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NEWS ABOUT: Donald Rumsfeld

Chicago Outfit Readies Limbaugh Musical

Second City comedy troupe's kicks off Feb. 3

(Newser) - Chicago’s famed Second City comedy outfit might have just the cure for your winter blues (or reds, depending on how you tend to vote): Rush Limbaugh! The Musical. Opening next week, it will take “back to Rush’s humble beginnings and follows his ascent to conservative dominance buoyed... More »

Top Quotes of the '00s

'Bring 'em on' from George Bush makes the list

(Newser) - David Sirota culls the top 10 quotes of the decade that speak to the nation's shortcomings. See the full list at Salon here . A sampling:
  • "It doesn't matter." Dick Cheney, 2006, when asked about polls showing a majority of Americans opposed the Iraq war. It's a "sign
... More »

Army Historians Fault Early Afghan War Strategy

Forces were undermanned, and planning was shoddy

(Newser) - The US missed out on chances to stabilize Afghanistan early in the war because it devoted too few troops and too little planning to the conflict, write Army historians in an official chronicle of the conflict. "It should have become clear” in late 2003 “that the coalition presence... More »

Nevada Gambler Conned CIA With al-Qaeda Claims

Agents swallowed claim man could decode hidden messages

(Newser) - A Nevada software developer with a serious gambling problem fooled the CIA and the Bush White House into believing he had the key to al-Qaeda codes. Dennis Montgomery convinced agents that news network al-Jazeera was broadcasting hidden message on terror targets within the US that only he could decode, investigative... More »

Bush Team Blew Chance to Nab Osama

Al-Qaeda leader was at Tora Bora, but Rumsfeld let him get away

(Newser) - The Bush administration had a golden opportunity to capture Osama bin Laden in December of 2001, and it didn’t even try, writes John Kerry. The historical record is by now crystal clear: bin Laden and his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, were trapped at Tora Bora—bin Laden even wrote... More »

White House Piles on Rummy Over Afghan Troop Gripe

'You go to war with the defense sec you have'

(Newser) - Donald Rumsfeld would prefer President Obama not disparage the previous administration by suggesting it ignored troop requests by US commanders in Afghanistan, as he did in Tuesday’s speech. That’s a “bald misstatement,” the former defense secretary says in a statement. “At least as it pertains... More »

Flood of Bush Memoirs May Trip Up GOP

Six administration figures to release books before midterm elections

(Newser) - The 2010 elections offer Republicans the first chance in a long time to run without the handicap of the unpopular Bush administration. Or not. Bush may be out of office, but the period between now and next November could see the release of five Bush-era memoirs—from Hank Paulson, Laura... More »

Foolishness, Not Evil Genius, Drove 'Rove-o-Lution'

Top adviser's near absolute power corrupted absolutely

(Newser) - Liberals like to think of Karl Rove as a malevolent demigod, using his powers to obstruct the greater good. But, former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer writes in the Washington Post, the legacy of “Bush’s Brain” is far more mundane: “It is a story not of grand strategy... More »

Ridge Takes Back Threat Level Claim in His Book

Retreats on earlier suggestion that politics played a role

(Newser) - Former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge says the Bush administration “never pressured” him to raise the US terror threat level, backing down on a claim made in his book, USA Today reports. In the book, Ridge writes that John Ashcroft and Donald Rumsfeld pushed him to elevate it before... More »

McConnell: White House 'Demonizing' Health Critics

Angry protests 'clearly being orchestrated,' Durbin counters

(Newser) - The White House is “demonizing” the fiercely outspoken critics of its health care reform, Sen. Mitch McConnell told Fox News Sunday today. “To demonize citizens who are energetic about this strikes me as demonstrating a kind of weakness in your position,” the Senate minority leader said, but... More »

Would Rummy Pull a McNamara and Apologize?

Not anytime soon, says his biographer

(Newser) - Robert McNamara, the architect of the Vietnam War, eventually expressed regret for the conflict—but would Donald Rumsfeld ever apologize for Iraq? Unlikely—at least not anytime soon, writes a Rumsfeld biographer in the Washington Post. Thus far, the former secretary of Defense “has never appeared to waver in... More »

In Princeton Address, Couric Rips Palin, Limbaugh

(Newser) - Katie Couric today delivered the Class Day speech to Princeton graduates, and posted the speech on the Huffington Post. Some highlights:
  • "I’ve been called a cougar lately in the tabloid press—today I’m very happy to be an honorary tiger! Coming here was a real no brainer!
... More »

Save the Trauma Excuses: You Failed on 9/11

Cheney, Rice too often resorted to the extreme without doing their homework

(Newser) - Ironically, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice have defended their post-9/11 decisions by appealing for empathy, arguing that only those in charge on that bleak day could understand. “I have little sympathy for this argument,” Richard Clarke, who was there, retorts in a withering piece for the Washington Post,... More »

Rumsfeld Denies He Put Bible in Briefings

GQ writer, anonymous sources better suited to gossip beat, he says

(Newser) - Donald Rumsfeld didn't decorate the president’s World Intelligence Update cover slides with biblical quotes, a spokesman says, and GQ reporter Robert Draper should've known better than to use anonymous sources "with an axe to grind." The slides, the spokesman says in an email to Marc Ambinder... More »

Bullying Rumsfeld Used Bible to Sway Bush on Iraq

Former Pentagon chief undermined president, former aides say

(Newser) - Donald Rumsfeld isn’t a preacher, but nearly every morning after the Iraq invasion, he handed President Bush a national security digest containing Biblical quotations intended to influence his decisions. This tactic, Robert Draper writes for GQ in a lengthy look at Rummy's standing among administration contemporaries, epitomizes the former... More »

'Rumsfeld's Renegades' Blamed for Afghan Deaths

Unit of 'cowboys' behind some of war's worst civilian casualty incidents

(Newser) - A Special Forces unit set up by Donald Rumsfeld is being blamed for some of the worst civilian casualty incidents in the Afghanistan war, the Independent reports. The Marine Corps' Special Operations Command—known as MarSOC—ordered the air strikes that Afghan officials say killed 140 civilians last week, and... More »

Gitmo Was Actually Humane —Until Rumsfeld Took Over

Camp's ills began when Rumsfeld weighed in

(Newser) - If Guantanamo Bay has become a symbol of torture, a place where prisoners' screams echo in our national psyche, it wasn’t always so, writes Karen Greenberg in the Washington Post. Though told the Geneva Conventions wouldn't technically apply, the military officials who set up the camp skirted Bush administration... More »

Bush Can Teach Obama What Not to Do: Woodward

Woodward has seen all the mistakes and lived to tell about it

(Newser) - George W. Bush’s presidency could teach Barack Obama many lessons—about what not to do. Bob Woodward lays out 10 of them in today’s Washington Post:
  • "Presidents need to draw people out and make sure bad news makes it to the Oval Office": Bush went into Iraq
... More »

The Army Wants You. 30,000 More of You.

Pentagon says Army is overstretched

(Newser) - The US Army wants you, and about 30,000 of your friends, if it's going to fight effectively in Afghanistan and Iraq and complete other missions around the world, reports the Washington Post. Increased demands are being made on troops in places like Africa, Korea, and cyberspace, and while the... More »

US Bungled Iraq Rebuilding: Report

(Newser) - Hostile Pentagon planners and government turf wars have hobbled US attempts to rebuild Iraq, which failed to improve facilities since the days of Saddam Hussein, a searing federal report says. The unpublished history adds that when efforts lagged, the Pentagon publicly lied about them. Led by a Republican lawyer, the... More »

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