Blogger bares Rumsfeld’s post 9/11 orders
Hours after a commercial plane struck the Pentagon on September 11 2001 the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was issuing rapid orders to his aides to look for evidence of Iraqi involvement, according to notes taken by one of them.
“Hard to get good case. Need to move swiftly,” the notes say. “Near term target needs – go massive – sweep it all up, things related and not.”
The handwritten notes, with some parts blanked out, were declassified this month in response to a request by a law student and blogger, Thad Anderson, under the US Freedom of Information Act. Anderson has posted them on his blog at outragedmoderates.org.
Note that Rumsfeld clearly wanted to use 9/11 and the death of Americans as a cover to invade Iraq. Not withstanding that Saddam and al Qaeda were clearly enemies, something Rumsfeld had to know.