Rekjalhew

May 5, 2006

Did Rumsfeld Say He Knew Where the WMDs Were? Yes and No.

by @ 11:43 am. Filed under Questionable Items

So US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Atlanta yesterday and the Left Winged hacks where there. When they attacked, Rumsfeld was ready. He even kept one around to talk the matter of “lies” over with him. In part of the exchange the heckler claimed that Donald Rumsfeld said he “knew” where the WMDs were in Iraq. Rumsfeld responded by saying that he said he knew where “suspect sites” where. Who’s right? Using a partial quote the heckler is correct, but using the full quote Rumsfeld is contextually accurate.

Here’s the full quote, with some emphasis added for those who have never been told about it. It is from a March 30, 2003 interview on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos”. It was the 11th day of the war in Iraq.

Secretary Rumsfeld Remarks on ABC “This Week with George Stephanopoulos”


MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, weapons of mass destruction. Key goal of the military campaign is finding those weapons of mass destruction. None have been found yet. There was a raid on the Answar Al-Islam Camp up in the north last night. A lot of people expected to find ricin there. None was found. How big of a problem is that? And is it curious to you that given how much control U.S. and coalition forces now have in the country, they haven’t found any weapons of mass destruction?


SEC. RUMSFELD:
Not at all. If you think — let me take that, both pieces — 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.

Second, the [audio glitch] facilities, there are dozens of them, it’s a large geographic area. It is the — Answar Al-Islam group has killed a lot of Kurds. They are tough. And our forces are currently in there with the Kurdish forces, cleaning the area out, tracking them down, killing them or capturing them and they will then begin the site exploitation. The idea, from your question, that you can attack that place and exploit it and find out what’s there in fifteen minutes.

I would also add, we saw from the air that there were dozens of trucks that went into that facility after the existence of it became public in the press and they moved things out. They dispersed them and took them away. So there may be nothing left. I don’t know that. But it’s way too soon to know. The exploitation is just starting.

So Donald Rumsfeld did say he “knew” where they were, but he also added that they may have been removed. One of Saddam’s own top generals has said that he saw cargo planes bound for Syria just before the war and the WMDs were flown out on them.

In the discussion with the heckler yesterday, Mr. Rumsfeld also mentioned that he is not a member of US intelligence himself. Since he uses the intelligence information that is given to him.

See the exchange between Rumsfeld and the heckler at Expose the Left.

Hot Air has some background details on the heckler, Ray McGovern. Mr. McGovern has claimed he did not attend yesterday’s event with any agenda in mind, but it appears that was not the case.


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