Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld - Inaccurate and Misleading Statements about Iraq

Bush on Iraq; The Bush Administration's Misleading and Inaccurate Public Statements on Iraq

Mission Not Accomplished, Cover of Time Magazine

Analysis of Public Statements made by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Chemical and Biological Weapons:

"My personal view is we're going to find them, just as we found these two mobile laboratories."

Source: Town Hall Meeting with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Infinity-CBS Radio (5/29/2003).

Explanation This statement was misleading because it claimed the purpose of the trailers was to produce biological weapons without disclosing that engineers from the Defense Intelligence Agency who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons.

The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Chemical and Biological Weapons:

"QUESTION: Weapons of mass destruction, we are still searching. No conclusive evidence as of yet, I'm sure you've heard the criticism. Were, as perhaps Senator Byrd suggested, were we misled about the weapons of mass destruction? SECRETARY RUMSFELD: Oh I don't believe so, I think the intelligence community provided the best intelligence available and that we will find additional substantiating evidence of that. Colin Powell if you may recall at the UN mentioned the existence of these mobile biological laboratories and two of those are now in our custody and they seem to look very much like precisely what Colin Powell said would exist."

Source: Secretary Interview with WNYW-TV, Fox News (5/27/2003).

The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Chemical and Biological Weapons:

"The area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is, 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 kernel facilities, there are dozens of them, it is a large geographic area . . . I would also add that we saw from the air 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 exploration is just starting."

Source: This Week with George Stephanopolous, ABC (3/30/2003).

Explanation This statement was misleading because it professed certainty when the intelligence community provided only an "estimate." According to CIA Director George Tenet, "it is important to underline the word estimate. Because not everything we analyze can be known to a standard of absolute proof." In addition, the statement failed to acknowledge the Defense Intelligence Agency position that: "There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons or where Iraq has -- or will -- establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities."

The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Chemical and Biological Weapons:

"We have seen . . . intelligence over--over months, over many months that they have chemical and biological weapons, and that they have dispersed them and that they're weaponized . . . ."

Source: Secretary Donald Rumsfeld discusses the war in Iraq, CBS (3/23/2003).

The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Urgent Threat:

"With each passing day, Saddam Hussein advances his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and could pass them along to terrorists. If he is allowed to do so, the result could be the deaths not of 3,000 people, as on September 11th, but of 30,000, or 300,000 or more innocent people."

Source: Donald H. Rumsfeld Delivers Remarks to American Troops, Defense Department (3/20/2003).

Explanation This statement was misleading because it suggested that Iraq posed an imminent threat despite the fact that the U.S. intelligence community had deep divisions and divergent points of view regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. As Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet noted in February 2004, "Let me be clear: analysts differed on several important aspects of these programs and those debates were spelled out in the Estimate. They never said there was an 'imminent' threat."

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 >>