Official: Rumsfeld 'Livid' Over Memo Leak

[cthrumatrix]

Official: Rumsfeld 'Livid' Over Memo Leak

Thursday, October 23, 2003



WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld (search) was "livid" when he discovered a memo written to top aides made it onto the front page of the nation's largest circulated newspaper, a senior defense official told Fox News.

Rumsfeld appeared calm later on Wednesday when he and a top Pentagon official described the memo as an internal discussion paper, not an insight into the defense secretary's opinion about U.S. success in the global war on terror.

But speaking to reporters Wednesday evening, Rumsfeld was clearly annoyed by the leak.

"If I wanted it published, I would have written it as a press release, which I didn't," Rumsfeld said after a closed-door meeting with senators on Capitol Hill.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers (search) said the memo, which poses more questions than answers, was written to generate ideas on how to begin the secretary's long-term goal of transforming the Defense Department to meet new threats.

"The experts will tell you that if you talk to somebody about change or transformation of anything, they will tell you that the larger an organization and the older an organization, the more difficult it is to change it, and it's not going to happen unles you have a CEO bought into the need for change. So, what you're seeing in this memo, the way we do business, is that our boss is challenging us with a lot of questions on are we changing ourselves to deal with this 21st century threat environment we find ourselves in," Myers said.

snip

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,100935,00.html

[JeebusH]

1. can't have that pesky thing called the truth slipping out there, huh ....

Dumsfeld

[drewb]

2. He should be livid... I've been livid for the past three years...

There is plenty of livid to go around...

[Ferretherder]

3. Ahem!.......

.....""The experts will tell you that if you talk to somebody about change or transformation of anything, they will tell you that the larger an organization and the older an organization, the more difficult it is to change it, and it's not going to happen unles you have a CEO bought into the need for change. So, what you're seeing in this memo, the way we do business, is that our boss is challenging us with a lot of questions on are we changing ourselves to deal with this 21st century threat environment we find ourselves in," Myers said."......

No, dumbass, what I'M seeing in this memo is Rummy telling you to be LOOKING FOR ANOTHER JOB!

GODDAMNIT! They defend these fuckers as they are being choked to death by them! What has happened to this country? (don't answer that.)

[remfan]

4. Tisk, tisk

and after your precious leader admonished all of you - by way of a leak - to stop leaking to the press.

Clowns.

[0007]

5. ...and coming from that whore FOX?

Who in the living hell does Rummy think that he is? He ain't nothing but an arm waving clown.

Is he as dangerous as Hitler, almost!

[Cronus Protagonist]

8. Since it's coming from the cuntservative media - be warned

It could be, and most likely is, coming from Rove.



Click Here To See Fair & Balanced Buttons, Stickers & Magnets

[Richardo]

6. Delicious Irony Dept: News of Rummy's rage over leaked memo is itself..

...leaked by "a senior defense official".

[diamond14]

15. Go leakers ! American heros...Patriots..bush* whole regime is

leaking live a sieve....can't be stopped now...watch as RATS jump off sinking boat...

IMO, this has CIA behind it...as I predicted, another BIG bombshell, as shrub and his guys are busy on a trip oversees and can do little to counter it....recall that the last BIG bomb (CIA) came out during shrub's trip to africa, the Wilson editorial in the NYT....

[radfringe]

20. so he's livid at himself for leaking the memo???

sorry I don't buy this as a "clandestine" leak from some disgruntled flunky

IMHO - the memo was LOP (leaked on purpose) to "highlight" problems that are now in Condi's lap to fix

the children are still fighting

[dbt]

7. Awww, Rummy's so CUTE when he plays coy!

He KNEW that memo was going to get out. It came in the wake of getting his chain yanked by having Condiliar Reiss put in charge of things that he felt were his alone.

Rummy knows that somebody is going down. If it's him, he plans on taking some company along with him. Meanwhile, he's shocked--shocked, I tell you--that somebody would leak his memo.

Right.

:evilgrin:
dbt

[catmandu57]

14. That's what I thought

darth is throwing a hissy fit over being demoted, and someone is going down by god.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

9. If he doesn't want something to leak, why put it in written form?

[Warren Stuart]

10. I agree, this is a setup,

Things aren't going well in Iraq, the Senate is asking pesky questions about the 87 billion. How do you shake things up?

Leak the embarassing stuff and pretend to be livid. The message has been publicly aired. Bush is conviently out of the country.

This is another tactic in the "Paint ourselves into a corner strategy" you screw things up so badly, that the country has no choice.

[Gin]

11. I don't believe this was an "unplanned" leak...this was a leak

from Rummy and co.

[mac56]

13. I agree.

Rummy leaked this himself. Possibly to garner public sympathy.

[librechik]

17. You're right; here's a link--Rummy caught CYA

in advance of the obvious debacle

http://www.isthatlegal.org/archives/2003_10_19_isthatlegal_archive.html#106684727306378912

snip

"... what I see in the USA Today story is this: "Three members of Congress who met with Rumsfeld Wednesday morning said the defense secretary gave them copies of the memo and discussed it with them." This is not how you handle a confidential internal memorandum, is it, if you don't want it to see the light of day."

[chiburb]

12. Could Rummy Be Fighting With Cheney?

I was thinking about this last night:

1. Rummy appoints his terror-fighter 3 star General, and he HAS to know that this religious zealot would garner negative coverage. Why would he do that?
2. Rummy writes a memo that questions if we're really winning the WOT or just slogging along. He HAS to know it'll be leaked.

In both cases, negative coverage and headlines are made that make the mis-administration look bad.

Why? Is he pissed about Condi's new role? Does he know it was Cheney who outed a CIA agent (and even Rummy wouldn't go that far)?

Probably just wishful thinking on my part, but stranger things have happened in the last 3 years...

[Rev. Day-Bu]

16. Livid la vida loca

Ain't it funny?

Just a couple weeks ago, the Bush administration was responding to the Valerie Plame leak, and the Bush administration response was essentially, "Huh. *shrug* That shouldn't'a got out. But we'll never find out who leaked it, so never mind. Now, moving right along, what's next on our agenda?"

Now another leak, and this time they're "livid" about it.

If they found the Plame leaker, they'd probably say, "Hey, man, nice job!" and give him a box of assorted Russell Stovers.

If they find who leaked this memo, the culprit will probably be on his way to a long vacation at lovely Guantanamo.

Ain't it funny?

And BTW, I've thought a lot about the possibility that the leak was deliberate: a way of admitting we're sucking it in Iraq without actually admitting that we're sucking it in Iraq. But whenever I looked over the text of the memo, it's just way too damning and embarassing to have been deliberately leaked as a part of a Rovian strategy. There are so many questions and uncertainties in the memo that it's clear that Rummy--and probably the rest of the White House--has no idea what they're doing in Iraq. The memo basically confesses that they're clueless, directionless, dispirited, and that they recognize that it really is a quagmire. If the memo wasn't so embarassing and revealing, I'd think it was a deliberate strategic move. But considering the content, there's no way, IMO, that it was a strategic White House decision to leak this.

[M155Y_A1CH]

22. Add the sheer quantity

With many leaks coming fast and furious as well as some
that may be embarrassing to them, we become complacent about
leaks in general, as well as the Plame incedent. This might be a kind of leak "overkill" designed to lead us to believe that the leaking of important info is inevitable and NOT traitorous.

[newyawker99]

27. Hi imac_mafia!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

18. Rummy is Frosted?

Again?

LOL. That makes my day.

[gratuitous]

19. Is it raining?

Or is this corrupt administration just pissing on my leg?

[emalejim9]

21. Let the spin begin

On my morning drive, the local conservative blowhorn is attempting to spin this memo as some constructive criticism of a successful foriegn policy plan. As stated by him, "When policy is going so well, it is necessary to concentrate on the few issues not running that smoothly". All these repukes were calling in and falling for this crap. The main focus of calls were that this is just critical anaylsis. Give me a break!!! Wake up people we are being sold a pile of crap. Lies...lies...lies

[newyawker99]

28. Hi emalejim9!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[VeniceBeat]

23. It's on the Pentagon Website, ferjeebussake!

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Oct2003/d20031016sdmemo.pdf

That's quite a leak!

:wtf:

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

26. OMG! LOL. This is too funny.

Post it on the WWW and call it a "leak." New steps in double speak.

[Nottingham]

24. Well When Ya threaten to get RID of the Pentagon they tend to

Leak info! Pentagon to be got rid of! Sheesh Rumsy is really crazy :crazy: Notice the CIA retaliates on Bush and Now the Pentagon

Looks like Bush better watchout cause the other departments are
fighting BACK! :bounce:

[haymaker]

25. Yeah, right.

More bullshit. It's going to catch up with them sooner or later.