Rummy wants to be trusted on Iraq

[ProSense]

After lying about WMD and starting an illegal war.

Rumsfeld says potential exists for Iraq civil war

By Will Dunham
57 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday there has always been a risk Iraq could slip into a civil war but he accused the news media of exaggerating the severity of the current situation.

"I do not believe they're in a civil war today," Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing. "There's always been a potential for a civil war. That country was held together through a repressive regime that put hundreds of thousands of human beings into mass graves."

"It was held together not by a constitution, not by a piece of paper, not by respect for your fellow citizens of different religious faiths. But it was held together through force and viciousness," Rumsfeld added.

more...


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060307/ts_nm/iraq_usa_rumsfeld_dc_2

Rumsfeld Rejects Reports of Iraq Civil War

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
1 hour, 5 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday rejected suggestions Iraq is engulfed in a civil war but predicted there would be additional "bursts" of sectarian violence in the weeks ahead.


Rumsfeld also claimed that Iranian Revolutionary Guard elements had infiltrated Iraq to cause trouble.

"They are currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq," he said. "And we know it. And it is something that they, I think, will look back on as having been an error in judgment."

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060307/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_11

For Immediate Release:
February 25, 2003

For more information contact:
Joyce Battle [phone]

(Right: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld, then special envoy of President Ronald Reagan, in Baghdad on December 20, 1983.)


U.S. DOCUMENTS SHOW EMBRACE OF SADDAM HUSSEIN IN EARLY 1980s
DESPITE CHEMICAL WEAPONS, EXTERNAL AGGRESSION, HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

Fear of Iraq Collapse in Iran-Iraq War Motivated Reagan Administration Support;
U.S. Goals Were Access to Oil, Projection of Power, and Protection of Allies;
Rumsfeld Failed to Raise Chemical Weapons Issue in Personal Meeting with Saddam

Washington, D.C., 25 February 2003 - The National Security Archive at George Washington University today published on the Web a series of declassified U.S. documents detailing the U.S. embrace of Saddam Hussein in the early 1980's, including the renewal of diplomatic relations that had been suspended since 1967. The documents show that during this period of renewed U.S. support for Saddam, he had invaded his neighbor (Iran), had long-range nuclear aspirations that would "probably" include "an eventual nuclear weapon capability," harbored known terrorists in Baghdad, abused the human rights of his citizens, and possessed and used chemical weapons on Iranians and his own people. The U.S. response was to renew ties, to provide intelligence and aid to ensure Iraq would not be defeated by Iran, and to send a high-level presidential envoy named Donald Rumsfeld to shake hands with Saddam (20 December 1983).

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/press.htm

[VaYallaDawg]

1. Of course, when it happens, it'll be Bill Clinton's fault.

Or maybe they can blame it on Whittington????

[atommom]

2. Yes, and the fox wants to be trusted in the henhouse.

After all the lies, I'm amazed so many still trust these people.

[lumpy]

3. " ....repressive regime that put hundreds of

thousands in mass graves" so sayeth Rumsfeld. How ironic, how ironic. And how many have been put into graves because of US killings, bombings, mayhem backed by Rumsfeld ?