AP: Rumsfeld Gets Friendly Questions in Iraq

[Catchawave]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041224/ap_on_re_mi_ea/rumsfeld_media&cid=540&ncid=1480

Excerpt:

MOSUL, Iraq - The questions from the troops for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were considerably more friendly on his Christmas Eve visit to Iraq (news - web sites) than they were on his previous trip to the region a couple of weeks ago.

[Goldeneye]

1. Did they screen em'?

[MadHound]

2. No, just trained guns on them.

"Mr. Rumsfeld, what about that armor. . ." POW, thunk
"Next question"

[htuttle]

3. BREAKING: The troops did not curse at the Secretary of Defense today

Only in Bush's America would this be a news item.

:eyes:

[koopie57]

4. I just read the story posted on msn

and it is pathetic. He went there to cheer them up.

“All I can say is, people basically want to be free,” he said to cheers and applause in the refurbished brick and plaster Iraqi building.

Indeed, the 72-year-old defense chief was greeted warmly by the troops at each stop. He spent a lot of time shaking hands and posing with a number of soldiers who wanted to have their picture taken with him.

Let's see ... a visit from Rumsfeld or being home for the holidays ... hum... what would cheer the soldiers up?

[elperromagico]

6. "People basically want to be free."

Most... brilliant... statement... ever.

[katinmn]

29. And girls just wanna have fu-un.

brilliant all right

[Vanje]

41. "People basically want to be free"

People basically want to stay alive.

[MisterP]

46. Reptilesfeld: "Freee-eeee free as the wind bloooows"

[leftchick]

9. MSRNC on TV did the same....

I caught several seconds of it this AM. It was a total fluff job for the moronic tv viewers. Sickening... :puke:

[LeighAnn]

18. Afterglow of the WWE Christmas Tour in Iraq

I stumbled on that last night. The troops seemed mighty happy, kind of like how they're describing this visit from Rummy.

The WWE crew was going from base to base visiting with the troops, who were eating it up. The courage it took to go over there and the good-will it inspired was stirring feelings of patriotism in me, until they'd start showing the wrestling part. Then I was hoping people in other countries weren't watching.

I kept hoping they would show a scene of the wrestlers visiting with Iraqi civilians, but there was none of that.

Likewise, I would like to see Rummy fielding questions from Iraqi civilians. That would be interesting.

[ucmike]

25. likewise, i'd like to see rummy answer questions from u.s. citizens

[LynnTheDem]

21. All I can say is, people basically want to be free

Yes. That's why US troops are being killed in Iraq. Because the Iraqis want to be free of them.

Pretty simple. Funny how bushCartel & the bushbots are unable to understand it.

Very funny how "freedom" is being chanted by the foreign invaders & occupiers...ever since the official "WMD" excuse turned out to be the total bullshit the world had said it was.

And Americans wonder why they hate us... :eyes:

[JohnOneillsMemory]

52. "Hundreds die in Fallujan Freedom Frenzy. Dogs dine well on corpses."

See? It's a cute puppy story!

Frikkin' propaganda excrement.

[Canuckistanian]

37. Wow, what a controversial statement

He really doesn't pull any punches, does he? What a man, what a legend.

What a dork.

[elperromagico]

5. Of course not; they were too thrilled by the Presentation Turkey ®

to even think of asking tough questions.

[Solly Mack]

7. Were they afraid of being blown up again?

Not that I'm implying anything.....really.

[VolcanoJen]

8. He used a canned line twice.

First in Mosul, then in Tikrit, in response to "friendly" questions, he said, "Now there's a question we know the media didn't plant!"

:eyes:

[Cooley Hurd]

13. And he thought it was the FUNNIEST thing, didn't he?

Of course, it came out later that the question wasn't planted. Truth always seems to escape the ninni-cons, doesn't it?:grr:

[VolcanoJen]

17. Don't ever forget: It's All About Don!!

Oh, yes, he laughed, and laughed, and laughed!! Glad to see Donnie loosening up and having a good ol' time in Iraq.

And I'm supposed to believe that the soldier who said, "If Americans didn't support the war in Iraq, President Bush wouldn't have been reelected" wasn't a plant, right?

[LynnTheDem]

23. The MAJORITY of Americans DON'T support the war on Iraq

And the MAJORITY of Americans DIDN'T support the war on Iraq until the bombs were dropping on Baghdad.

But then, that ignorant soldier only gets to hear Faux Moos and Rush Pigboy, so he wouldn't know the facts.

[LizW]

26. He said that???!!!

Jesus, what an asshole.

As if the soldiers aren't worried about going into battle unarmed, the media's just making a fuss.

:grr:

[VolcanoJen]

28. And, the whore media is all gushy over Don today.

"He's close to tears... such an emotional day for the Secretary!"

-- Bill Hemmer, CNN Whore

[oneighty]

10. Were the soldiers disarmed?

Were their bullets taken away?

You bet.

180

[tsuki]

12. Screened, more likely. Bush Rally Part Deux. eom

[0007]

11. Rumsfeld is no better than the whore he is;

First he sucks 'em in and then he sucks them off.

[ally_sc]

32. when i heard the snippet yesterday that he was going,,,

i thought to myself they will use plants this time or screen the questions like previous posters stated...i still wake up and ask myself why are we there? and when will it end? this whole administration is a inpeachable and i don't see how the american people can keep buying into the "BIG LIE"...

[flordehinojos]

14. what were the soldiers either A) threatened with if they did not shore up

the falling Rumsfeld, or B) promised to be rewarded with if they did shore him up? Either way they were coerced or manipulated into embracing the falling Donald.

[0007]

27. This guy had no choice and doesn't look too happy!

[flordehinojos]

43. you know, this is the picture of a moral rape!

*****@@@@@@@%%%%%%%%%%

[daleo]

51. If an expression ever said "whoopee shit" that man has it. n/t

On edit - the wounded soldier I mean. Rummy just looks retarded.

[illflem]

15. After watching Rumsfeld pinning on Purple Hearts

It made me wonder if the folks who claimed John Kerry didn't deserve his PHs would also claim the solders injured in the Mosul attack were also undeserving since they were wounded eating lunch.

[VolcanoJen]

31. Only if they choose to run for office as Democrats one day.

That is when their honor and dignity will be challenged.

:grr:

[Catchawave]

49. Me wondering the same.....

...blown up at lunch doesn't a hero make, eh? Well, according to Rove and his previous attacks on non-heroes McClain and Cleland ? How could they?

[fryguy]

16. does he even know what a "free press" is?

"We are a great country and we can benefit from having a free press," said Rumsfeld. "From time to time people can be concerned about it, but look where we've come as a country because we do have a free press."

honestly, the way he (and the rest of the bushies) manhandle and marginalize the press, do they even understand what "free press" means? someone should clue them in to the fact that a free press does not merely mean its not owned (directly) by the government. it also means that not only certain members of the press are allowed to ask questions, that those question need to be prescreened and in-line with the administration's goals, and that asking real questions doesn't get you banned from briefings. A free press means the press is free to carry out its responsibility to the public you effing "morans"

[Shopaholic]

19. Well, they screened the audiences for

* when he went over there last Thanksgiving with his fake turkey and I'm sure that they've carefully screened these groups so that Rummy doesn't have to hear what the troops really think. The way that this administration manipulates the press is truly amazing to me.

[w4rma]

24. I think he does. I think he opposes it, though. (nt)

[lebkuchen]

20. Everyone here should e-mail their congressperson

claiming any connection whatsoever to the military, and demand Rumsfeld's resignation.

[luaneryder]

22. Obvious PR ploy

They were told beforehand what to say, how to act, the questions that were permissable and that it would "behoove" them to follow these orders.

[Politicub]

30. What a piece of naked propaganda

It's coming hard and heavy now, folks.

Observe the positioning in this article about the soldier who asked a valid question of Rumsfeld in TN about the armor. It wasn't "planted" by the media. Rather, the reporter helped the soldier frame his question. There's a huge amount of difference there.

Asshole liars, every one of them.

[ohtransplant]

33. Of course their questions were planted.

Or at least screened and edited.

Any veteran knows there will be Hell to pay for embarrassing one's Commander in front of a superior.

Has anyone in the media followed up with the soldier who put Rummy on the spot last week?

They've obviously decided to ratchet up the propaganda apparatus. It's in the following Q&As;

"How do we win the war in the media?" asked one soldier in Mosul. Another soldier in Tikrit wondered why there is not more coverage of reconstruction efforts going on in the country.

"I guess what's news has to be bad news to get on the press," Rumsfeld responded to the first question - after supposing, with a big grin, "that does not sound like a question that was planted by the press."

What wrinkles my shorts is that our so-called free press laps this stuff up like a dog who's been out in the sun all day. What ever happened to the "fourth estate"?

I guess our troops really don't need that armor. Just some disgruntled, obviously deranged, soldier (propped up by a unpatriotic, fear-mongering, muck-raking, Pulitzer-seeking, opportunist of a reporter ) who obviously doesn't see the big picture. What a relief!
:wtf:

[yorkiemommie1]

42. phoney baloney

reminds me of when i was in catholic school and the nuns and priests would stand at the front of the classroom and ask who wanted to be nuns and all the little hands shot up.


phoney questions, phoney answers...

rummy the king of the crocodiles. crocodile tears, crocodile smiles.

[Catchawave]

50. Yep......

I so agree with you yorkiemommie.....brainwashing at it's best:silly:

[JohnOneillsMemory]

54. The dogs of war are hungry, aren't they?

"our so-called free press laps this stuff up like a dog who's been out in the sun all day"

You realize that US troops in Falluja have to go out on patrols to shoot all the dogs feeding on the corpses created by the US Freedom Frenzy?

And this is harder for the troops then shooting Fallujans?

The American press is a pack of dogs led by the cracking whip of CIA handlers since the 1950s called Operation Mockingbird. This wall-to-wall propaganda machine was in place long before Rupert Murdoch put up Fox News.

[against all enemies]

34. What a farce, I'm glad I haven't been watching TV news lately.

[HuffleClaw]

35. fake questions, surprise visit? how STUPID do they think the public is?

good lord, what a farce. at least the story makes that perfectly clear, without actually saying so. pretty clever if you ask me. i wonder why BUSH isn't over there for a 'surprise visit' of his own. probably too afraid of being booed.

[Gyre]

36. How much you wanna bet loyalty oaths were required to get in?

Softballs for Rummy. Come and get yer Softballs for Rummy!

[FM Arouet666]

38. The military crack down..

Rumsfeld, still stinging from the last round of questions, has, no doubt, instructed the military brass to ensure that he is asked appropriate questions. Nothing about the worst attack on the U.S military since the start of the war? Nope, not appropriate.

[leesa]

39. What a surprise. Were they threatened with shooting if they spoke up?

[cliss]

40. Interesting......his message is not 100% cheerful.

RumsFailed thinks he's such a smooth operator. Such a Renaissance Man. Writes poetry and kills people at the same time.

Truth is, RumsFool is actually an up-front man. You just have to pay very close attention to what he says. In the congressional hearings regarding the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, he admitted that we violated the Geneva Conventions. When pressed with his back to the wall, he'll tell you exactly what's going on.

I'm reading an article about him in the Daily Oregonian which just arrived on my front porch. There's an article on the front page about RumsFool making a surprise trip to Iraq yesterday. It says: "...Rumsfeld told soldiers he remained confident of defeating insurgency and stabilizing Iraq, while noting that to some "it looks bleak"."

Guess who that "some" is? It's the Bush administration. I'm recalling Bush only a few days ago, who admitted that the situation in Iraq "looks bleak". There's a thread about this in LBN. He was extremely downcast about the prospects in the near future.

The truth has sunk in! They have finally realized that it's an unwinnable war. They were hoping the "elections" next month would help things. NOT for the Iraqis, but for the Americans. (It's a ploy to encourage us to feel that "democracy" is truly on the way!! for the Iraqis).

It was their last, best hope for their "gold-plated occupation". They have no doubt gotten the word from Ayad Allawi, the CIA and many other intelligence agencies that it's not going to work. The insurgents are determined to destroy the country before we get a foothold.

[SHRED]

44. "free press"

"We are a great country and we can benefit from having a free press," said Rumsfeld. "From time to time people can be concerned about it, but look where we've come as a country because we do have a free press."

Oh yeah they are free alright...yeah..real free...
:crazy:

[wolvergeek]

45. Dumsfield's speach

Did anyone see the video today?

He made a big slip up talking about the terrorists. He was talking about the terrorists in Mosul recently, in Spain, in New York (another 9-11) name drop and then he said the plane they shot down in Pennsylvania. WTF?

Bush and Co. are keeping the biggest secret in US history from all of us. I wish I was a fly on the wall in their meetings.

So I could regurgitate my lunch on them.

[Danmel]

47. People Got To Be Free- The Rascals

PEOPLE GOT TO BE FREE

All the world over, so easy to see
People everywhere just wanna be free
Listen, please listen, that's the way it should be
Deep in the valley, people got to be free

You should see what a lovely, lovely world this'd be
Everyone learned to live together, ah-hah-unh
Seems to me such an itty bitty thing should be
Why can't you and me learn to love one another?

All the world over, so easy to see
People everywhere just wanna be free
I can't understand it, so simple to me
People everywhere just got to be free

If there's a man who is down and needs a helpin' hand
All it takes is you to understand and to pull him through, ah-hah-unh
Seems to me we got to solve it individually, ah-hah-unh
And I'll do unto you what you do to me

Shout it from the mountain on out to the sea (out to the sea)
No two ways about it, people have to be free
Ask me my opinion, my opinion will be
Nat'ral situation for a man to be free

Git right on board now

Oh, what a feelin's just come over me
Love can move a mountain, make a blind man see
Everybody sing it now come on let's go see
Deep in the valley now, we ought to be free

See that train over there?
That's the train of freedom
It's about to 'rrive any minute, now
You know it's been'a long, long overdue
Look out 'cause it's a'comin' right on through


Didn't Figure Rummy as a Rascals kinda guy- all that hippie shit and all. Live and Learn- Rummy's jsut a real caring fellow, so much fun to be around.

[lcordero]

48. heh

They should be asking why more than 2 trillion dollars are unaccounted for.

[manly]

53. rummy's question

Rumsfeld made a remark about a question asked of him. He said that didn't sound like a question planted by the media, referring of course to the question asked last week about why there weren't sufficient armored vehicles available to the troops.That question MAY have been planted by the press. My question is, so what? The question is valid, no matter who asked it. The big problem with that question was Rummy's answer, which incorporated a lie, as usual.
The liar said he and the defense department were doing everything possible to provide the troops with the materiel they needed. However, the manufacturers of the armor for the Humvees contradicted him, saying in one case that they've been waiting six months for purchase orders from DoD, and in another case that they could be up and in production as soon as asked, but they weren't asked.
If I could, I'd have Rumsfeld drawn and quartered, the lying bastard.

[SKKY]

55. Rest assured the people asking question were screened THOROUGHLY. n/t