Following the criminal investigation of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and the charging of American soldiers in March 2004, Secretary of Defense Donald “Rumsfeld not only did not tell Americans, he did not tell the president, and Bush learned about the [incriminating] photographs only months later, after they were broadcast on 60 Minutes […]
Category: quotes
5/6/2004
” ‘These events occurred on my watch,’ [Donald] Rumsfeld said [in testimony about prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, on May 7, 2004]. ‘As Secretary of Defense, I am accountable for them and I take full responsibility. …I feel terrible about what happened to these Iraqi detainees. They’re human beings. They were in U.S. custody. Our […]
5/6/2004
On May 6, 2004, Rush Limbaugh discussed the Abu Ghraib Iraqi prisoner abuse on his radio show. “The Abu Ghraib abuses ‘look like standard good old American pornography,’ he said. The guards were just ‘having a good time’ and their actions looked ‘just like anything you’d see Madonna or Britney Spears do onstage. …I mean, […]
5/6/2004
“A new audiotape message purportedly from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and posted on an Islamic Web site Thursday [May 6, 2004] offers 22 pounds of gold to anyone who kills Coalition Provisional Authority head Paul Bremer or top U.S. military officers. …The message suggested that the bounties were being offered in response to […]
5/6/2004
Regarding the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib: ” ‘We’re not going to recover from this damage,’ Congressman John Murtha [D-PA] announced [on May 6, 2004]. ‘This one incident destroyed our credibility in Iraq and in all the Arab world.’ ” – Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, Page 546 […]
5/5/2004
When questioned about the torture of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib Prison, “First, people in Iraq must understand that I view those practices as abhorrent. They must also understand that what took place in that prison does not represent America that I know. The America I know is a compassionate country that believes in freedom. […]
5/4/2004
According to former Iraq Survey Group leader David Kay’s May 4, 2004, report titled ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction: Lessons Learned and Unlearned:’ ” ‘The Iraqi defectors [seeking to support regime change in Iraq, such as the now-discredited Curveball] understood two things: one, we shared a mutual interest in regime replacement; and, two, the U.S. was […]
5/1/2004
“In Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, al-Qaeda’s Saudi Arabian affiliate attacked the offices of a contractor for ExxonMobil on May 1, 2004, killing six Westerners.” – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 209 […]
4/30/2004
In Iraq, “After three weeks of a siege following the murder of the four American contract workers [from Blackwater USA], the marines had retreated from Falluja [on April 30, 2004]. The military spokesman, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, explained that ‘this is not a withdrawal, it’s not a retreat…’ ” – Frank Rich, The Greatest Story […]
4/29/2004
“The White House finally gave up on its restrictions to the [classified] Clinton documents [it had been withholding from the 9/11 Commission], and the president himself [Bush] submitted to questioning by all ten Commissioners in an informal meeting with Vice President [Dick] Cheney on April 29 [2004]. But in a signal of just how seriously […]