Rumsfeld’s Lies Exposed Live on TV

On May 4, a televised speech at the Southern Center for International Studies in Atlanta by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was disrupted by 4 protesters, including activists from World Can’t Wait—Drive Out the Bush Regime. During the Q&A, Rumsfeld was forced to answer a substantive challenge to his lies about the war from Ray McGovern, a 27-year CIA veteran and a participant in the Bush Crimes Commission (bushcommission.org). TV viewers across the U.S. and other parts of the world saw this exchange:

Ray McGovern: Why did you lie to get us into a war that was not necessary that has caused these kinds of casualties?

Rumsfeld: Well, first of all I haven’t lied...it appears that there were not weapons of mass destruction there.

McGovern: You said you knew where they were.

Rumsfeld: I did not. I said I knew where suspect sites were and—

McGovern: You said you knew where they were. “Near Tikrit, Baghdad, northeast, south, west of there.” Those are your words…

In fact, those WERE Rumsfeld’s exact words. And CNN, MSNBC and other major media outlets went into their vaults and aired footage of Rumsfeld saying those words. After the exchange, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann commented: “When someone goes out there and blithely denies that they said such and such a thing and this exact thing is on tape…how can that not result in some kind of political fallout or even disaster?” Footage of the news broadcasts of the event, interview with Ray McGovern, and a fuller account of the protest are available online at www.worldcantwait.net.

McGovern was also on PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on April 24, calling out CIA's war crimes and saying that government employees need to do the right thing when they know torture is being committed by the government. Listen to or read a transcript of the PBS segment at www.worldcantwait.net.

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