Ray McGovern Is Going to Rumsfeld's House

By David Swanson

Ray McGovern wasn't aiming to make Donald Rumsfeld stutter and stammer like a kid caught cheating on a test when he asked him last week why he'd lied us into a war. That was just a side benefit. Ray wants answers, and he's taking his demand to Donald Rumsfeld's house in Washington, D.C.

On Thursday, May 18, a large coalition of groups is planning to deliver to the White House all the signatures and comments posted on a petition at www.DontAttackIran.org As the name of the site suggests, the petition simply asks the President and Vice President not to launch another aggressive attack on foreign soil – an attack that would necessarily be promoted with lies, lies that are already being spread by the Bush administration.

Numerous peace groups that have promoted the petition will join together with a "Pray-In" in Lafayette Square Park, in front of the White House, an event being held by the Network of Spiritual Progressives. Remarks made by various leaders between 1 and 3 p.m., possibly including Members of Congress, will focus on a positive vision of how our nation might promote peace and justice rather than the destruction and suffering our policies currently generate.

Toward the end of the event, at approximately 2:30 p.m., Cindy Sheehan will lead us in delivering the petition and signatures and comments to the White House. And at 3 p.m. we will head off on a march to Donald Rumsfeld's house, with Ray McGovern leading the way.

Our demand to Rumsfeld: Why did you lie?

This is where the focus on Rumsfeld should be. He must be driven out of office, but not because he's an unpleasant micromanager, not because he didn't use enough young Americans to kill more Iraqis faster.

No, he needs to go for the same reasons Bush and Cheney need to go: he helped to launch an illegal war based on lies, has committed a wide variety of war crimes during the war, and has sanctioned detentions without charge and torture.

Here are some of Rumsfeld's most memorable statements for which he must answer. (These are taken from "Oil, Power, and Empire" by Larry Everest. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/bodyguard )

"Of course, this conjures up Winston Churchill's famous phrase when he said—don't quote me on this, okay? I don't want to be quoted on this, so don't quote me. He said 'sometimes the truth is so precious it must be accompanied by a bodyguard of lies.'"
—Donald Rumsfeld, US Department of Defense Briefing, September 25, 2001

The New York Times, on September 27, 2002, wrote:
"Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today that American intelligence had 'bulletproof' evidence of links between Al Qaeda and the government of President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Mr. Rumsfeld said that recently declassified intelligence reports about suspected ties between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi government, including the presence of senior members of Al Qaeda in Baghdad in 'recent periods,' were 'factual' and 'exactly accurate.'

The Los Angeles Times, on April 20, 2003, wrote of Iraqi scientists' claims that there were no WMD to be found: "In fact the scientists' denials come despite the pressure that the U.S is putting on them. Rumsfeld announced that the US will pay a reward to anyone providing evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and he has threatened Iraqi scientists that if they don't cooperate they would be taken to a detention facility for interrogation and ultimately could be charged with war crimes."

Congressman Henry Waxman has created a database of Bush Administration lies. It includes 52 misleading statements by Donald Rumsfeld, searchable by topic, and documented with both their source and an explanation of why they are misleading. Some highlights are below, and the database is here: http://democrats.reform.house.gov/IraqOnTheRecord/

"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat."
Source: This Week with George Stephanopolous, ABC (3/30/2003).

"We said they had a nuclear program. That was never any debate."
Source: This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC (7/13/2003).

"Now people are saying, "Well, why haven't we found anything?" And I would respond by saying, A, it's going take some time, and B, we have found things. The CIA very recently, I believe, issued a declassified document on their website, where someone can actually go and find photographs and data that discusses these mobile laboratories, which are precisely what Secretary Powell talked about to the United Nations."
Source: Town Hall Meeting with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Infinity-CBS Radio (5/29/2003).

"And within the last week or two, they have in fact captured and have in custody two of the mobile trailers that Secretary Powell talked about at the United Nations as being biological weapons laboratories. We have people who are telling that they worked in these vehicles. And they look at panels and say, "That was my work station in that panel, and that's what it's for.""
Source: Town Hall Meeting with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Infinity-CBS Radio (5/29/2003).

"My personal view is we're going to find them, just as we found these two mobile laboratories."
Source: Town Hall Meeting with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Infinity-CBS Radio (5/29/2003).

"We have seen . . . intelligence over--over months, over many months that they have chemical and biological weapons, and that they have dispersed them and that they're weaponized . . . ."
Source: Secretary Donald Rumsfeld discusses the war in Iraq, CBS (3/23/2003).

"With each passing day, Saddam Hussein advances his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and could pass them along to terrorists. If he is allowed to do so, the result could be the deaths not of 3,000 people, as on September 11th, but of 30,000, or 300,000 or more innocent people."
Source: Donald H. Rumsfeld Delivers Remarks to American Troops, Defense Department (3/20/2003).

"He claims to have no chemical or biological weapons, yet we know that he continues to hide biological or chemical weapons, moving them to different locations as often as every 12 to 24 hours, and placing them in residential neighborhoods."
Source: Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Myers Hold Regular Department of Defense Briefing, Defense Department (3/11/2003).

"QUESTION: There've been a lot of reports . . . In regard to these . . . very small aircraft, that potentially could deliver biological things. . . SECRETARY RUMSFELD: They come in a variety of sizes and shapes and capabilities. They are perfectly capable of being equipped with spraying and aerosol-type capabilities. Today with global position systems, GPS, and the kinds of maps that one can buy readily, these types of things can be purchased and used and guided and directed with great precision and capable of dispensing those kinds of weapons. They do exist. We know that Iraq has a number of so-called UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles, of different types, that they train with them and exercise them."
Source: Donald Rumsfeld Delivers Remarks to the Hoover Institute Meeting, State Dept (2/25/2003).

"QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, today in a broadcast interview Saddam Hussein said: "There is only one truth, Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction whatsoever." And he went on to say, "I would like to tell you directly we have no relationship with Al Qaida." SECRETARY RUMSFELD: And Abraham Lincoln was short." Source: Donald Rumsfeld Holds Defense Department Briefing, Defense Department (2/4/2003).

"The regime plays host to terrorists, including Al Qaida, as the president indicated."
Source: Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Myers Hold Regular Defense Department Briefing, Defense Department (1/29/2003).

"His regime has the design for a nuclear weapon, was working on several different methods of enriching uranium, and recently was discovered seeking significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
Source: Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Myers Hold Regular Defense Department Briefing, Defense Department (1/29/2003).

"Saddam Hussein's regime is a grave and gathering danger. It's a danger to its neighbors, to the United States, to the Middle East and to the international peace and stability. It's a danger we cannot ignore."
Source: Donald Rumsfeld Addresses the Conference of Army Reserve Operators, Defense Department (1/20/2003).

"QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, the United States has categorically said that Iraq has an active . . . nuclear weapons program. SECRETARY RUMSFELD: Because they do."
Source: DoD News Briefing - Secretary Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers, Defense Department (12/3/2002).

"They have amassed large clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons including VX and sarin and mustard gas." Source: Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Defense Department (9/27/2002).

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Mr. Rumsfeld is employed by a democratic government. He must answer to the public for this string of lies and the steady stream of coffins still being generated by them.