LIVE THREAD: Rumsfeld Testifies Regarding Treatment of Iraqi Prisoners

http://freerepublic.com ^ | May 7, 2004

[Howlin]

Link to C-SPAN

http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/schedule.csp

I'm sure all the networks will be showing this.

[ellery]

Oh, of course they did. Effing hypocrites.

[BlessedByLiberty]

Still catching up - but the ABC radio minute (KSFO S/F) went like this: 2/3rds of Americans polled by ABC said they are dismayed by the pictures. 69% of Americans do not want Donald Rumsfeld to resign.

Guess this one isn't working.

[kcvl]

Oh, good gosh...Dumb *ss "astronut" Ben Nelson...

[OXENinFLA]

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton) for the time.

This is a very difficult time for me because I find it difficult to rise in opposition of this resolution, and the reason I do it is because there just does not seem to be enough outrage involved in what is being said.

We should not have to apologize for brave men and women. We should not have to apologize for what the executive branch or the Congress has or has not done. We should not be put in this position.

Several months ago, I called for the resignation of the Secretary of Defense because I thought, as a major architect of this war, that he was fighting this war with other people's children, and when he said that he did not know whether or not we were winning or losing the war, when he said that he did not know whether we were creating more terrorists than we were killing, when he said we did not have any plan to end the war, that it was a slog, I thought, as a former combat veteran, is this the leadership that we can expect from the Secretary of Defense? I thought that America and the military deserve better than that and he should resign.

Now the information that we receive is that a climate has been created where a handful of people have committed these atrocities against human kind in an atmosphere where all of the people that are in Iraq have been demonized where it appears to American people and certainly to our military that the people in Iraq are responsible for 9/11 and causing us pain, that the Secretary of Defense did have information months ago about these atrocities; and that he kept it from the President, he kept it from the Congress and he kept it from the American people. I think that this rises to the point that it is a high crime and misdemeanor if he disappointed the President, kept information from the Congress and kept this information from the American people.

I think America and the world wants us to show the outrage, not by rhetoric, but by taking action, and if the President does not fire the Secretary, if he does not resign, I think it is the responsibility of this Congress to file articles of impeachment and force him to leave office. Then the whole world would know, not just our military, not just Americans but the whole world what we stand for.

If people can say ``mission completed'' when it looks like there is victory and we see atrocities like this and it happens on someone's watch, if they do not have the dignity to say I am sorry and move on, then we have the responsibility under our Constitution to remove these people from office.

He kept the information away from this Congress. We have the responsibility of oversight. I am preparing articles of impeachment today.

[Mo1]

Rummy didn't see the pictures till last night

[TomGuy]

They can't impeach a Cabinet Sec.......he serves at the pleasure of the President.

Exactly!

And the one writing up the articles of impeachment is Charles Rangel. That says it all.

[BulletBobCo]

I would have given it to them in stereo.

[Peach]

The media has gone waaaay over the line and they are endangering out troops daily. I hate them so much they are going to kill me. Literally.

[cake_crumb]

"They can't impeach a Cabinet Sec.......he serves at the pleasure of the President."

That's exactly what I said when I heard about it yesterday. Democrats are impeachaholics...when it comes to non-Democrats.

[TNdandelion]

In 1876, William Belknap, Secretary of War was impeached for impropriety.

I do believe that they can impeach a Sec of Defense but do they have the votes? I doubt that. They need 2/3 majority vote to do it.

[Howlin]

He did the dirty work.

[kcvl]

ROFLOL!

THANK YOU!

[mtbopfuyn]

Rummy should never bow down and take blame for not having the forsight that this would blow up in the media.

[cgk]

We have a double whammy here: Boxer/Feinstein.

[hchutch]

"They have never been designed. We are in a wartime situation with peacetime constraints. WHere people are running around with digital cameras and taking these unbelievable pictures and giving them to the media, against the law, and we hadn't even seen them."

Note the emphasized parts. Somebody is going DOWN hard for this... not just for releaving classified information, but I think that civil rights charges (for prejudicing a potential jury pool against defendants) are in order as well.

[YaYa123]

Graham is a showboater but he's got the goods when it calls for inciteful, piercing questioning. Today he showed his stuff....with toughness so he can't be called partisan, but the tone was obvious, especially on making fun of those calling for Rumsfeld's impeachment.

[Darlin']

Oh, dear, Bless your heart. :) I'm in the same boat.... except mine is a Hillary wannabe.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Do we have to let you defend yourself, or can we just grandstand?

[ravingnutter]

We do have trolls, but I don't believe TrueBeliever9 is one of them.

Thanks for the info...nice to know. TB9 was asked several times to back up the statement about the Bremer/Kerry deal with no response...so it had the classic characteristics of a hit and run post...and I am not familiar with his/her posts, so I wasn't sure.

[Madame Dufarge]

What the #$@@ is that slow drawl? Even drunk I don't sound that stupid!

She's one of my Senators - I've heard her speak before, this is normal for her. She's so astoundingly stupid that she should be declared a new species.

I apologize for living in the state that inflicted her on the rest of the country.