Chris Matthews, MSNBC Interviewing Rumsfeld about the connection between 9/11 and Iraq.
RUMSFELD: I guess in life, things are never quite as simple as they seem. There’s no doubt but that we’re fighting terrorists in Iraq, there, and it’s part of the global war on terror. The direct connection between 9/11 and...
MATTHEWS: You feel there’s a connection?
RUMSFELD: There’s a different one. No.
MATTHEWS: You see one?
RUMSFELD: No.
MATTHEWS: You don’t see an al Qaeda-Iraq connection before 9/11?
RUMSFELD: Well, It’s not a matter for me to see it, but the—the Central Intelligence Agency and the director of central intelligence has testified to the relationships between Iraq and terrorists.
We know he would spend $25,000 to suicide bombers.
MATTHEWS: Sure. For the ones in Israel. Sure, those people.
RUMSFELD: Yes.
MATTHEWS: But in terms of 9/11, there’s no connection?
RUMSFELD: Is it?
MATTHEWS: Between Iraq and 9/11?
RUMSFELD: It’s too complex a subject for me to answer yes or no. George Tenet has testified publicly and privately on that subject before Congress, and that is the official position of the United States government.
MATTHEWS: Which one? There’s no connection?
RUMSFELD: No. You have to (UNINTELLIGIBLE), because it is a complex set of issues and implicit intelligence facts.
MATTHEWS: But the president said recently, when he was asked—it was with Tony Blair that time, the prime minister of Great Britain. And he said there’s no connection between 9/11 and Iraq.
RUMSFELD: If you’re asking whether Iraqis, who were (UNINTELLIGIBLE) people engaged in 9/11, the answer is no.
MATTHEWS: You believe there’s still a possibility that the Iraqi government had something to do with planning the attack on us, 9/11?
RUMSFELD: Not to my knowledge.
MATTHEWS: Therefore, this war is not payback? There was no direct 9/11?
RUMSFELD: The...
MATTHEWS: The Iraqi war is not getting even with the people that hit us 9/11?
RUMSFELD: No. I see your point.
MATTHEWS: Is that the case? It’s not...
RUMSFELD: It is, but in a different way.
MATTHEWS: Let me try, correctly. Is this payback—is this war, in the line—in the sentiments of the music, in the culture of that country, many people’s minds, this is somehow justice for what happened to us 9/11. Is it? Or is it unrelated? Or is it not directly related? How would you connect the two?
If you were hit in the Pentagon, we’re hitting them in Iraq, is that connected?
RUMSFELD: If you’re asking if there’s a direct link between 9/11 and Iraq, the answer is no.
posted on April 30, 2004 12:22:57 AM new
MATTHEWS: Mr. Secretary, let me ask you about the war in Iraq and the boldest question I could put to you here in the Pentagon. Did you ever advise the president to go to war?
RUMSFELD: Chris, I saw some clipping of your interviews on this subject when you asked that question of Woodward, and Woodward said that the president said he had not asked me. So why would you ask me?
MATTHEWS: Good question. Well, that’s right, in that circumstance, in that room. But all those months in the run-up to war, I would imagine that at some point, sitting in the interstices of the West Wing, he would have say, “Hey, Don, you think we ought to go?” Weren’t you ever asked your advice?
RUMSFELD: I don’t know who he might have asked their advice.
MATTHEWS: Well, apparently it’s the vice president.
RUMSFELD: Possibly. I just don’t know.
MATTHEWS: He didn’t ask his father. We know that.
RUMSFELD: Is that right?
MATTHEWS: Well, that’s what I go by, these books. I read...
RUMSFELD: You ought to get a life. You could do something besides read those books.
MATTHEWS: This is my life. Let me ask you about something a little more...
RUMSFELD: Let me answer your question.
MATTHEWS: Did you advise the president to go to war?
RUMSFELD: Yes. He did not ask me, is the question. And to my knowledge, there are a number of people he did not ask.
MATTHEWS: Does that surprise you, as secretary of defense?
RUMSFELD: Well, I thought it was interesting. He clearly asked us, “Could we win?” I said, obviously, that the military are sure that they can prevail in that conflict, in terms of the changing of regime.
posted on April 30, 2004 12:26:15 AM new
MATTHEWS: You know I went to Walter Reed a couple weeks ago, and I’ll tell, there’s nothing like it, to meet those young guys. The gung-ho guys.
RUMSFELD: Yes.
MATTHEWS: And the ones that lost, like, a limb. They’re going to make it, you know.
RUMSFELD: That’s right.
MATTHEWS: The guy goes back to UPS. He’s going to learn how to use the prosthetic device. But the other guys, you know, totally blind, both arms gone, brain injury, is that worth it? I mean, the blunt statement. Is this worth what we’re likely to get out of Iraq?
RUMSFELD: If you are a historian, you know that throughout the history of our country, there have always been things that need to be done where lives are put at risk. And this country wouldn’t be here if people hadn’t been willing to put their lives at risk.
posted on April 30, 2004 08:32:19 AM new
Yup, Rumsfeld is an uninformed idiot. There was never any proof between Iraq and 9/11.
This guy knows nothing, he should spend more time listening to his field commanders and keep his nose out of things he knows nothing about. Let them do their job, people who know what they're doing.
Where are those WOMDs, "impending threat", how soon thats forgotten.
At this stage I would rather have Robert E. Lee for president, at least he knew what he was talking about. Too bad he's dead but he'd still be a better choice.
The future has taken root in the present.
posted on April 30, 2004 09:44:14 AM new
Did he ever say there was a link between Iraq and 9/11?
All I see is that he mentioned that Saddam was paying the Suicide bombers to hit Israel, which we all know is true.
The point of the invasion of Iraq is to eventually calm the region by installing a Democratic government in the midst of the Middle-East. Once the neighboring states get a chance to see how well Democracy works, it will hopefully raise them to a new level of freedom. It's a fact that no Democratic State has ever invaded another Democratic State.
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We do not stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing -- Anonymous
posted on April 30, 2004 02:27:13 PM newThe point of the invasion of Iraq is to eventually calm the region by installing a Democratic government in the midst of the Middle-East. Once the neighboring states get a chance to see how well Democracy works, it will hopefully raise them to a new level of freedom. It's a fact that no Democratic State has ever invaded another Democratic State.
Wonder why they didn't use that as their main reason to begin with, instead of lying about it?
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When a dog howls at the moon, we call it religion. When he barks at strangers, we call it patriotism. - Edward Abbey
