Portrait of an International Terrorist

Donald Rumsfeld

Revolutionary Worker #1134, January 13, 2002, posted at http://rwor.org

Among the top echelon of the Bush terror network, Donald Rumsfeld is one of the more disturbing characters. Donald Rumsfeld occupies the position of the U.S. Secretary of War (officially known as Secretary of Defense). His aliases range from "Rummy" and "Dr. Strangelove" to "Darth Vader."

Rumsfeld has come to be known for his near glee when commenting on successful U.S. bombing missions in Afghanistan. A videotape of a recent Pentagon press briefing catches him making a chilling, bloodthirsty statement. Asked if the U.S. had run out of bombing targets in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld answers: "First, we're going to re-hit targets. And second, we're not running out of targets, Afghanistan is." According to a press report, Rumsfeld's remark was "greeted with gales of laughter in the briefing room."

Rumsfeld has a reputation for a nearly fanatical infatuation with weapons of mass destruction. He was described as a "despot" by none other than Henry "Machiavelli" Kissinger--a long-time high-ranking terrorist operative personally responsible for the deaths of millions of people in Southeast Asia. He has been linked to various shadowy right-wing organizations. In short, beneath his cheerful and bubbly persona lies the cold-blooded killer instinct of a dangerous master of terror.

According to experts, Rumsfeld has two great passions--money and power. Like many in the Bush terror network, Rumsfeld is a multi-millionaire--his personal financial holdings are estimated to range from $50 to $210 million. He alternates between the corporate boardroom and the terrorist war room--though often the distinction is non-existent. His business dealings reflect the same callous view of human life shown by his terrorist actions. As head of one drug company, he used his connections to get approval for a food supplement that is linked to brain cancer. He founded and ran another drug company whose goal is to make a fortune by getting exclusive rights to peddle its products to severely ill people who in effect become a captive market for the corporation.

Rumsfeld's initiation into terror began in 1962 as a minor functionary (aka "Congressman") in the U.S. rogue-state bureaucracy. He showed complete indifference to those without wealth--opposing food-stamp funding, Medicare, or even a measly 35¢ raise in the minimum wage, which was then $1.25 an hour.

His proven heartlessness was rewarded with a promotion to a responsible position within the terror network headed up by Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon, which at that time was running amok around the world. The crimes of this particularly vile network ranged from targeting, imprisoning and assassinating radical Black leaders within the U.S. to the mass murder of Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians.

Nixon was a renowned paranoid, schemer and proponent of the bizarre American cult of "White Supremacy." On an audio tape recently examined and verified by expert analysis, Nixon can be heard uttering obscenities and racist remarks about Black people, including sickening comments concerning Black men's anatomy and intelligence. Rumsfeld's voice is also heard on the tape--dutifully playing the yes-man toady to the terror chieftain and chiming in with approval. Despite Rumsfeld's denials of even remembering the meeting or the conversation, the tape is clearly a smoking gun.

Over the course of Rumsfeld's career in terror, experts have linked him to an assortment of shadowy right-wing organizations with sinister agendas. They sport names such as Committee for the Present Danger, International Rescue Committee, Center for Security Policy, and the Committee for a Free World, which Rumsfeld himself headed up.

With major funding coming from the likes of Richard Mellon Scaife, member of one the wealthiest families in the U.S., these groups are noted for their unabashed militarism, rabid anti-communism, support for pro-U.S. rogue states, love of nukes, and enthusiasm for deploying weapons of mass destruction into outer space. Individuals connected to these groups are truly an evil cabal--Latin American death squad leaders, former Nazi collaborators, operatives from Reverend Sun Myung Moon's cult-like Unification Church, spy operative Oliver North and his coterie from the Iran-Contra arms and cocaine deals, and a generous sprinkling of "retired" U.S. terror network generals and "CIA" agents. This is the nasty sea in which Rumsfeld has been swimming most of his adult life.

According to researchers, Rumsfeld trained under Andrew Marshall, a Bush henchman and an "expert" on military matters who spent 50 years figuring out the best way to blow up half the world by "thinking the unthinkable." With this pedigree, it should be no surprise that Rumsfeld is a devout follower of a weapons cult that revels in discovering faster, newer and more powerful ways of destroying one's enemies. He really is quite mad, in a Dr. Strangelove kind of way. This was one of the qualities that earned his selection to defense chieftain in the Bush terror network, where he is like a kid in the weapons-of-destruction candy store.

Rumsfeld is against a ban on chemical weapons. He opposes a nuclear test ban because such a ban would make it difficult to develop new generations of nukes. He and a team of experts advocate turning outer space into another arena of war. Rumsfeld is particularly keen on setting up a missile grid that would allow the U.S.-based terror networks to wage war, including nuclear war, without fear of retaliation. This amounts to a scheme for casualty-free (on the U.S. side) nuclear genocide.

For his work, Rumsfeld was given the "Keeper of the Flame" award from the Center for Policy Studies, a terrorist support group that advocates the use of weapons in space. In the past, Rumsfeld has both advised and contributed funds to the group, which is also financed by the major military contractors who stand to make a fortune in building space weapons.

An examination of Rumsfeld's travels reveals a close (and opportunistic) association with heads of various pro-U.S. rogue states. One day he flies to Uzbekistan to make an ally of the Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov and gain access for military bases. Karimov's iron rule--enforced by 40,000 secret police in the capital alone--allows no public criticism. He practices torture and has put thousands in prison camps. He violently suppresses believers in Islam and once boasted that "these people should be shot in the head, and if necessary I will shoot them myself."

The next day Rumsfeld is hobnobbing with the Islamic fundamentalist rulers of the rogue state of Saudi Arabia, where the Bush terror network has stationed thousands of soldiers. This is a place where oil is king, the "Committees for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" ensure strict adherence to reactionary religious laws, and court-ordered punishments range from 1,500 lashes for protesting against the royalty to amputations for theft to the death penalty for "sorcery."

Above all things, Rumsfeld is a killer. As defense chieftain, he is the one who carries out the military agenda of the Bush terror network in its war on the people of Afghanistan. He does his job with gusto: 15,000 pound "Daisy Cutters," B-52 carpet bombings, cluster bomblets that tear through human flesh like butter--for Rumsfeld, no weapon is too grisly. An admiring reporter observed that Rumsfeld "is comfortable with the word 'to kill.' " In one short briefing, he used the word "kill" nine times, while the general standing next to him used old Pentagon euphemisms like "degrade."

While expressing bubbly elation over each bomb that drops, Rumsfeld coolly brushes off all reports of rising civilian deaths--now over 3,500 according to one researcher in the U.S. "No nation in human history has done more to avoid civilian casualties than the United States has in this conflict" is his preferred mantra.

When confronted with specific accounts of an entire village flattened by U.S. bombs, a hospital destroyed or children buried beneath the rubble of their homes, Rumsfeld musters up all his skill to evade responsibility by employing his patented four-step "If you can't deny, justify" method. First step: "They aren't dead. These aren't body parts. These are not bomb craters." If that fails, try step 2: Insist "We didn't do it" and then blame it on someone else. If that doesn't work, go to step 3: Get self-righteous and say, "We did it--and the people must've been doing something wrong if our bombs fell on them." If all else fails, use step 4: Simply state "that's just how war goes" and move on.

A videotape caught Rumsfeld saying these words as he derided his critics: "These people stand up and fuss at the United States because there's a baby in the street who was killed by something."

The evidence and documentation above make it clear that Donald Rumsfeld is unquestionably a dangerous man. He moves in and out of corporate, government, and military seats of power like a phantom. He kills without hesitation or remorse. His mad visions of hi-tech military superiority and global nuclear dominance could result in an astronomical loss of life. He is crafty, deceptive, ruthless, and thoroughly evil--truly an international terrorist to be reckoned with. You betcha.

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