Donald Rumsfeld and Why Our Media Sucks

[no limit]

Donald Rumsfeld has been making the rounds around various cable and network news shows in a bid to help him sell his book. It would have been nice if he was this open and willing to talk when he wasn't trying to cash in off of his public "service".

Rumsfeld has so far done a number of interviews, including with ABC and Fox. In them he offered up the same standard answers the rest of high ranking Bush administration officials have been offering up for years when asked about Iraq. So you would think that these "reporters" would have a basic idea of what follow up questions they need to ask. But it didn't surprise me when this morning on CNN Candy Crowley asked very simple questions about Iraq then completely refused to ask any meaningful follow up questions.

On the question of Iraq Crowley of course asked why the claims about Iraq's WMD program were so wrong. And the answer to that question? It was all the CIA's fault (surprise, surprise). This is the same answer Rumsfeld has given to everybody that has asked him this so far, so you would think Crowley could have had her staff spend a couple minutes on Google to ask the most basic follow up questions about why the administration constantly cooked up evidence of Iraq's weapon programs with fierce opposition from the same CIA they are now trying to blame.

One clear example is the claim that Saddam was trying to purchase large amounts of yellow cake from Niger. The CIA warned the Bush administration on various occasions that this claim should not be made because it could not be proven:

George Tenet told former Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley in October 2002 that allegations about Iraq’s attempt to acquire yellowcake uranium from Niger should immediately be removed from a speech President Bush was to give in Cincinnati. Tenet told Hadley that the intelligence was unreliable.

“Steve, take it out,” the ex-CIA director writes in a new book, “At the Center of the Storm,” about a conversation he had with Hadley on October 5, 2002, about the 16 words that alleged Iraq tried to obtain uranium from Niger. As deputy National Security Adviser, Hadley was also in charge of the clearance process for speeches given by White House officials. “The facts, I told him, were too much in doubt.”

Tenet then sent a follow up letter to Hadley's assistant Condeondoleezza Rice explaining why he didn't want the claim repeated by the Bush administration:

“More on why we recommend removing the sentence about procuring uranium oxide from Africa,” Tenet wrote in the book, apparently quoting from a memo sent to the White House. “Three points: (1) The evidence is weak. One of the two mines cited by the source as the location of the uranium oxide is flooded. The other mine cited by the source is under the control of French authorities; (2) the procurement is not particularly significant to Iraq’s nuclear ambitions…And (3) we have shared points one and two with Congress, telling them the Africa story is overblown and telling them this was one of two issues where we differed with the British.”

Despite the warnings by Tenet and others in the CIA this claim found its way to Bush's now famous State of the Nation address anyway where he made his case for the Iraq war. It was used as evidance that Saddam was an immediate threat to the United States and invading Iraq could not be delayed. Their excuse for why they ignored the CIA? They simply forgot what the CIA told them (seriously).

Then there is Curveball, a clear fraud that fabricated hundreds of stories about Iraq's WMD to Germany's intelligence service. Although Germany still forwarded the claims to the CIA they made clear that Curveball was not credible and that his stories were fabricated. The US government sent a US physician working for the defense department (which was ran by Donald Rumsfeld at the time) to look for evidance that curveball was exposed to anthrax. Not only did he find no evidance of anthrax exposure but he came to the conclusion that curveball was suffering from a severe hangover that morning and might be an alcoholic.

Independent of the doubts by the CIA, the DOD, and German intelligence officials that originally forwarded the claims, UN weapon inspectors constantly warned the Bush administration that claims made by curveball were flat out false. When these inspectors visited sites curveball said were chemical weapon factories these sites turned out to be warehouses for seed processing. How did the Bush administration respond? By telling the UN weapon inspectors they must get out of Iraq or risk losing their life.

There were countless other claims the Bush administration made which the CIA never approved or collaborated, including this one by Donald Rumsfeld speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee in September of 2002:

No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people than the regime of Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

The day earlier he had made this claim:

Hussein, he said, could deploy "sleeper cells armed with biological weapons to attack us from within -- and then deny any knowledge or connection to the attacks."

In a speech to reserve officers in January 2003:

Iraq poses a threat to the security of our people, and to the stability of the world. … Saddam Hussein possesses chemical and biological weapons … including VX, sarin, mustard gas, anthrax, botulism, and possibly smallpox, and he has an active program to develop nuclear weapons.” (Speech to reserve officers, Jan. 20, 2003)

In a defense department briefing just days before the war:

claims to have no chemical or biological weapons, yet we know he continues to hide biological weapons, moving them to different locations as often as every 12-24 hours and placing them in residential neighborhoods.

The CIA never made nor corroborated such claims, this was something the Bush administration along with Rumsfeld made up.

But Candy Crawley could not find the time to ask any of these follow up questions. The CIA did it was good enough for her (which is why Tenet got a freedom medal from the Bush administration and absolutely no one in the CIA got fired). Nor did she have the time to ask Rumsfeld about specific and very obvious lies in his book. She did luckily have time to interview people dressed up as our founding fathers as they were in character. That guy dressed up as George Washington sure did provide some interesting insight in to the 18th century.

Jon Stewart will be interviewing Donald Rumsfeld on The Daily Show this Wednesday. I look forward to a fake reporter asking some real sustentative questions which our actual media is incapable of.

To see this post with links please visit my original post here: http://www.leftunderground.com/content.php?135-donald-rumsfeld-and-why-our-media-sucks

[movonne]

1. Our media sucks and it will keep on sucking...after all they are owned

by corporations and corporations do not want any restriction and they love are war criminals...bush, cheney,rumsfeld,etc...so this is what we the people let happen...we let them buy up all the media and all the small businesses so we are owned by them..

[no limit]

2. I think as the internet grows our media will be irrelevant soon.

Which is why they are working so hard to kill the idea of net neutrality. But even with that I don't think they can succeed stopping what the internet is doing, which is opening people to all sorts of new news sources which are far more reliable and far more trustworthy than what they do. I think this scares the shit out of them.

Not to mention Jon Stewart, Colbert along with Maddow are becoming more important in the media landscape each day. I think they are getting better and better in their ability to shape the national discussion.

So I'm hopeful we will eventually see change when it comes to our media.

[movonne]

3. I hope you are right..they also will have control of internet...as providers

they already do...and sometimes I wonder how long they will keep Rachael,ed and lawrence...I have already seen changes on msnbc since comcast has taken control..I think what is going on right now they are in for the big push..union busting, cutting wages and social programs..

The republican party knows that they can do what ever they want and probably get elected...all the money is there..

[Texas-Limerick]

4. Rumsfeld limerick

Is our military ready for this war? He asked rhetorically. Don't fret
and was Rumsfeld aware there was no WMD? Good bet
one day he will have to own
what is already a known known
And is he ready to accept that responsibility? Not yet

[no limit]

5. My favorite Rumsfeld quote 11 days after the war when asked if he was surprised no WMDs were found:

"Not at all," Rumsfeld said, according to an official Pentagon transcript. "The area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."

It would be funny if it weren't so tragic.