Donald Rumsfeld Accused of Lying

Donald Rumsfeld 

May 5, 2006

Atlanta, Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, publicly accuses Donald Rumsfeld of lying about Iraq.

Also, several protestors were forcibly removed from the room where Donald Rumsfeld was having his question and answer session.

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Rumsfeld vs. Hecklers: Factcheck

Former CIA Analyst Confronts Defense Secretary About WMD

By LUIS MARTINEZ

May 4, 2005 — Appearing before Atlanta's Southern Center for International Studies, a place he has visited many times, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld faced several hecklers and a persistent questioner who pointedly asked him if he'd lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

After one of the hecklers was escorted out, Rumsfeld calmly said, "The idea that people in government are lying … is dead wrong and untrue."

An earlier heckler prompted Rumsfeld to use one of his favorite lines: "I think we can count her as undecided."

Former CIA analyst and administration critic Ray McGovern went toe-to-toe with Rumsfeld during the question-and-answer portion of the talk.

"I would like to ask you to be upfront with the American people. Why did you lie to get us into a war that was not necessary, that has caused these kinds of casualties? Why?" McGovern asked.

"Well, first of all, I haven't lied. I did not lie then," Rumsfeld replied. "Colin Powell didn't lie. He spent weeks and weeks with the Central Intelligence Agency people and prepared a presentation that I know he believed was accurate and he presented that to the United Nations. The president spent weeks and weeks with the Central Intelligence people and he went to the American people and made a presentation. I'm not in the intelligence business. They gave the world their honest opinion. It appears that there were not weapons of mass destruction there."

McGovern continued to challenge Rumsfeld: "You said you, you knew where they were."

"I did not. I said I knew where suspect sites were," Rumsfeld said.

"And you said you knew where they were — Tikrit, Baghdad, northeast, south, west of there. Those are your words," McGovern said. Read more...