Rumsfeld didn't think there'd be any shooting in war.....
Army Spc Thomas Wilson asked.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4079201.stm
Troops grill Rumsfeld over Iraq
Mr Rumsfeld insisted the troops would prevail.
US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld faced
a grilling when he visited troops about to
face combat in Iraq.
Mr Rumsfeld was at Camp Buehring, Kuwait,
to deliver a pep-talk to soldiers about
the significance of the task ahead of them.
But he faced tough questions from soldiers
anxious about their equipment and how long
they will stay.
One soldier said troops were were forced
to root through rubbish to reinforce their
armoured vehicles.
"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local
landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmour
our vehicles?"
Army Spc Thomas Wilson asked.
"We do not have proper armoured vehicles"
His question brought cheers
from some 2,000 fellow soldiers -
mostly Reserve and National Guard troops -
assembled in an aircraft hangar for the
question-and-answer session that followed
Mr Rumsfeld's speech.
Mr Rumsfeld paused,
before asking him to repeat the question,
AP news agency reported.
Spc Wilson did so, adding,
"we do not have proper armoured
vehicles to carry with us".
"You go to war with the army you have," Mr Rumsfeld replied,
saying vehicle armour manufacturers
were being exhorted to crank up production.
Mr Rumsfeld added that vehicle armour might
not provide total protection from the perils
faced by soldiers in Iraq - such as roadside bombs.
"You can have all the armour in the world
on a tank and it can [still] be blown up,"
Mr Rumsfeld said.
'Unfair' treatment
Mr Rumsfeld denied the charge from another
soldier that active-duty troops were
prioritised above Reserve and National
Guard soldiers to receive the best
military equipment.
Another soldier asked how long the
army would continue to use its powers
to extend tours of duty -
the so-called stop-loss policy which
is currently estimated to be keeping
some 7,000 soldiers in Iraq beyond their
expected return date.
Mr Rumsfeld said this was simply
a fact of life for soldiers at
time of war.
"It's basically a sound principle, it's nothing new,
it's been well understood" by soldiers, he said.
Rumsfeld faced a sometimes sceptical reception
"My guess is it will continue to
be used as little as possible,
but that it will continue to be used."
At one point Mr Rumsfeld's voice broke
as he delivered prepared comments to
troops before the question-and-answer
session.
"You know there are those who see
the violence taking place in Iraq...
and they say we can't prevail," he said.
"I see that violence and say we must win," he said.
____________________
Rumsfield on the Daily Show [< Watch humorous clip of Rumsfeld
fielding questions from Troops]
______________
Center for war-related brain injuries faces budget cut
By Gregg Zoroya
USA TODAY
Congress appears ready to slash funding for the research and treatment of brain injuries caused by bomb blasts, an injury that military scientists describe as a signature wound of the Iraq war.
House and Senate versions of the 2007 Defense appropriation bill contain $7 million for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center - half of what the center received last fiscal year.
Proponents of increased funding say they are shocked to see cuts in the treatment of bomb-blast injuries in the midst of a war.
"I find it basically unpardonable that Congress is not going to provide funds to take care of our soldiers and sailors who put their lives on the line for their country," says Martin Foil, a member of the center's board of directors. "It blows my imagination."
"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder
respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
~ George Orwell
Rumsfeld strategy speech heckled
They [find a lot] and any
number of terrorist efforts have been dissuaded,
deterred or stopped by good intelligence gathering and good preventive work.
It is a truth that a terrorist can attack any time, any place, using any
technique and it's physically impossible to defend at every time and every
place against every conceivable technique. Here we're talking about plastic
knives and using an American Airlines flight filed with our citizens, and
the missile to
damage this building and similar (inaudible) that damaged
the World Trade Center.
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2001/t11182001_t1012pm.html
Pentagon:
Rumsfeld misspoke on Flight 93 crash
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/27/rumsfeld.flt93/index.html
From Jamie McIntyre CNN Washington
Tuesday, December 28, 2004 Posted: 0254 GMT (1054 HKT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A comment Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made during a
Christmas Eve address to U.S. troops in Baghdad has sparked new conspiracy
theories about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
In the speech, Rumsfeld made a passing reference to United Airlines Flight
93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to stop al
Qaeda hijackers.
But in his remarks, Rumsfeld referred to the "the people who attacked the
United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania."
A Pentagon spokesman insisted that Rumsfeld simply misspoke, but Internet
conspiracy theorists seized on the reference to the plane having been shot
down.
"Was it a slip of the tongue? Was it an error? Or was it the truth, finally
being dropped on the public more than three years after the tragedy" asked a
posting on the Web site WorldNetDaily.com
[Curious that CNN appears to use this second blooper by Rumsfeld to dismiss those in the 911 truth movement. Since when has the fact that Flight 93 was shot down been "new"? Flight 93 was shot down by Major Rick Gibney of the Happy Hooligans Squadron, temporarily stationed at Langley a few months before 911. He was awarded a medal from the Governor one year later for his heroic actions. As well as Decorated by Congress on 9/13/2001.)
Will CNN EVER get its facts right on 911? Or will they continue their childish spat against other news agencies that have a far better zeal for truth, and the relentless defence of our Liberty? Would CNN rather push the whacky government conspiracy theory that all that happened on 911 was executed by cave dwelling Arabs with simple box cutters, and an apparent need to read flight manuals on their way to the airport? Get serious CNN!
Start by going to this site... and maybe you will learn something? Or are you afraid of the NWO parasites?
Read actual CNN 'word for word' transcript snip from Rumsfeld
_____________
And strike THREE......
- Mistrial ends Watada court-martial
- Army uniforms get first redesign in 2 decades
- Troops long out-of-uniform sent to Iraq
- MoD accused of covering up casualty rates
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Rumsfeld sold reactors to North Korea.
—By Craig Cox, Utne.com
May 2003 Issue
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld served on the board of a Swiss company that in 2000 sold light water nuclear reactors to the government of North Korea, which critics—including Pentagon hardliners—say could be used to produce nuclear weapons.
Rumsfeld’s involvement in the $200 million deal with the Zurich-based engineering company ABB is seen as an embarrassment to the Bush administration, which vehemently opposed the deal during the 2000 presidential campaign, reports the London-based Guardian. “One could draw the conclusion that economic and personal interests took precedent over non-proliferation,” said Steve LaMontagne of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
Rumsfeld sat on the ABB board from 1990 to 2001, earning $190,000 a year. He left to join the Bush administration. Asked about the reactor deal, the defense secretary told the Guardian that he “did not recall it being brought before the board at any time.”
But an ABB spokesman said that “board members were informed about the project which would deliver systems and equipment for light water reactors,” and the Guardian noted that at the time of the deal, ABB’s chief executive Goran Lindahl made a high-profile trip to Pyongyang to announce a “wide-ranging, long-term cooperation agreement” with the North Korean government.
The ABB deal was part of the Clinton administration’s policy of stabilizing the region by offering North Korea oil and light water reactors in exchange for access by inspectors to the government’s atomic facilities. The policy was vehemently opposed by George W. Bush and his foreign policy advisors—including Rumsfeld’s deputy, Paul Wolfowitz—who argued that the light water reactors could produce weapons-grade plutonium.
And despite placing North Korea in its “Axis of Evil,” the Bush administration apparently has fewer concerns about ABB’s reactors now that Rummy’s running things at the Pentagon. In January, the president authorized $3.5 million to keep the project going.
Donald Rumsfeld makes $5m killing on bird flu drug
By Geoffrey Lean and Jonathan Owen
Published: 12 March 2006
Donald Rumsfeld has made a killing out of bird flu. The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease.
[See:
Strain
of bird flu resistant to Tamiflu kills two patients]
More than 60 countries have so far ordered large stocks of the antiviral
medication - the only oral medicine believed to be effective against the
deadly H5N1 strain of the disease - to try to protect their people. The
United Nations estimates that a pandemic could kill 150 million people
worldwide.
Britain is about halfway through receiving an order of 14.6 million courses of
the drug, which the Government hopes will avert some of the 700,000 deaths
that might be expected. Tamiflu does not cure the disease, but if taken soon
after symptoms appear it can reduce its severity.
The drug was developed by a Californian biotech company, Gilead Sciences. It
is now made and sold by the giant chemical company Roche, which pays it a
royalty on every tablet sold, currently about a fifth of its price.
Mr Rumsfeld was on the board of Gilead from 1988 to 2001, and was its
chairman from 1997. He then left to join the Bush administration, but
retained a huge shareholding .
The firm made a loss in 2003, the year before concern about bird flu
started. Then revenues from Tamiflu almost quadrupled, to $44.6m, helping put
the company well into the black. Sales almost quadrupled again, to $161.6m
last year. During this time the share price trebled.
Mr Rumsfeld sold some of his Gilead shares in 2004 reaping - according to the
financial disclosure report he is required to make each year - capital gains
of more than $5m. The report showed that he still had up to $25m-worth of
shares at the end of 2004, and at least one analyst believes his stake has
grown well beyond that figure, as the share price has soared. Further details
are not likely to become known, however, until Mr Rumsfeld makes his next
disclosure in May.
The 2005 report showed that, in all, he owned shares worth up to $95.9m, from
which he got an income of up to $13m, owned land worth up to $17m, and made
$1m from renting it out.
He also had illiquid investments worth up to $8.1m, including in
partnerships investing in biotechnology, issuing reproductions of paintings,
and operating art galleries in New Mexico and Wyoming. He also has life
insurance with a surrender value of up to $5m, and received up to $1m from the
DHR Foundation, in which he has assets worth up to $25m, and $773,743 from the
Donald H Rumsfeld Trust, in which he has assets of up to $50m.
Late last week no one at Gilead Sciences was available to comment on Mr
Rumsfeld's sale of its stock. In a statement to The Independent on Sunday the
Pentagon said: "Secretary Rumsfeld has no relationship with Gilead Sciences,
Inc beyond his investments in the company. When he became Secretary of Defence
in January 2001, divestiture of his investment in Gilead was not required by
the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Office of Government Ethics or the
Department of Defence Standards of Conduct Office.
"Upon taking office, he recused himself from participating in any particular
matter when the matter would directly and predictably affect his financial
interest in Gilead Sciences."
Donald Rumsfeld has made a killing out of bird flu. The US Defence Secretary
has made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the
biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being
bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of
the disease.
More than 60 countries have so far ordered large stocks of the antiviral
medication - the only oral medicine believed to be effective against the
deadly H5N1 strain of the disease - to try to protect their people. The
United Nations estimates that a pandemic could kill 150 million people
worldwide.
Britain is about halfway through receiving an order of 14.6 million courses of
the drug, which the Government hopes will avert some of the 700,000 deaths
that might be expected. Tamiflu does not cure the disease, but if taken soon
after symptoms appear it can reduce its severity.
The drug was developed by a Californian biotech company, Gilead Sciences. It
is now made and sold by the giant chemical company Roche, which pays it a
royalty on every tablet sold, currently about a fifth of its price.
Mr Rumsfeld was on the board of Gilead from 1988 to 2001, and was its
chairman from 1997. He then left to join the Bush administration, but
retained a huge shareholding .
The firm made a loss in 2003, the year before concern about bird flu
started. Then revenues from Tamiflu almost quadrupled, to $44.6m, helping put
the company well into the black. Sales almost quadrupled again, to $161.6m
last year. During this time the share price trebled.
Mr Rumsfeld sold some of his Gilead shares in 2004 reaping - according to the
financial disclosure report he is required to make each year - capital gains
of more than $5m. The report showed that he still had up to $25m-worth of
shares at the end of 2004, and at least one analyst believes his stake has
grown well beyond that figure, as the share price has soared. Further details
are not likely to become known, however, until Mr Rumsfeld makes his next
disclosure in May.
The 2005 report showed that, in all, he owned shares worth up to $95.9m, from
which he got an income of up to $13m, owned land worth up to $17m, and made
$1m from renting it out.
He also had illiquid investments worth up to $8.1m, including in
partnerships investing in biotechnology, issuing reproductions of paintings,
and operating art galleries in New Mexico and Wyoming. He also has life
insurance with a surrender value of up to $5m, and received up to $1m from the
DHR Foundation, in which he has assets worth up to $25m, and $773,743 from the
Donald H Rumsfeld Trust, in which he has assets of up to $50m.
Late last week no one at Gilead Sciences was available to comment on Mr
Rumsfeld's sale of its stock. In a statement to The Independent on Sunday the
Pentagon said: "Secretary Rumsfeld has no relationship with Gilead Sciences,
Inc beyond his investments in the company. When he became Secretary of Defence
in January 2001, divestiture of his investment in Gilead was not required by
the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Office of Government Ethics or the
Department of Defence Standards of Conduct Office.
"Upon taking office, he recused himself from participating in any particular
matter when the matter would directly and predictably affect his financial
interest in Gilead Sciences."
_______________
Japan's health ministry has warned the anti-flu drug Tamiflu can induce strange behaviour leading to accidental death following the deaths of two teenagers who took the medicine, news reports said.
Former US general says Rumsfeld should quit over Iraq
A former senior US military
commander, Anthony Zinni, called for the dismissal of Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld over critical mistakes made in the Iraq war.
Zinni, who headed the US Central Command from 1997 to 2000, was asked if
anyone should lose their job over how Washington has managed its Iraq policy.
"Secretary of defense to begin with," he told NBC's "Meet the Press" program.
"Integrity and getting on with the mission and doing it right is more important than loyalty. Both are great traits, but integrity, honesty and performance and competence have to outweigh, in this business, loyalty," the former Marine Corps general said.
Zinni has called for a high-level shake-up at the Pentagon since late 2003, the same year the United States invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein.
"There's a series of disastrous mistakes. We just heard the secretary of state say these were tactical mistakes. They were not tactical mistakes. These were strategic mistakes, mistakes of policies made back here," he said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said over the weekend that "thousands" of tactical mistakes had been made with regard to Iraq, a statement she later backed away from.
Some 2,333 US troops have been killed in Iraq, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
__________
US troops fear infiltration of Iraqi police may delay handover 'for decades'The infiltration of Iraqi police by militias may delay the United States handover "for decades," American soldiers training the Iraqi police tell the Washington Post.
"The top U.S. military commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., predicted last week that Iraqi security forces would be able to take control of the country in 12 to 18 months," Amit R. Paley writes for the Post.
"But several days spent with American units training the Iraqi police illustrated why those soldiers on the ground believe it may take decades longer than Casey's assessment," the article continues.
Capt. Alexander Shaw, head of the police transition team overseeing the training of all Iraqi police in western Baghdad says, "To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure we're ever going to have police here that are free of the militia influence."
__________
New Documents Show U.S. War Game in 1999 Predicted Iraq DisasterAP Sunday, November 5, 2006
WASHINGTON The U.S. government conducted a series of secret war games in 1999 that anticipated an invasion of Iraq would require 400,000 troops, and even then chaos might ensue.
In its "Desert Crossing" games, 70 military, diplomatic and intelligence officials assumed the high troop levels would be needed to keep order, seal borders and take care of other security needs.
The documents came to light Saturday through a Freedom of Information Act request by the George Washington University's National Security Archive, an independent research institute and library.
__________
4 Leading Military Papers: 'Rumsfeld Must Go'Editor & Publisher Saturday, November 4, 2006
NEW YORK An editorial set to appear on Monday -- election eve -- in the four leading newspapers for the military calls for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
The papers are the Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times and Marine Corps Times. They are published by the Military Times Media Group, a subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. President Bush said this week that he wanted Rumsfeld to serve out the next two years.
"We say that Rumsfeld must be replaced,” Alex Neill, the managing editor of the Army Times, told The Virginian-Pilot Friday night. “Given the state of affairs with Iraq and the military right now, we think it’s a good time for new leadership there.”
__________
Lawmaker: U.S. sent giant pallets of cash into Iraq - February 7, 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The Federal Reserve sent record payouts of more than $4 billion in cash to Baghdad on giant pallets aboard military planes shortly before the United States gave control back to Iraqis, lawmakers said Tuesday.
The money, which had been held by the United States, came from Iraqi oil exports, surplus dollars from the U.N.-run oil-for-food program and frozen assets belonging to the ousted Saddam Hussein regime.
Bills weighing a total of 363
tons were loaded onto military aircraft in the largest cash shipments
ever made by the Federal Reserve, said Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of
the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. (Watch
Democrats put the former top U.S. official in Iraq on the spot 
)
"Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone? But that's exactly what our government did," the California Democrat said during a hearing reviewing possible waste, fraud and abuse of funds in Iraq.
Lawyer says Rumsfeld "messed up" Guantanamo trials
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his appointees set rules that violate President George W. Bush's order to hold fair trials for prisoners charged with terrorism in the Guantanamo tribunals, a military defense lawyer said on Friday.
"We can't help it that the secretary of defense and his delegees (sic) have messed this thing up, but they have," military lawyer Army Maj. Tom Fleener told the presiding officer at one of the hearings.
"If the rules don't provide for a full and fair trial, then they violate the president's order."
Fleener was trying to persuade the presiding officer, Col. Peter Brownback, to let a Yemeni defendant act as his own attorney on charges of conspiring to attack civilians and destroy property.
[.........]
________________
- Rumsfeld Sends MEK Terrorists into Iran - Thursday April 13th 2006
Rumsfeld is now fear-mongering over, of all places, the tiny South American
state of Venezuela. Seems that the Venezuelan policy of blocking out multilateral
big oil companies is upsetting the 'oil at any cost' terrorists in Washington - Rumsfeld
himself being one of the key death cult leaders.
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Rumsfeld: Venezuela's Weapons a Concern The recent military build-up in Venezuela by U.S. nemesis President Hugo Chavez has other countries in the region worried that the weapons could end up in the hands of terrorists, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday. "I can understand neighbors being concerned," said Rumsfeld, who is attending a meeting of Western hemisphere military leaders here this week. Asked whether he believes Venezuelan officials' contention that the weapon buys are strictly for defense and not a threat to the region, Rumsfeld said, "I don't know of anyone threatening Venezuela - anyone in this hemisphere." [Who is threatening who here? Is Rumsfeld off his medication, or is the US government not invading every country it can find, with a leader who can so much as pronounce the word 'terrorist'? Oh, and lets not forget our history regarding the heavy CIA influence in the entire region.] Venezuela's defense minister Gen. Raul Isaias Baduel, who is also attending the meeting, said Monday that his country's recent military spending spree wasn't "an arms race," despite Washington's protests. Chavez, however, has repeatedly charged that United States is planning to invade his country, a claim American officials dismiss as preposterous. And he said Sunday that he's heard the Bush administration is plotting to assassinate him or topple his regime. [Well they can hardly dismiss it as preposterous now, given Rumsfeld putting his cards on the table, and showing the "terrorist" card.] U.S. Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, chief of U.S. Southern Command, called the accusation "mindless" and "way over the top." But he also agreed that Venezuela's recent deal to buy roughly $3 billion worth of arms from Russia - including rifles, jet fighters and helicopters - is triggering "more concern from more countries." [3 Billion sounds like a lot, to some perhaps - but lets bare in mind the US military spent 5.6 billion per month (in 2005) in Iraq alone.] Rumsfeld did not meet privately with Baduel, but did briefly exchanged pleasantries with him. "I have spoken to Mr. Rumsfeld to convince him that he should try smoking Venezuela's good tobacco," Baduel told the Associated Press. "He said he doesn't smoke, that his wife wouldn't let him." Meanwhile, Craddock and other officials said Monday that they don't see a credible threat in Venezuela's call for the creation of an anti-U.S. military coalition with other leftist countries in the region. Craddock said Brazil's defense minister told the gathering he doesn't see a need for a regional military organization. Gen. Moises Omar Hallesleven, the commander of the Nicaraguan military, told U.S. reporters he is not concerned about the Chavez effort. Venezuela, he said through an interpreter, has very weak influence in the region. Hallesleven also vowed that as long as he is its leader, the Nicaraguan military will remain apolitical and professional - even if Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega wins the upcoming presidential election. Chavez grabbed headlines recently when he called Bush "the devil" and slammed U.S. leaders for trying to block his country from taking a seat on the U.N. Security Council. U.S. officials have long considered Chavez a destabilizing force. And they have suggested that Venezuela would make the Security Council unworkable if the nation were to win its bid against U.S.-backed Guatemala for a rotating council seat. Rumsfeld, in his formal remarks to the gathering, also made a reference to the other main U.S. antagonist in the region: Cuba. [CUBA! Is he nuts? In what way is Cuba a military threat to the US? Perhaps someone forgot to brief him that the Cuban missile crisis has been over for decades, and they now trade with the Russians.] He said he hoped that one day soon "the final holdout in our hemisphere against the democratic sweep of history will give its citizens the right to choose their own destiny and will participate in our conference." Rumsfeld also called for more regional cooperation in the fight against terrorism. [Yeah, those NORAD guys are so good at stopping terrorism... who wouldn't want those idiots watching the fort.] "These new challenges can be solved only if we work together to protect our free democratic institutions and to provide economic opportunities for our people," Rumsfeld said. The military conference, along with a NATO defense ministers meeting and other military visits in the Balkans last week, have largely kept Rumsfeld out of Washington for the past week, where there is renewed debate on his stewardship of the Iraq war. He said he will not resign, and openly questioned why reporters were so focused on a new book, "State of Denial" by Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward, that is critical of the defense chief. Clearly frustrated with repeated questions about his job security, Rumsfeld told reporters he has not read Woodward's book and is not likely to.
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Video: Iranian-American
filmmaker sues Rumsfeld
David Edwards In this video clip, CNN interviews Cyrus Kar, an Iranian-American filmmaker, who is suing U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for wrongful imprisonment and the violation of his Constitutional rights. In Iraq to film a historical documentary, Kar was charged with being a terrorist and placed in the notorious prison at Abu Ghraib. He was held for 55 days, most of them in solitary confinement. After 49 days, he was finally given a hearing and eventually freed. Rumsfeld has filed motions to have the suit dismissed. A hearing in January will determine if Kar's lawsuit can go forward. A full transcript follows the video.
COLLINS: He went to a war zone to make a movie, but he became the key player in a real life prison drama. Now this filmmaker is suing Donald Rumsfeld. CNN's Randi Kaye explains. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Cyrus Kar is an Iranian-American who went to Iraq last year to film a historical documentary. It had nothing to do with the war. But just days after arriving, his trip took a stunning turn. Kar landed at the notorious Abu Ghraib Prison where he says U.S. troops called him the American terrorist. CYRUS KAR, FILMMAKER ARRESTED IN IRAQ: I could hear them in what must have been their standard mantra, which was, you f-ing terrorist. You're here to kill Americans. You f-ing terrorist. KAYE: So how did this Los Angeles filmmaker, who's lived in the U.S. since Kindergarten, this Navy veteran, end up a suspected terrorist? Kar says his taxi, driven by an Iraqi, was stopped at a checkpoint. The car's trunk was search and Kar, his camera man and driver were arrested for plotting to build roadside bombs. KAR: They found three dozen washing machine times. KAYE: Did you know those were in there? KAR: No. KAYE: Did you know what they were being used for? KAR: No. KAYE: Washing machine timers are widely used by insurgents to trigger IEDs on roadsides. In time, Kar says his taxi driver would admit the timers were his. But when Kar was handed over to U.S. forces, he says his hands and feet were bound and he was left to bake for hours in a cage in 120 degree heat. He remembers a hood over his head nearly suffocated him. Did you think you were going to die there at that point? KAR: I remember I kept telling myself, stay awake. You won't die today. Stay awake. KAYE: Kar says he showed U.S. troops his passport and his veterans card but they still took him to Abu Ghraib. After Abu Ghraib, Kar says he was thrown into solitary confinement for two months, at the same prison as Saddam Hussein. If Kar's story is true, why would the U.S. treat one of its own citizens this way? MARK ROSENBAUM, CYRUS KAR'S ATTORNEY: Saddam Hussein received more due process than Cyrus Kar did. KAYE: The ACLU's Mark Rosenbaum represents Kar in a lawsuit against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other high-ranking military officials. They say Rumsfeld's replacement will also be added to the suit. The lawsuit claims the U.S. government deprived Cyrus Kar of his constitutional rights and violated the Geneva Convention. ROSENBAUM: Of holding people in communicado in the hell holes of places like Abu Ghraib, that's not acceptable. And it's Constitution 101. KAYE: A spokesman for coalition forces says Kar was treated fairly and humanely, consistent with the standards set by the Geneva Convention. But Rosenbaum says Kar passed a lie detector test. And, after all, the taxi driver did admit the washing machine timers were his. Still, he says, Kar was refused a lawyer. While Cyrus Kar was being interrogated in Iraq, he had no idea he was also being investigated back here at home. In a midnight raid, FBI agents turned his Los Angeles apartment upside down. They confiscated two computers, credit card statements, phone records and airline tickets, none of it provided any evidence to warrant keeping him in Iraq. Also, Kar says he was held for 55 days, 53 in solitary confinement. In fact, 49 days passed before he even had a hearing. Why did it take so long to free an innocent American? Does a lawsuit like this, though, really have any legs? I mean you think about suing Don Rumsfeld, General Casey. Do you really think you're going to get somewhere? ROSENBAUM: The government is saying that what they did was perfectly lawful. And so I think this lawsuit is the only chance that citizens like Cyrus have in restoring what the basic principles are. KAYE: Secretary Rumsfeld and the other defendants have filed motions to dismiss the case. The Department of Justice argues, "the length of the plaintiff's detention was well in keeping with the exigencies of ongoing hostilities in Iraq and the needs to ascertain fully and accurately his true status." It adds, "once the tribunal had assessed the plaintiff's case, military personnel took only six days to review the decision and make arrangements to release the plaintiff." A hearing to determine if Kar's lawsuit will go forward is set for January. At some point, while you were there, did you say to yourself, maybe I shouldn't have come to Iraq in the height of war to shoot this documentary about some Persian leader that's been gone 2,500 years? KAR: You know, I think a lot of people might find me crazy for this, but, no, I never regretted my decision. KAYE: Cyrus Kar's documentary would have been about a great Persian conqueror, a ruler considered by many to be the father of human rights. The irony, was not lost on Cyrus Kar. Randi Kaye, CNN, Los Angeles.
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