Byrd vs Rumsfeld

[pinkpops]

Watched Senator Byrd's tongue lashing of Rumsfeld at the committee hearings on CSPAN the other day - boy was that a treat. I was looking for a transcript of the hearing (still am) because I heard first Rumsfeld then Jeff Sessions comment that the American people are being "pushed" into dissatisfaction with the way the war is going ( what does that mean - pushed by whom I wonder - liberal press perhaps?).

Anyway I did find on Senator Byrd's site a transcript of an earlier hearing in which he toys with Rumsfeld about his contacts with Saddam back in the good old Reagan days - excerpt and link:



SENATOR BYRD: Mr. Secretary, let me read to you from the September 23, 2002, Newsweek story. I read this, I read excerpts, because my time is limited.

"Some Reagan officials even saw Saddam as another Anwar Sadat, capable of making Iraq into a modern secular state, just as Sadat had tried to lift up Egypt before his assassination in 1981. But Saddam had to be rescued first. The war against Iran was going badly by 1982."
...
"Over the protest of some Pentagon skeptics, the Reagan administration began allowing the Iraqis to buy a wide variety of 'dual-use,' equipment and materials from American suppliers.
...
The helicopters, some American officials later surmised, were used to spray poison gas on the Kurds. The United States almost certainly knew from its own satellite imagery that Saddam was using chemical weapons against Iranian troops.

Rummy of course tap dances, digresses, pretends not to understand ...

http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_issues/byrd_iraqi_bioweapons/byrd_armedsvc_sept19/byrd_armedsvc_sept19.html

[billybob537]

1. drip drip drip

the truth leaks out.

[minnesotaDFLer]

2. i heard about this

and those reporters who got killed for saying something about it. I think i heard it here. If not, heres the story:

4 reporters were covering George Bush (1st) selling chemical weapons to iraq. However, they weren't able to complete their work because they were all found mysteriously dead. huh, i wonder how that happened?

[Scorpio]

3. Sen byrd

I was standing up in my living room, cheering Sen. Byrd on for his Real, accurate assessment of Rummy! I loved the line," get off your high horse when you come up here." Thats priceless material from the Senator, I wish there were more like him.

[newyawker99]

5. Hi Scorpio!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[housewolf]

4. He slapped Rumsfeld a good one....

We're elected by the people, Mr. Secretary. You are not. The people ask us these questions so we have to ask them of you, even if you don't like them.

[Coexist]

6. Byrd really puts people in their places.

He is a pistol.

[unhappycamper]

7. The video is up on C-SPAN.

http://www.c-span.org/

Under Recent Programs, click on "Senate Armed Services Cmte. Hearing on Military Operations in Iraq (06/23/2005)."

Bryd tees off at 2:57:28. The shots of Rummy are priceless.