot poll.
May 26th, 2006 at 2:08 pmLiars.
May 26th, 2006 at 2:09 pmLiars.
Comment by Search Pelosi’s Office while You’re At It — May 26, 2006 @ 2:09 pm
WHO?…Bush? Cheney? Rove? Frist? Hastert? Delay? Abrarmoff? Cunningham? Bohnoer? Gingrich? Blunt? Brownback/ Spector? Gonzolas? Rumsfeld? Rice? Wolfowitz? Feith? Robertson? Falwell? Dobson? Blackwell? Harris? Fletcher? McCain? who all of them? Even more..we know they lie that is what has most of us upset..they lie and the MSM repeats it.
May 26th, 2006 at 2:16 pmMain stream media can be officially declared brain dead. These goobers were complicit in trying to pump for the war in Iraq. It is obvious that they played for the DC Criminals. Now who is it that owns these networks? Looks like GE keeps things in the dark and Mickey Rat isn’t all that nice. Faux is as fake as ever and good sycophants too. The Crackpot News Network is just that, a bunch of crackpots. The Columbian Bulls**t network isn’t worth an ounce of a bull’s s**t. The connections to military ownership is somewhat interesting too.

May 26th, 2006 at 2:52 pmCongressmen and Senators are hypocrites for passing the Patriot Act and then complaining when their offices are searched. Do these people have brains? I think most have turned to jello, while some are lacking a spine as well, yet they OK Hayden for the CIA. Truely amazing!
“…real estate…”
May 26th, 2006 at 4:06 pmlol, just lol.
Play the god damn tape King! This is bizarro world!
May 26th, 2006 at 4:21 pm#33 - The liability issues are HUGE!
May 26th, 2006 at 4:23 pmI challenge our resident trolls to explain Rumsfeld’s painfully evident lies as “quotes taken out of context”, or “liberal spin and misrepresentations”.
Bush cultists, acknowledge you’ve been duped. The sooner you recognise that, the sooner you can begin your healing away from an abusive relationship.
May 26th, 2006 at 4:39 pmI’ll try Gregor! The only way Rummy could have been taken out of context:
Wouldn’t I be an ass if I said, “They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.”
(Shamefully and blatantly stolen from The Great Jon Stewart)
May 26th, 2006 at 5:29 pmIn Rummy’s case, dementia has devolved into delusion.
May 26th, 2006 at 5:40 pmInsofar as Bush&Co, they have distorted the facts and twisted the truth, proffered disinformation and downright lies, they cannot recognize the truth, nor can they recall what lies they told in the past.
It’s too bad that few journalists call them on their lies.
The media is comatose - unless of course, they can come up with a story speculating about whether or not Bill and Hillary sleep together.
If the media finds itself with a negative story about Bush&Co they instead focus on the Republican spin, or a sensational human interest story, or simply tabloid gossip.
They simply cannot, will not, must not report on the myriad of lies and abuses of power by the administration.
I hope you received the article on DemocracyNow about the twom women CHARGED with sedition - In the US!!!!! Guess you can take the man out of the sociopath but you can’t take the sociopath out of the man!!another comment - So…. that’s what it’s lioke to trusted as a “good Christian” man??? Hmmmmmm….
May 26th, 2006 at 6:38 pmRumsfeld is a sad man. He still can’t be a man and face the truth. A man with no shame and no honor leading the mighty US military. We as Americans’ are truly pathetic.
May 26th, 2006 at 7:15 pmDid anyone else shriek at his use of the term ‘real estate’? REAL ESTATE - this guy’s nuts. That shows reams about his mind and his thoughts. They’re all nuts. I, like others, can’t watch them, they make me feel ill… I’m from Australia and, believe me, our Prime Miniature makes me feel ill as well. BTW, do people reading this board actually know that the Australians are part of this mess? We are little johhny-come-latelies…
May 26th, 2006 at 7:21 pmoh, yeah, I notice that Slum liked the term ‘real estate’… wonderful, just wonderful. I want to know why no one in the media is talking about the issue of water… with the help of the good ol’ USA, Turkey has and is building 33 water installations and dams on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, denying Syria and Iraq their water… Turkey is to become the food basket of Europe and Iraq will starve (again and more) and Syria will start rattling it’s sabres more and more. This situation is, IMHO, more about water than oil. Water is the long-range issue more than oil. Once Iraq is dry, they can really just shut the door on it. Filthy stuff…
May 26th, 2006 at 7:26 pmI’m just verry sad and concerned for my children. Why are we letting peoplle like this run our country? We are the people of “We the People.” Rumsfeld’s incompetence and dishonesty are not accceptable. I am very troubled and concerned. At least The Daily Show is on soon; maybe it’ll get me laughing again. God bless us all, may we survive this regime.
May 26th, 2006 at 7:32 pmAnd of course, dear old thing that he is, Larry could not be hard-hitting with Rummy and nail him on the lie. Larry preferred to make jokes with Rummy about not watching Desperate Hoursewives. Sigh! For a couple of seconds, Larry did seem to try to pin Rumsfeld down once or twice, but it was all for naught. Rumsfeld answers with absurdly convoluted and actually quite unintelligent-sounding sentences, and gets away with them - every bloody time! Maddening.
Mind you, not to blame ol’ Larry too much, even Chris Matthews (whose claim to play Hardball is ludicrous when you see the way he caved in in 2004 to the liars against Kerry, et al.), doesn’t pin these lying gummint officials down as he ought to. Quelle dommage! Our nation and our planet is declining into an unlivable horror thanks to the pusillanimity of most of the media, the evil greed of the corporations, and the power madness of Bush and Co. Oh! And the rank stupidity of so many citizens, too!
May 26th, 2006 at 7:35 pmSecretary Rumsfeld would never lie about WMD or anything else, he’s the very definition of honesty. If he told me the sky was falling, I’d believe him. I think he is the greatest defense secretary of all time. He should be made King of America for life. I trust him with my life. I would give him all of my money if he asked for it. He is the greatest American ever.
If you believe that BS I got a ship on dry land I’d like to sell you. This guy stinks and lies like that dirty rug outside my back door. He is too old, yes I said it, too old to be defense secretary. I say that because old people are too set in their ways to change. Any fool can see that things aren’t going great in Iraq as he claims. He can’t see the truth because he doesn’t want to. He’s just an old fart who is too stubborn to admit he can’t drive anymore.
May 26th, 2006 at 7:36 pmHe should get the congressional medal of lying.
May 26th, 2006 at 9:33 pmNotice how he referred to areas in Iraq as REAL ESTATE!! These people are sick.
May 26th, 2006 at 9:53 pmAs I am a clergyman, I speak for all Americans.
It is God’s will that we invade Iraq, as God wishes for us to turn all the pagan infidels into Christians. Our Brave Fighting men, such as Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle have followed God’s will…..we must never lose our nerve ! You often hear of the Communist media in the New York Times etc. speaking of Iraqi deaths. What you have to remember is that these are only Muslims…they are not real people of God’s will. We must convert them, and turn them all into Christians. And as for the 50 something liberal communists who have written on this board, you shall all go to Hell. THe real America lies in the Bible Belt,….we are not afraid of war, and when the time comes we will you all the bullets and the bombs that God give us. As far as John Kerry and Michael Moore go, I have documentary proof these men are communists, and are together planning to bring down this country and turn it to a Muslim Communistic society. As far as global warming goes, God himself said ‘here is the earth, take it, rape it, it’s yours’. Let’s not forget that lest ye burn in hell. The Iraq war is a holy war, and God has personally spoken to me about it.
Rev Davies
May 26th, 2006 at 10:24 pmIdaho
Post 55 Rev. Davis > Go to Iraq immediately with a rifle in your hand to fight, or shut up your vile fascist mouth in here?! Take off your KKK white sheet you damn fool!
May 26th, 2006 at 11:06 pmRev Davies
Idaho
Comment by Rev Paul Davies — May 26, 2006 @ 10:24 pm
Rev Paul Davis the church of the anti-christ
May 26th, 2006 at 11:07 pmHey, don’t get Revved up, I think he was pulling your leg.
May 26th, 2006 at 11:11 pmLynda from DownUnder
Wow…so here’s what we have going for us:
A lying, senile Secy of Defense who appears to be having a mental breakdown before our very eyes…
an ex?cokehead-alcoholic nat’l guard-dodging former cheerleader for president…
& demonically possessed people like “Rev Davies” spreading hatred throughout the world — and, most unfortunately, demonstrating the mindset of a large contingent of the Bush Admin’s ignorant fan club…
WoW…Makes you just want to just run out and register as a Republican!
Oh…it would be so much easier to write such people off as the lunatics they are…if they weren’t so damned dangerous.
May 26th, 2006 at 11:30 pmLynda Hill if he was being sarcastic my comment fits…and if he was not my comment is even more appropriate because he reverses the biblical Jesus into “repugjesus god of money and war”
May 26th, 2006 at 11:32 pmSay, would the head nurse at the Hayden lake, Idaho. medical facality please give the old arian nation nut bag, Rev. Davies his meds. He thinks he is talking to god again. Be sure and take away his computer privlages and strap him back in his bed, otherwise he will think he is god by morning…….
May 27th, 2006 at 12:44 amHOW DARE YOU PEOPLE ARGUE WITH A MAN OF GOD?
I am up at this hour researching theology, and you have the hide to criticize me?
How dare you all!
I lay awake at one am, reading the Bible, and asking God how he wants the world to be run, and you show such disrespec to GOD ALMIGHTY!
God wants the following countries to be made FREE like America….Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, Libya, Turkey, Russia, China, North Korea, Myanmar, Laos, Venezuala, Bolivia. All war results in death…get used to it. When the semi-democracies see what has happened, they will happily wrap themselves in the American flag. France included. THey are not a democracy, but a Communistic society.
May 27th, 2006 at 1:20 amweapons of mass destruction…
or was it….
weapons of mass distraction…
or maybe…
weapons of math deduction…
no, wait,
woebegons of meth extraction….
no, I got it…
recon I’ll miss instruction…
no, that’s not it…
oh, hell…
9/11!!!
May 27th, 2006 at 1:21 amI have documentary proof that the following are Communist Satanists who wish to bring down America.
1) Michael Moore.
May 27th, 2006 at 1:24 am2) Hillary Clinton.
3) Bill Clinton.
4) John Kerry.
5) Jacques Chirac.
6) Mark Warner.
7) Gerhard Schroeder.
8) Vladimir Putin.
9) Barbara Boxer.
10) Nancy Pelosi.
11) Dianne Feinstein.
12) Richard Gere.
13) Sean Penne.
14) Rev. Desmond Tutu.
15) Kofi Annan.
What Rummy, Bush and the rest of the cronies are doing is nothing less than all out treason. They’ve destroyed everything this country stands for.
May 27th, 2006 at 1:37 amJust like He did to a virgin some 2k years ago. After all, she was never asked for her consent.
So, God fathered a child by a woman who was bethrothed to another man. Was pretty much absent through his son’s childhood. Acknowledged paternity by sending his son a bird on his baptism. Had only sporadic contact after that, and abandoned him totally when the State convicted him, sentenced him to die and summarily executed him.
And that’s supposed to be our role model for a good and loving father?
May 27th, 2006 at 1:41 amThe war was NOT about regime change, Tony Blair said so…
http://www.iraqwatch.org/ government/ UK/ PMO/ uk-pmo-blair-111402.htm
When will the Karma thing kick in?
May 27th, 2006 at 2:13 amPost 62 > You are NOT a man of God, but you are a Satanic fascist, so seek help for your soul!
May 27th, 2006 at 2:42 am#66- HELLO!!! Thank You! This has ALWAYS bothered me. It all just seems like a huge ego trip to me. Why would an all-powerful ‘being’ need a ‘Human Sacrifice’, (his own SON, no less) to demonstrate just how much he ‘cares’ about his ‘creations’? What, he can create an entire Universe, no problemo, but he is cluster-f*cked by some measly humans? What, they weren’t giving him enough respect, so he’ll show them!?! So he creates a life, with the intention of having him be brutally murdered, to soothe his bruised ego? And then lays an eternal guilt trip on everyone for good measure? What in the HELL is that all about? I want no part of that mess, thank you very much. God needed to get over himself, big time.
May 27th, 2006 at 2:44 amRumsfeld should be executed on the spot, just like Bush, Cheney, Rice, Blair, ahhh the list goes on.
May 27th, 2006 at 2:52 am“Oh, what a tangled web we weave…”
Just listen to the Dixie Chick´s latest, if you still have any doubts as to how I feel about BushCo…
May 27th, 2006 at 3:08 amI have documentary proof that the following are Communist Satanists who wish to bring down America. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Comment by Rev Paul Davies — May 27, 2006 @ 1:24 am
Comic books do not count
May 27th, 2006 at 3:19 amWMD = War Monger’s Deception
So what’s the problem?
May 27th, 2006 at 3:37 amthe time for listening to this man is over.
May 27th, 2006 at 4:26 amOMG, yes, Clif, you are right. But still, nutters like these don’t really deserve our time or effort. Don’t ya reckon?
May 27th, 2006 at 4:34 am#62
Since when has America been FREE?
BushCo = LIARS
May 27th, 2006 at 6:13 amThis is just BS. While I’m not a US citizen, I do live in a country who’s Prime Minister was and still is a supporter of the war in Iraq. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and our equivalents should all be faceing treason charges right now. I thought the only reason why they used the WMD scare campaign is that under the US constitution the president could only declare war if the US was under attack or under the threat of attack (the pre-emptive policy).
As soon as the WMD justification was retracted and a spurious “spreading democracy” excuse was used, the carbal that iniated the war should have been ousted (via the senate, who have ultimate power over the executiv branch). The senators and citizens should have been outraged. This carbal should be warming prison cells, not arguing about what the did or didn’t say. It’s on the public record. We have tapes of Colin Powell presenting the case at the UN and the President using the infamous 16 words. Not checking your facts is not an excuse for war.
The old adage about right-wing politics use of “fear and greed” to keep in power is so true. Wake up people, history is repeating.
May 27th, 2006 at 6:19 amIts great to see that so many people are wakening up to the scandalous way that the world is being kicked around by the US and the UK.
May 27th, 2006 at 7:09 amApart from venting our spleens on websites like these, what are the genuine options for getting these ‘leaders’ held to account?
I don’t mean not reelecting them or even impeaching them, but jailing them for international crimes.
To undertake a self-professed campaign of ‘Shock and Awe’ on the people of Baghdad, and to drop millions of dollars worths of weapons from planes, ships and submarines as a means of ’spreading democracy’ is truly outrageous.
And now, ladies and gentlemen…see Rumsfeld perform the new hit dance, the Bush Administration Backpedal!
May 27th, 2006 at 8:42 amFor post 77 — try to remember that the enablers, ALL Republicans and their supporters are at fault. Since they control the Congress, and cause it to act for the fool who occupies the presidency, and they control the courts and what passes for the NEW justice (Gonzalez the chief liar), there cannot a diminution of the evil that these people visit on the world. As the United States is a republic, it can be returned to greatness when we vote the enablers out of power and convict them all of war crimes.
As those Idaho idiots find a Communist under every opposition to their theocratic and crusading wishes, perhaps the world has found yet another of those inmates Reagan released from the mental institutions.
May 27th, 2006 at 8:58 amGod needed to get over himself, big time.
Comment by Cyra Brown — May 27, 2006 @ 2:44 am
Excellent post Cyra! Well said. I don’t think any of the folks who follow that system understand it in such clear and real terms. That it is utter nonsense if you truly consider it… Pretty much why those who do drop out for something better. Clarity.
May 27th, 2006 at 9:19 amYesterday’s vote on General Hayden in the Senate proves that there is no longer a dime’s bit of difference between the 2 parties on approving that Bush stooge to take over the CIA! There was absolutely NO justification for voting YES for the man who turned the NSA into a “Big Brother” illegal wiretapping operation! 78 Senators basically screwed over the entire nation, but expect everybody to overlook the treason they did confirming him?
Historians will someday bicker over what event and day that America lost its democracy and became a fascist warmongering dictatorship > that day was yesterday when the Senate proved they have sold out to the Bush Regime and have no intention to oppose him on anything ever!
Tony Blair meeting with Bush again can only mean one thing > the war on Iran is going to start soon, and I guess Americans for the first time may learn what it is like to have troops invade our nation’s capital to capture or kill Bush hiding in his bunker with Cheney! Despots always lead their nations to ruin, but I pray that somehow we survive the horrors that Bush is about to unleash on the world, and the revenge back onto the United States!
May 27th, 2006 at 9:59 amJay,
ever notice that the allignment of US and Britian is Oceania? The European Union occupies almost the same geographical region as Eurasia now.
Corporate Media is quickly transforming itself into the Ministry of Truth, while the new facility on Guantanamo could easily be called the Ministry of Love. The NSA is developing the tools of the Thought Police.
Ann Wright was arrested for sedition. What next, call her an “enemy combatant?”
May 27th, 2006 at 10:48 amWhy isn’t any one of these “journalists” asking Rummy about the use of words “suspect sites”?
May 27th, 2006 at 10:50 amIsn’t Rummy admittig that the Bush administration went to war based on sheer conjecture since they made their decisions with only “suspect sites”?
Why isn’t any one of these “journalists” asking Rummy about the use of words “suspect sites”?
May 27th, 2006 at 10:50 amIsn’t Rummy admitting that the Bush administration went to war based on sheer conjecture since they made their decisions with only “suspect sites”?
#69 - Cyra
You’re welcome.
There are possibilities worth exploring. If there is such an entity as God, man-unkind has seriously misunderstood and misrepresented its Nature.
If there is no such entity as God, man-unkind is well on its way to becoming the first creature to actually cause its own extinction.
(credit to e.e. cummings for coining the phrase “manunkind”)
May 27th, 2006 at 10:56 amwell im glad people in this country are wakeing up.Now mabe the people of this great country will stand up to get all thease liers out of office.the only thing that comes out of this admin,is lies lies lies .Thease people make me sick.I cant even stand to see thease liers on tv.plus im pissed off at all thease people who think bush and friends are such christians.what are thease people thinking or mabe thay arent there brain washed from magets like fox news wake up america it s time for change.
May 27th, 2006 at 11:35 amPost 83 Faire > Yes America and Britain are Orwell’s Oceania > the real 1984 came into existence in 2004 when Bush manipulated the votes to remain in office! Orwell predicted the future but was off by 20 years > better than Nostradamas anyways!
May 27th, 2006 at 12:09 pmHay, Rev.Davies, get over your self. Go thump your bible with bush, limbaugh,O’Lilie, Pat Robertson and the arian nation nut cases..You don’t carry any weight here and no one died and made you a god or a voice of your god either…We are sick of your crap and from now on I will just pass over your fear and hate filled posts….My bet is you are younger than 30 and have a shaved head and a swastica on your sleeve…….
May 27th, 2006 at 12:24 pmGood Morning Cyra and Jay, Just wanted to weigh in , your post are great and I agree 100%…..Blessings
May 27th, 2006 at 12:29 pmI think you’ll find that the good ol’ Rev is pulling your leg…
May 27th, 2006 at 12:44 pmDave, maybe, maybe not…Have lived around that kind of mentalety my entire life and I sure didn’t see a sarcasm on ,off notation…..When you see people like him hiding in the trees on platforms, wearing camo and automatic weapons in their hands, like I did in Idaho you know where there heads are…..Blessings
May 27th, 2006 at 1:13 pmRummy lying..surley you jest..
May 27th, 2006 at 1:17 pm13 men on a dead man’s chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of “Rum..”
Pirates and scumbags a bunch of
big fat jokes
rumsfeld? lie?..surely you jest.
Thirteen men on a dead mans chest
Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of “Rum..”
PIRATES!
they are all Nothing but big fat ridicules jokes.
also brings to mind another song by LL-cool J
May 27th, 2006 at 1:24 pmYour A Liar.
“..You lie about the lies that you lie about..”
Of course Rummy lied. He’s a corporate hack in a political job. But why the hell does LARRY KING LET HIM?!?! Larry asked the question, but didn’t have the footage of Rummy lying handy to bust him on it. He let’s Rummy smear McGovern. THAT’S THE WORST PART OF THIS INTERVIEW!!! McGovern has been outing the Administration’s lies for years, but why the hell does King let RUMMY SMEAR A TRUE PATRIOT?!?!?
Nauseating.
May 27th, 2006 at 11:48 pmOne of our finest Indigenous poet/philosophers John Trudell said, years ago:
“They lie to us then lie to themselves about lying to us.”
I can only say to my non-native relatives, “Welcome to our world.”
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
May 28th, 2006 at 1:39 amWe in Australia have been putting up with “truth-bending” for years. The Australian PM classes things as “oversights” or “non-core promises” as for the good of the people…… yeah right……even though at the time you could “take that to the bank”. I remember growing up watching Superman in Black and White (for the youngings, b4 the internet yes) “Truth, Justice and the American way” isn’t it funny that if you unbalance one of these it has an enormous affect on the others ??? anyways had my 2 cents worth
May 28th, 2006 at 1:41 amDING DING
Methinks the right Rev Paul Davies is parody and spoof.
May 28th, 2006 at 3:17 amNo harm done.Opposite-think needed.
Oh I wish you Americans had the BBC’s Jeremy Paxman instead of Lovable Larry. He would have had Rumsfeld on his knees begging for forgiveness! Maybe I’m wrong but there seems to be an unquestioning respect for politicians by many US citizens and the media in the US. This doesn’t seem to exist in the UK where people asume all politicians are lieing and start from there. I’m not saying it would have stopped the war,(after all, Blair went along with it all) but a stronger line by the US media would have an immediate effect on the quality of decisions made at the top. The room for excuses would be reduced and the idea of ‘trust me, I’m the president’ would have less sway.
May 28th, 2006 at 7:18 amThat’s only half true. Corporate media seems to be turning a blind eye to our current Administration. However, whenever a politician criticizes this Administration, Corporate Media broadcasts attacks not on the rationale of the critique, but on the critic.
It seems more and more America is being run by an oligarchy of Corporations with the Government merely being their public front.
May 28th, 2006 at 9:09 amShameless scumbag, liar, killer, sick man. You and you little brainless clown bush must be put on trial for war crimes well before Saddam.
May 28th, 2006 at 10:02 amRummy is a lyer like all those neocons in power in the white house, pnac tells you what they want… rule the world, americans need to take care of business and take the trash out before it all goes to hell…
Love from Québec.
May 28th, 2006 at 12:10 pmThe Secretary of Defense lied??? Heavens no!!! Say it ain’t so!!!
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.â€- Joseph Goebbels (Nazi Minister of Propaganda)
May 28th, 2006 at 2:03 pmLiar, Liar, pants on Fire!!!
May 28th, 2006 at 6:26 pmI dont know how this guy get to a power position…what an ass. Or GWB, or Cheney, or Negroponte (nice fellow that one), or … you know. How can they be voted?
May 28th, 2006 at 8:18 pm[…] Donald Rumsfeld was on Larry King Live last week and lied. From Think Progress: …Donald Rumsfeld was asked about 27-year CIA veteran Ray McGovern, who recently told the Secretary of Defense he lied when he said he knew where the WMD were located in Iraq in March 2003. Rumsfeld refused to acknowledge his error and falsely claimed he was talking about “suspect sites.†[…]
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i cant believe im witnessing the horror. what are the odds of seeing satans true face in our lifetimes? but, what irony to see what a joke scumbag heactually is!!
May 29th, 2006 at 7:04 amThe specter of WMD was invented so that the president could have an excuse to invade Iraq and grab its oil fields. He also wanted retribution against Saddam Hussein for plotting to kill his dad. This administration is so full of itself, and so full of lies, cheating, and deceit, that it may be years before this country once again has the kind of respect in the world that we used to have under Clinton. 900 days and counting!
May 29th, 2006 at 11:14 amBut, of course, he lied. Come on!! US policy of WMD´s is this: If they have WMD´s, US dont mess with them (China, India, Pakistan, Russia, North Korea, Iran…), if they DONT have WMDs, US feels the need to “freedomize” some poor people (Granada, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Panama, and a lot more…) Even the most advanced war machine is a wimp.
May 29th, 2006 at 12:42 pmThis government is purely evil and we re being led down a fascistic, totalitarian path. My husband is ill with Hepatieis C and can no longer work. We were just informed that social security had hired a private firm MAXIMUS –does Cheney own that?– and if he does not sign up with a private employment agency hand picked by the government–Rumsfeld’s?– he may stop getting a pay check from social security. The threat was there and not so thinly veiled. What is happening to our beloved country? Does anyone know what to do? I write letters and call but things keep getting worse. Oh God let these people leave office ASAP and be replaced by true patriots. With a normal IQ and no C average folks, God, PLEASE.
May 29th, 2006 at 8:29 pm[…] Rumsfeld’s Revisionist History […]
May 29th, 2006 at 9:29 pmBut why the hell does LARRY KING LET HIM?!?! Larry asked the question, but didn’t have the footage of Rummy lying handy to bust him on it. He let’s Rummy smear McGovern.
Nauseating.
Comment by Rich Campbell #95
Rich,
…because, Larry King is dual citizen…
…an American(traitor)-Israeli(patriot)…
that’s why…
May 30th, 2006 at 12:36 pmHow Massacres Become the Norm
By Dahr Jamail
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Tuesday 04 April 2006
US soldiers killing innocent civilians in Iraq is not news. Just as it was not news that US soldiers slaughtered countless innocent civilians in Vietnam. However, when some rare reportage of this non news from Iraq does seep through the cracks of the corporate media, albeit briefly, the American public seems shocked. Private and public statements of denial and dismissal immediately start to fill the air. We hear, “American soldiers would never do such a thing,” or “Who would make such a ridiculous claim?”
It amazes me that so many people in the US today somehow seriously believe that American soldiers would never kill civilians. Despite the fact that they are in a no-win guerrilla war in Iraq which, like any other guerrilla war, always generates more civilian casualties than combatant casualties on either side.
Robert J. Lifton is a prominent American psychiatrist who lobbied for the inclusion of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders after his work with US veterans from Vietnam. His studies on the behavior of those who have committed war crimes led him to believe it does not require an unusual level of mental illness or of personal evil to carry out such crimes. Rather, these crimes are nearly guaranteed to occur in what Lifton refers to as “atrocity-producing situations.”
Several of his books, like The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide, examine how abnormal conditions work on normal minds, enabling them to commit the most horrendous crimes imaginable.
Iraq today is most certainly an “atrocity-producing situation,” as it has been from the very beginning of the occupation.
The latest reported war crime, a US military raid on the al-Mustafa Shia mosque in Baghdad on March 26th, which killed at least 16 people, is only one instance of the phenomena that Lifton has spoken of.
An AP video of the scene shows male bodies tangled together in a bloody mass on the floor of the Imams’ living quarters - all of them with shotgun wounds and other bullet holes. The tape also shows shell casings of the caliber used by the US military scattered about on the floor. An official from the al-Sadr political bloc reported that American forces had surrounded the hospital where the wounded were taken for treatment after the massacre.
The slaughter was followed by an instant and predictable disinformation blitz by the US military. The second ranking US commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, told reporters “someone went in and made the scene look different from what it was.”
On March 15th, 11 Iraqis, mostly women and children, were massacred by US troops in Balad. Witnesses told reporters that US helicopters landed near a home, which was then stormed by US troops. Everyone visible was rounded up and taken inside the house where they were killed. The victims’ ages ranged from six months to 75 years.
The US military acknowledged the raid, but claimed to have captured a resistance fighter and insisted that only four people had been killed. Their claim would have held good but for the discrepancies that the available evidence presents. For one, the photographs that the AP reporter took of the scene reveal a collapsed roof, three destroyed cars and two dead cows. The other indictment comes from the detailed report of the incident prepared by Iraq Police. It matches witness accounts and accuses the American troops of murdering Iraqi civilians.
“The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 persons, including five children, four women and two men. Then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles and killed the animals.” The report includes the observation of local medics that all of the bodies had bullet wounds in the head.
Ahmed Khalaf, the nephew of one of the victims said, “The killed family was not part of the resistance, they were women and children. The Americans have promised us a better life, but we get only death.” AP photos of the aftermath showed the bodies of five children, two men and four others covered in blankets being driven to a nearby hospital.
Reminiscent of Vietnam?
Another appalling example of the effect of an “atrocity-producing situation” was experienced last November 19th in Haditha. American troops, in retaliation against a roadside bomb attack, stormed nearby homes and shot dead 15 members of two families, including a three-year-old girl.
US military response? All 15 civilians were killed by the blast of the roadside bomb.
In this case, reality refuted their claim when a student of journalism from Haditha showed up with a video tape of the dead, still in their nightclothes.
Killing Iraqis in their homes and while they are in bed is not news either, for during the aftermath of the November 2004 assault on Fallujah, scores of Iraqis were killed by US soldiers in this manner.
Neither is it news that the US military regularly targets ambulances and medical infrastructure. Khaled Ahmed Rsayef, whose brother and six other relatives were killed by the troops, vividly described the blind frustration of the American soldiers and their impulsive revenge at losing one of their own. “American troops immediately cordoned off the area and raided two nearby houses, shooting at everyone inside. It was a massacre in every sense of the word,” said Rasayef. While he was not present at the scene, his 15-year-old niece was and her story was corroborated by other residents of the area who witnessed the carnage.
A quick scan of some Arab media reportage for last month exposes further atrocities carried out by US forces in Iraq which find no mention in the corporate media.
March 20, the Daily Dar Al-Salam reported: “US forces destroyed houses in Hasibah and displaced the inhabitants. Also, a source at Abu Ghurayb Secondary School said that US forces raided the school for the third time and arrested the guard.”
In December 2003, I personally witnessed US soldiers raid a secondary school in the al-Amiriyah district of Baghdad and detain 16 children.
March 19, Al-Arabia reported: “In another development, seven people, including a woman, were killed in a raid carried out by joint American-Iraqi forces in Al-Dulu’iyah at dawn today. The US Army has so far not confirmed this information.”
March 9, Al Sharqiyah Television reported: “US troops opened fire at a civilian vehicle as it passed by Al-Hadba district in the western part of Mosul, northern Iraq. The three occupants of the vehicle were martyred in the incident.”
Throughout the three-year history of the US-led catastrophe that is the occupation of Iraq, we have had one instance after another of brutality meted out to innocent Iraqis, by way of direct executions or bombings from the air, or both.
During an attack on a wedding party in May 2004, US troops killed over 40 people, mostly women and children, in a desert village on the Syrian border of Iraq.
APTN footage showed fragments of musical instruments, blood stains, the headless body of a child, other dead children and clumps of women’s hair in a destroyed house that was bombed by US warplanes. Other photographs showed dead women and children, and an AP reporter identified at least 10 of the bodies as those of children. Relatives who gathered at a cemetery outside of Ramadi, where all the bodies were buried, told reporters that each of the 28 fresh graves contained between one and three bodies.
The few survivors of the massacre later recounted how in the middle of the night long after the wedding feast had ended, US jets began raining bombs on their tents and houses.
Mrs. Shihab, a 30-year-old woman who survived the massacre, told the Guardian, “We went out of the house and the American soldiers started to shoot us. They were shooting low on the ground and targeting us one by one.” She added that she ran with her two little boys before they were all shot, including herself in the leg. “I left them because they were dead,” she said of her two little boys, one of whom was decapitated by a shell. “I fell into the mud and an American soldier came and kicked me. I pretended to be dead so he wouldn’t kill me.”
Thereafter, armored military vehicles entered the village, shooting at all the other houses and the people who were starting to assemble in the open. Following these, two Chinook helicopters offloaded several dozen troops, some of who set explosives in one of the homes and a building next to it. Both exploded into rubble as the helicopters lifted off.
Mr. Nawaf, one of the survivors, said, “I saw something that nobody ever saw in this world. There were children’s bodies cut into pieces, women cut into pieces, men cut into pieces. The Americans call these people foreign fighters. It is a lie. I just want one piece of evidence of what they are saying.”
Hamdi Noor al-Alusi, the manager of al-Qa’im general hospital, the nearest medical facility to the scene of the slaughter, said that of the 42 killed, 14 were children and 11 women. “I want to know why the Americans targeted this small village,” he said, “These people are my patients. I know each one of them. What has caused this disaster?”
As usual, the US military ran a disinformation campaign saying the target was a “suspected safe-house” for foreign fighters and denied that any children were killed. The ever pliant US Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters that the troops who reported back from the operation “told us they did not shoot women and children.”
Topping his ridiculous claim was the statement of Maj. Gen. James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division. “How many people go to the middle of the desert … to hold a wedding 80 miles (130km) from the nearest civilization?”
Perhaps someone should have informed him that these farmers and nomads often “go to the middle of the desert” because they happen to live there.
“These were more than two dozen military-age males. Let’s not be naïve,” Mattis stated before being asked by a reporter to comment on the footage on Arabic television which showed a child’s body being lowered into a grave. His brilliant response was: “I have not seen the pictures but bad things happen in wars. I don’t have to apologize for the conduct of my men.”
If the US were a member of the International Criminal Court, Maj. Gen. Mattis may well have been in The Hague right now being tried for aiding and abetting war crimes. How can someone holding an official position like Mattis publicly sanction atrocities?
It is about unnatural responses such as these that Dr. Lifton has written extensively. In a piece he wrote for the New England Journal of Medicine in July 2004, Lifton addressed the issue of US doctors being complicit in torturing Iraqis in Abu Ghraib. This article sheds much light on the situation in Iraq. If we substitute “doctors” with “soldiers” it is easy to understand why American soldiers are regularly committing the excesses that we hear of.
Lifton writes, “American doctors at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere have undoubtedly been aware of their medical responsibility to document injuries and raise questions about their possible source in abuse. But those doctors and other medical personnel were part of a command structure that permitted, encouraged, and sometimes orchestrated torture to a degree that it became the norm - with which they were expected to comply - in the immediate prison environment.”
He continues, “The doctors thus brought a medical component to what I call an “atrocity-producing situation” - one so structured, psychologically and militarily, that ordinary people can readily engage in atrocities. Even without directly participating in the abuse, doctors may have become socialized to an environment of torture and by virtue of their medical authority helped sustain it. In studying various forms of medical abuse, I have found that the participation of doctors can confer an aura of legitimacy and can even create an illusion of therapy and healing.”
I have personally experienced this. Standing with US soldiers at checkpoints and perimeters of operations in Iraq, I have seen them curse and kick Iraqis, heard them threatening to kill even women and children and then look at me as if they had merely said hello to them. My status of journalist did not deter them because they saw no need for checks.
Having stood with soldiers anticipating that each moving car would turn into a bomb and each passerby into a suicide bomber, I have tasted the stress and fear these soldiers live with on a daily basis. When one of their fellow soldiers is killed by a roadside bomb, the need for revenge may be directed at anything. And repeated often enough, the process gets socialized.
It’s about this attitude brought on by the normalization of the abnormal under “atrocity-producing situations” that Dr. Lifton speaks. Unless of course we consider Mattis and others like him to be rare sociopaths who are able to participate in atrocities without suffering lasting emotional harm.
And it is this attitude that is responsible for the incessant replication of wanton slaughter and madness in Iraq today.
Back in November of 2004, I wrote about 12-year-old Fatima Harouz. She lay dazed in a crowded room in Yarmouk Hospital in Bahgdad, feebly waving her bruised arm at flies. Her shins had been shattered by bullets from US soldiers when they fired through the front door of her home in Latifiya, a small city just south of Baghdad. Small plastic drainage bags filled with red fluid sat upon her abdomen, where she took shrapnel from another bullet.
Her mother, who was standing with us, said, “They attacked our home and there weren’t even any resistance fighters in our area.” Her brother had been shot and killed, and his wife was wounded as their home was ransacked by soldiers. “Before they left, they killed all of our chickens,” she added, her eyes a mixture of fear, shock and rage.
On hearing the story, a doctor looked at me sternly and asked, “This is the freedom … in their Disney Land are there kids just like this?”
Another wounded young woman in a nearby hospital bed, Rana Obeidy, had been walking home with her brother. She assumed the soldiers shot her and her brother because he was carrying a bottle of soda. This happened in Baghdad. She had a chest wound where a bullet had grazed her, unlike her little brother, whom the bullets had killed.
There exist many more such cases. Amnesty International has documented scores of human rights violations committed by US troops in Iraq during the first six months of the occupation. To mention but a few:
US troops shot dead and injured scores of Iraqi demonstrators in several incidents. For example, seven people were reportedly shot dead and dozens injured in Mosul on 15 April.
At least 15 people, including children, were shot dead and more than 70 injured in Fallujah on 29 April.
Two demonstrators were shot dead outside the Republican Palace in Baghdad on 18 June.
On 14 May, two US armed vehicles broke through the perimeter wall of the home of Sa’adi Suleiman Ibrahim al-’Ubaydi in Ramadi. Soldiers beat him with rifle butts and then shot him dead as he tried to flee.
US forces shot 12-year-old Mohammad al-Kubaisi as they carried out search operations around his house in the Hay al-Jihad area in Baghdad on 26 June. He was carrying the family bedding to the roof of his house when he was shot. Neighbors tried to rush him to the nearby hospital by car, but US soldiers stopped them and ordered them to go back. By the time they returned to his home, Mohammad al-Kubaisi was dead.
On 17 September, a 14-year-old boy was killed and six people were injured when US troops opened fire at a wedding party in Fallujah.
On 23 September, three farmers, ‘Ali Khalaf, Sa’adi Faqri and Salem Khalil, were killed and three others injured when US troops opened a barrage of gunfire reportedly lasting for at least an hour in the village of al-Jisr near Fallujah. A US military official stated that this happened when the troops came under attack but this was vehemently denied by relatives of the dead. Later that day, US military officials reportedly went to the farmhouse, took photographs and apologized to the family.
This last incident ended in a way similar to the one I covered in Ramadi in November, 2003. On the 23rd of that month during Ramadan, US soldiers raided a home where a family was just sitting down together to break their fast.
Three men of the family had their hands tied behind them with plastic ties and were laid on the ground face down while the women and children were made to stand inside a nearby storage closet.
Khalil Ahmed, 30 years old, the brother of two of the victims and cousin with a third, wept when he described to me how after executing the three men the soldiers completely destroyed the home, using Humvees with machine guns, small tanks, and gunfire from the many troops on foot and helicopters.
“We don’t know the reason why the soldiers came here. They didn’t tell us the reason. We don’t know why they killed our family members.” Khalil seemed to demand an answer from me. “There are no weapons in this house, there are no resistance fighters. So why did these people have to die? Why?”
Khalil told me that the day after the executions took place, soldiers returned to apologize. They handed him a cake saying they were sorry that they had been given wrong information by someone that told them there were resistance fighters in their house.
This is only a very small sampling. The only way to prevent any of this from being repeated ad infinitum is to remove US soldiers from their “atrocity-producing situation” in Iraq. For it is clearer than ever that the longer the failed, illegal occupation persists, the larger will be the numbers of Iraqis slaughtered by the occupation forces.
May 30th, 2006 at 5:54 pmi find it curious that entry number three boasts about her brains.. and spells it wrong!
February 12th, 2007 at 9:25 amit disgusts me how people focus on the negative. have any of you been to iraq? i doubt it. there is a complete difference in the actual soldiers over there and the portrayal by the overwhelmingly democratic media. i have home movies made in iraq that show us soldiers being paraded by iraqi children. the soldiers over there are faced with alot of stress. not to mention the difficulty of not knowing who is going to shoot at you. a child with a bundle of sheets seems harmless until the sheets explode sending shrapnel through you and your buddies chests. im not saying i agree with the politics today but i know one thing, war is hell, any war, and it doesnt get any better when the people who you believe you are fighting for turn their back on you. god bless the troops in iraq!
February 12th, 2007 at 9:35 am