Rumsfeld Says He Was Misunderstood on Iraq-Al Qaeda (flip-flop)

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041005/pl_nm/iraq_usa_rumsfeld_dc&cid=615&ncid=1480


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday he was misunderstood when he stated hours earlier that he knew of no "strong, hard evidence" linking Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Iraq (news - web sites) and al Qaeda.


"I have acknowledged since September 2002 that there were ties between al Qaeda and Iraq," Rumsfeld said in a Web site statement issued following remarks he made to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York Monday.


"Today at the Council, I even noted that 'when I'm in Washington, I pull out a piece of paper and say "I don't know, because I'm not in that business, but I'll tell you what the CIA (news - web sites) thinks" and I read it'."


In the new statement, issued on the Pentagon (news - web sites) Web site, Rumsfeld listed what he said were arguments for suggesting links between al Qaeda and Iraq under Saddam, including what the CIA regarded as "credible evidence" that al Qaeda leaders had sought contacts in Iraq who could help them acquire weapons of mass destruction

[okoboji]

1. it only gets worse

with these thugs....

one mintue it's apples, the next minute it's a Pop Corn

Keep the voter confused and scared, is their tactic.

bastards

[displacedtexan]

2. Huh?

What's to 'misunderstand?'

So when was Rummy lying? Yesterday or all of the other days he made the claim that there was a connection?

[sonicx]

3. flip flop

[clydefrand]

4. This is unreal!

How can anyone who saw him yesterday, as I and millions of others did, think that what he said wasn't clear??


What a bunch of backsliding creeps these people are!!!

[Pepperbelly]

5. so al Qaeda called, Saddam caller i.d.'d, and didn't answer? nt

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. arguments for suggesting links between al Qaeda and Iraq<<

Things are never as simple as Rummy paints them.... we had links too.... but nobody is talking about them.

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_blast_013004,00.html
>>Coalition soldiers regularly uncover and destroy caches of weapons, usually dating back to the U.S.-backed mujahedeen resistance against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.<<

http://www.veteransforpeace.org/US_allows_Iranian-042903.htm
>>CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar - The U.S. cease-fire with an Iranian exile group Washington considers a terrorist organization allows the Mujahedeen Khalq to defend itself from Iranian-sponsored attacks and keep its artillery and other weapons, U.S. military officials said Tuesday.<<

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/iraq/1890431
>>TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's top leader said today that by striking a cease-fire with an Iranian opposition group, the United States was demonstrating it believed the only bad terrorists were those who were not its "servants."<<

[drfemoe]

16. Nice research

but, Rummy READS!!! That makes one of them.

Question is, WHAT?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

18. He reads which way the wind is blowing at any particular

time....

[leftchick]

28. great links!

thanks for posting them!

[Tight_rope]

7. Damn...These jokers are pathetic!

[teryang]

8. The most misunderstood man in the world

He delivers his peace and democracy messages with 500lbs in residential neighborhoods.

[OKNancy]

9. He's talking about this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=883542


Because of this?????
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=884625

[ScreamingMeemie]

10. Liar, liar, pants on fire...nose is longer than a telephone wire...

and on and on. What a piece of work.

[Mountainman]

11. Cheney must have gotten to him last night.

Cheney uses the idea of a connection as a talking point in all his speeches. "Creditable evidence" is what he says yet no one has shown us what that evidence is.

[baby_bear]

12. Capitol Hill Blue has a good one on this

Rumsfeld can't keep stories straight on Hussein-bin Laden link, Iraq WMDs

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/printer_5401.shtml

<snip>

The flip-flop was Rumsfeld's second in as many days. On Monday, the defense secretary admitted U.S. intelligence on Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction was faulty even though he told a television interviewer on Sunday that he believed Hussein had such weapons.

"It turns out that we have not found weapons of mass destruction," Rumsfeld said Monday in the speech to the foreign affairs group. "Why the intelligence proved wrong I'm not in a position to say, but the world is a lot better off with Saddam Hussein in jail."

On Sunday in an interview with Fox News, however, Rumsefled said: "I believe they were there, and I'm surprised we have not found them yet. He has either hidden them so well or moved them somewhere else, or decided to destroy them ... in event of a conflict but kept the capability of developing them rapidly."

Rumsfeld said "everyone believed" Saddam had the weapons before the war.

...
He said talks were in progress with Syria, "but it's too early to say there's been any progress at all."

---

</snip>

s_m

[Disturbed]

13. Another lie.

Everybody did not believe WMDs were there. Scott Ritter didn't and he was correct. If the warmongering asshole Neo Fascists would have allowed Blix more time it would have been obvious. David Kay said the same thing. All lies!!! These blood sucking Neo Fascists should all be tried for War Crimes!!!

[0007]

14. A loose canon for sure. Rumsfeld is about as mixed up and

nutty as junior.

[ChrisK]

15. He (Rumsfeld) is part of the same "problem" thats in the White House now..

No one is allowed to talk off the cuff because it shows there is a consensus right now and has been for some time in the White House that the direction we have taken on many matters is, in a nutshell...wrong.

The administration will do anything to keep whats happening behind closed doors a secret and one day it will be shown that what is and was happening is a disaster, there only concern right now is keeping the false impression going so no one looks too deep and starts to make noise...and the press has been just as big a part of this as the administration.

I think Bush more then his people keep hoping beyond hope that if they wait it will just get better on its own...too bad all there doing is avoid the inevable...an implosion of lies and ignorance that has killed many and made us a distrusted nation when once we were respected and liked in the world.

When the truth is all thats left who do you think your lying to?

[rman]

17. Rummy, you mis-spelled "asserted"

"acknowledge" is when you admit what others have asserted - but you and your gang were the first to come up with the notion that there would be a link between 9-11 and Saddam. Kindof like when you came up with the idea that Iraq has WMDs.

[robbedvoter]

19. They mean what they say, say what they mean....

[underpants]

20. What in God's name does this mean? Seriously can anyone explain it?

"Today at the Council, I even noted that 'when I'm in Washington, I pull out a piece of paper and say "I don't know, because I'm not in that business, but I'll tell you what the CIA (news - web sites) thinks" and I read it'."

[drscm]

21. Cheney probably threw a fit when Rummy said there was no connection.

After all, Cheney has been saying there has been a connection all along. Although untrue, he needed this argument for the debate tonight. Rummy screwed it up by contradicting him.

[underpants]

22. Actually they ALL said there was no connection at one cabinet meeting

Earlier this year (I think) I remember seeing it ONCE on the network news. It was a "rip the band-aid off" moment where W, Dick, Rummy, Condi, and Colin all said exactly the same thing/same line "there was no connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 (al Qaeda)" literally like they passed around a note and each read it.

Reported once (if you missed it you missed it) and then off Cheney went to keep saying the old line if only slightly watered down.

[no safe haven]

23. What RumBoy *really meant to say*

was: OSP concocted the whole shebang, the story fit with our imperialistic PNAC agenda, so we decided to run with it – and besides, if any cracks appear we can claim plausible deniability and blame it on the CIA.
As an outsider looking in, I’m totally gob-smacked by these lies and deceptions. How dare they do this! Never in my life have I witnessed anything on this scale. Well, maybe Stalin was an exception. I also feel that there’s so much more beneath the surface. My gut tells me there’s a mountain of coverup going on and that these lies are just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe we’ll find out what it is one day. These are sinister days indeed.
Kerry will need Xtra super industrial strength disinfectant to clean out the putrid stench in your White House when he's elected.

[sam sarrha]

24. I only wear a flipflop on one foot, so i can point to the other foot and

say "I dont wear a flipflop"

[BigBigBear]

25. Sounds like "mexed missages" n/t

...

[LynnTheDem]

26. Sept 16, 2003- Rumsfeld sees no link between Saddam Hussein, 9/11

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-09-16-rumsfeld-iraq-911_x.htm

[cliss]

27. Ahhhhh....the moment I've been waiting for.

Please don't disturb me because I'm savoring this moment. I was wondering when RumsFailed would finally SNAP. We all knew it was just a matter of time.

He finally showed me that he is an incompetent ASS and he's just been an oxygen thief the last 4 years as the head of the Pentagon.

Way to go, Don. Now schedule a few more press conferences and you'll leave no doubt you're a complete idiot.

[Cronus Protagonist]

29. Bush AND Blair both AGREE with Rummy's statement

Transcript from the Whitehouse of a news conference on January 31, 2003:

THE PRIME MINISTER: Adam.

Q One question for you both. Do you believe that there is a link between Saddam Hussein, a direct link, and the men who attacked on September the 11th?

THE PRESIDENT: I can't make that claim.

THE PRIME MINISTER: That answers your question.

+++

So Bush, Blair and Rumsefeld all agree. Why does Cheney continue to contradict his president?

http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13

[DeepModem Mom]

30. kick

[Child_Of_Isis]

31. Oh for fux sakes

It never freaking ends does it?