rumsfeld book. mr. rumsfeld is quite literally the person who needs no introduction so i will not give him one. if you want to know about his extensive background in government, there's no better way to do it than to read his book and i would urge everybody to do that. . >> the full price book. [laughter] >> and by the way, i'd like to make the observation that secretary rumsfeld is donating all of his revenues from the book to charity. after the panelists offer some opening thoughts for a few minutes' each, i'll ask secretary rumsfeld to respond and get a conversation going among us here on the podium and then we'll take questions from our audience. if you want to pose a question we left cards on everybody's chair. please write your question down and pass it forward and we'll get to as many of the questions as we can. now, i'd like to get the panel discussion going with a few comments. first, regarding the substance and tone of the book, secretary rumsfeld has written an important book. it's full of re

that is not donald rumsfeld into the as 11. that is donald rumsfeld in 1984.ook "94" fictional fiction also had a veiled threat. -- "1984" also had a veiled threat. in 1979, a time entitled "islam, the militant revival." you note the precision. your position remains controversial and i hope you have a chance to discuss it. one theme is the importance for clear, strategic thinking and the difficulty that that has posed for america. a second related theme touches on the all too common in perfections of our interagency process -- all-too-common imperfections of our interagency process. both interagency and inter- departmental problems. your observations in this realm are, sadly, as you know, not new. you could well have cited sources even before your era. preeminent cold war historian yale john steward guess said that kennedy's strategy broke down because it did nothing to prevent the subordination of strategic interest to those of the organization implementing the strategy. large bureaucracies all too often develop their own institutional momentum, making them i

rumsfeld's book. mr. rumsfeld is quite literally the person who needs no introduction so i will not give him one. if you want to know about his extensive background in government, no better way to do it in to read his book. and i would urge everyone to do that. the full price book. [laughter] by the way, like to make the observation that secretary rumsfeld is donating all of its revenues from the book to charity. after the panelists offered some opening thoughts for a few minutes each, alaska secretary rumsfeld to respond and get -- i will as secretary rumsfeld to respond and get his response. then we will take questions from the office. if you want to pose a question, we let cards on everybody's chair. please write your question down and pass it forward. we will get to as many questions as we can. i like to get the panel discussion going with a few comments. first, regarding the substance and tone of the book, secretary rumsfeld has written an important book, full of revealing stories and historically si

because the enemy -- >> it was one the rumsfeld's rules too. >> when i say rumsfeld's rules, it's a rule that i quote from someone more intelligent than i am. >> indeed. with full credit, i want to get in. >> indeed. but it's true. every time that you try to do something, for every offense, there's a defense. for every defense, there's an offense. and there's a constant change that takes place on the battlefield. and i think that the -- we are unlikely for a period of time to end up with the kind of clarity that we had in world war ii because of the nature of the world that we are living in. it is asymmetric, it's not similar -- symmetric. but what president bush was faced with when he made the decision on the iraq, it was a studydy john hopkins university called dark winter. if they memory serves me correctly, what if we took smallpox and put them in three places in the united states of america. in a relatively short period, the dark winter done by john hopkins concluded i'm going to be wrong by a bit, concluded that something in the neighborhood of 800,000 americans would be dead. some

rumsfeld's book. mr. rumsfeld is a person who needs no introduction. if you want to know about his extensive background in government, there is no better way to do it than to read his book. i would urge everybody to do that. >> the full price book. [laughter] if you want to pose a question, we left cards on everybody's chair. please write your question down and pass it forward. we will get to as many of the questions as we can. i would like to get the discussion going with a few comments. first, regarding the substance and tone of the book, secretary rumsfeld has written an important book full of revealing stories and is directly significant information. it has been selling impressively. it has been on the bestseller's list of the new york times since it came out seven weeks ago. the book contradicts a number of passes it -- a number of misconceptions about the iraq war and other subjects. it deals with a number of matters that were controversial. state department vs. defense department over afghanistan and the partnership with the afghan northern alli

in the margin rumsfeld himself. i stand eight to ten hours a day why is standing limited to just four hours was it like that when when backless left he was soft. and then short beer and then ken miller who really. sort of started the harsher techniques. i believe had no difficulty with pushing from his own office to get more results and that was that was. no decide this man wanted everybody to break. and believe that the only right that people there. was the right to give us intelligence it was the only right we're in the business of winning the global war on terrorism we also conduct ourselves as americans always do everything that goes on in camp delta is a representation of what we think makes america great. we decided to come about because again this time he was more cooperative. yes rick back you know i called you actually long time ago i thought time you didn't want to. talk. i'm not at liberty to give any of you to the point. there are so many rumors. that i bow to that we don't want to end. things. in it wro

shortly after miller took command rumsfeld personally approved the request for tougher interrogation methods he had only one objection. the inquiry requested permission to. force prisoners to stand in stress position for up to four hours. in the margin rumsfeld himself scribbled i stand eight to ten hours a day why is standing limited to just four hours and was it like that when we went back after he was soft. and then down a bit of short pier and then came neither who really. sort of. started the harsher techniques. i believe had no difficulty with pushing from his own office to get more results and that was that was. the side this man wanted everybody to break. and believe that the only right that people do. was the right to give us intelligence that was the only correct word in the business of winning the global war on terror we also conduct ourselves as americans always did everything that goes on in camp delta is a representation of what we think makes america great. we decided to call up doctors again this time he was more cooperative. the shrink back you know i called you actu

would that violate one of rumsfeld's rules? >> no, i don't think so. i think president bush, i don't know that he asked colin powell or condi rice or the vice president. he was the president. he was elected by the american people. we had frequent meetings and discuss various aspects of the situation. they worked very hard with united nations to try to put additional pressure on saddam hussein so that he wouldn't continue to resist. and the president did what a president has to do, made the decision. and i assume that he assumed that everyone in that group would have argued vehemently if they disagreed, which no one did. >> how do you think people in the future will look back on that decision in iraq? >> it's hard to know. you know, the road not traveled is always smoother. and one looks at it and thinks what is and what if. i think the little known fact is that gadhafi, the head of libya him at that point had a very aggressive nuclear program under way. and when the united states went in and change the regime in iraq, gadhafi, who have been working ver

rumsfeld spoke to her. it is an hour, 10 minutes. >> we thought we would have this little gathering because secretary rumsfeld's book book is not thing getting very much attention so we thought that we would make up for that by at least having one event. i know you are not doing anything else to make sure that the book gets the attention it deserves. it is appropriate we are doing this here in the national constitution center because one of the things the founders were serious about was, unlike the regimes in europe that they were starting this country to be unlike, they wanted to make sure that we had a record of our leaders, what they thought about what they did in office and also the hope that record would be open as soon as possible. >> i want to wait and get them to quiet down. >> and everyone here? i think there are some questions. >> there is so much noise over to the right. is that what it is? it is a big crowd of people trying to get upstairs which were for an author is news you would like to hear.

away you think that donald rumsfeld you know you think that dick cheney. really really had to. lie to get rid of saddam hussein his second wife to build a hold of that. good morning. i just you closer to meeting of my national security council. we were viewed what i discussed with my friend president vladimir putin over the course of many meetings. many months. and that is the new. for america. to move beyond the one thousand seventy two. anti-ballistic missile treaty. when george w. bush became president immediately he gave six months notice to russia that we are pulling out united states is pulling out of the a.b.m. treaty anti-ballistic missile treaty that limited the united states's ability to test and deploy anti-satellite weapons so-called missile defense systems and other space technology at the pentagon today a warning that space will become the next big battleground to meet the challenge difference are three donald rumsfeld is making space a top pentagon priority putting a four star general at the head of a new air force space command to take charge of all military spa

because the enemy -- >> that was one the rumsfeld's rules too. >> when i say rumsfeld rules, it's a rule that i quote from someone more intelligent than i am. >> indeed. with full credit i want to get in. >> indeed. but it's true. every time you try to do something, for every offense, there's a defense. for every defense, there's an offense. there's a constant change that takes place on the battle field. i think that the -- we are unlikely for a period of time to end up with the kind of clarity that we had in world war ii. because of the nature of the world what we're living in. it is asymmetric, it's not similar -- symmetric. it's ever changing, it's going to be a challenge for the leadership and the challenge for the country. but the growing of the weapons, what president bush was faced with when he made his decision on iraq was there a study by john hopkins university called dark winter. and if my memory serves me collectly, i -- what the series of experts got together and they said, what if we took smallpox and put it in three locations in the united states of america? in a relativel

that space will become the next big battleground to meet the challenge defense secretary donald rumsfeld is making space a top pentagon priority putting a four star general at the head of a new air force space command to take charge of all military space activity including any new anti missile defense pay careful attention to protecting and promoting our interest in space pentagon officials say is the first step toward eventually putting weapons into space. the united states is the leader of the search and development of space weapons possible secret and in the black budgets of the pentagon these covert programs cost many billion dollars a. month technology has benefit from this financing. starfire has been used primarily in the past to do research on satellite tracking also they've done a lot of work in astronomy with range finding of stars he use the laser to be able to help tell you where the star is and how far away. in the budget documents from the air force there's also been mention of the use of star fire for anti satellite weapons. the air force told congress that it had no inten

that is not donald rumsfeld into the as 11. -- in 2011. that is donald rumsfeld in 1984. or will's fictional book "94" also had a veiled threat. -- "1984" also had a veiled threat. -- a real world a threat. in 1979, a time entitled "islam, the militant revival." you note the precision. your position remains controversial and i hope you have a chance to discuss it. one theme is the importance for clear, strategic thinking and the difficulty that that has posed for america. a second related theme touches on the all too common in perfections of our interagency process -- all-too-common imperfections of our interagency process. both interagency and inter- departmental problems. your observations in this realm are, sadly, as you know, not new. you could well have cited sources even before your era. preeminent cold war historian yale john steward guess said that kennedy's strategy broke down because it did nothing to prevent the subordination of strategic interest to those of the organization implementing the strategy. large bureaucracies all too often develop their own institu

what should a historian write about donald rumsfeld second time at the pentagon. >> i'd give it 10-20 years. [laughter] i think perspective is good. journalists like to think that they write the first draft of history. i don't know that i'd use the word history with that first draft. i served a lot of years in government, and now i've been out for four, and i debated whether i should write a short book in a year and use my memory or whether i should digitize this incredible archive i've accumulated over my lifetime and start inviting people in to discuss the phases of my life and the events i'm involved in and if you look in the acknowledgement section, i don't know how many people are listed there, but it's many, many dozens and we'd talk and transcribe, go back to the records, and i said if i have that archive, why shouldn't we digitize and see if we can't make it available to the reader. i'm told maybe for the first time we not only are going to be held availability e-book, electronic book is what that means i'm told. [laughter] didn't use to have those when i was a kid. [laughter]

techniques one count of these are techniques actually approved by our secretary of defense donald rumsfeld and if you read them you get sickened by them among all the documents we find a story a story that has its beginning in the fall of two thousand and two they have a problem at guantanamo the prisoners have stopped talking and the old methods don't seem to be effective anymore. now they want to interrogate for twenty hour sessions remove prisoners clothes let them stand naked in uncomfortable positions make them where. they also want permission under medical supervision to lower the temperatures in interrogation rooms. and take advantage of prisoners phobia. for example prisoners fear of dogs. so you have our secretary of defense for the rising the use of dogs of course the word phobias is particularly interesting because that has to do with. the religious fare for muslims or dogs around cle later happens in the interrogation room. when the new methods are implemented only the prisoners know and their interrogators problem is being carried leaders at guantanamo don't give interviews wi

was one particular moment in the runup to the iraq war which deeply hurt us and that's when donald rumsfeld stood up, parliament having to approve an act of war, and he said, this is after 10,000 british troops have been amassed in kuwait, he said, we don't need you guys. and we felt deeply hurt. what do you mean, you don't need news is chris: i wouldn't generalize that behavior. >> but the point is we need you to basically -- we're a little bit like the prom queen last year, trying to carry favor with the court. chris: despite the special relationship there are big differences. of course class rigidity is chief. the highest levels of british education were once the reserve of the upper classes but andrew, andrew sullivan, who comes from a middle class background, made it to oxford. i want to show you a clitch "history boys." here are these middle class boys being tutored so they can write their way into oxford or cambridge. >> has anybody been to rome or venice? florence? no. because the upper candidates would have been and they'll have done course on what they've seen there most likely. s

secretary of defense donald rumsfeld famously referred to as the unknown unknowns in international security. perhaps other also existing genuine but publicly unacknowledged fear of the dead rising from the grave and feasting upon the living at major universities and police department have developed lots contingency plans for a zombie outbreak at an increasing number of college students applying human versus a zombie to relieve stress. or perhaps to refer for the inevitable army of the undead. outdoor "life" magazine is running some began features. by a securities and new impaired among national governments are the government of haiti has on the books to prevent this obligation of individuals. want to speculate these governments are doing in private. one must beware of overstating the case. flesh eating ghouls are not only paranormal phenomenon to spark interest. over the past decade aliens, ghosts, vampires, wizards, witches and hobbits were also on the tip of everyone's tongue. for some of the specter of zombies pale to some. from a public policy perspective zombies have greater attention

the american freedom agenda he says those peddling the war use former defense secretary donald rumsfeld's concept of anticipatory self-defense with strong rhetoric and talk of the need for war makes americans think might know saddam hussein is about to attack as are some of bin laden in a little cave now in afghanistan is about to overthrow the government because politicians and the defense department it's weight that fear and when they do the defense contractors win big. now a handful of lawmakers are calling this seemingly endless cycle into question both republicans who spent a trillion dollars in iraq that was a trillion dollars of waste and democrats we're going to have health care for all or we can have war. we can ever education for all. we're going to war the budget bill before the house this week calls for the complete elimination of mortgage counselors those people that help the five million americans facing foreclosures the price tag the same as funding eight hours of u.s. operations in afghanistan a four hundred million dollars cut in heating assistance for low income homeowne

one thousand nine hundred seven william cohen of course republican was under clinton and we had rumsfeld and then we had gates who just a sickly very close in the bush family what this means show is that obama's trying to get the white house in for monitor stand more heavily on the pentagon and how this can play out with policy we know that gates has been reluctant to commit u.s. ground forces into libya yet another war that the obama administration has had mercy united states and we may see more white house control over pentagon policy as a result of what about betray us you know on one hand he's highly respected highly esteemed for his work in iraq and afghanistan and he doesn't criticize the cia for some of the holes in the operation sometimes disorganization miscommunications i would think president obama was thinking by putting general petraeus in this role well to trace is only highly thought of by people like john mccain and joe lieberman he's the neo-cons guy i mean he's a he's a war hawk he he was responsible for the surges in iraq in afghanistan some people . say that resulted

nine hundred ninety seven we had of course bill cohen a republican an air under clinton and we had rumsfeld a republican and gates a republican but i think what this shows is with panetta he's going to be somebody who is going to be totally in lock step with the obama administration as a former democratic congressman from california so there may not be as much independence in reluctance issuing forth from the pentagon when obama wants to place the u.s. and yet additional wars in libya potentially in syria and continuing this covert war it in pakistan and possibly even yemen we could see u.s. troops but what about the ongoing situation in afghanistan and tress leaves there do you think perhaps the introduction of a new military commander and indeed they're talking about a new ambassador do you think that will in any way improve the situation because clearly at the moment the fight against the taliban doesn't seem to be working. well i think one of the problems is one of the people being replaces are u.s. ambassador to afghanistan former general carl icahn very who we know has. had a cool rel

else too and we have to go back to really just after nine eleven and you saw this through donald rumsfeld the former secretary of defense where you started seeing more of a militarization of the intelligence community even to even state department too but the idea of bringing somebody like tray as into the agency really drives them closer in that direction to essentially being something at the hip with the d.o.d. be now there is a benefit to that and there is a detriment to that because frequently right now what you have nothing but intelligence that students driven for the purpose of giving the military what they want you miss a lot of the other advantages and requirements that the intelligence community really has and that's really to provide intelligence to a lot of these lawmakers in washington and if all they're doing is essentially giving targeting and giving a site selection it doesn't really do all the other things the intelligence community may need so we have to be really careful and keep our eyes on that one too but how much of the intelligence do you think of a trace really mi

. >> todd, donald rumsfeld on this new book, telling his role in the bush administration.'ll hear about his decision making during 9/11 and its strategy on the wars in iraq and afghanistan. >> we talked about all the things that could go bad. women not find weapons of mass destruction. it was right there. sent to the president and nsc members. i was on a program with all raleigh -- o'reilly. wonderful idea. lustily enemy every single thing we might have a problem with so they can go about doing it. that is not the kind of thing you tell the press or talk about public. there is a list of page after page of things that's people in the government thought about. that was circulated and people were worried about. >> watch this discussion tonight at 8:00 p.m. on c-span. tonight, a discussion on race in america. griffonear from will and spike lee as a joint a panel of journalists to talk about media coverage of minorities. >> a you say you cannot get enough footage to make the case this was -- are you saying you cannot get enough footage to make the case this is a racist organiza

all the interest is the indirect attempt to get a cognitive grip on what donald rumsfeld famously referred to as the unknown unknowns of international security perhaps there existed unacknowledged sphere of the debt arising from the grave major universities have developed mont contingency plans for these on the outbreak and college students play human verses on these -- zombies on campus. outdoor "life" magazine runs zombies features the only way to take the amount is with a head shot and file security with the national government the government has laws on the books for the zombies of the individuals. were they doing a private? we may be over state -- overstating the case this must be the only phenomenon. over the past decade aliens ghost vampires wizards and how this were also on the tip of rebalanced on. zombies pales in comparison to other creatures. from a public policy perspective zombies great -- garner more attention with the contrast that they are demons although some of variation could exist in our physical world they possess possibility that wizard circles to work demons lack it

bob gates was succeeding a controversial, polarizing, bombastic secretary of the defense in don rumsfeldcool, competent. he's the one person in the cabinet that barack obama could not fire. i mean he had tenure. i mean he-- you know, and he earned it, don't get me wrong. but he-- and he played it i mean i think afghanistan was a tribute, in part, to his influence and his decision, as well as to general petraeus. but i think the other one is ryan crocker coming back, ambassador. >> to afghanistan, is a of enormous proportion. a man of great skill, great knowledge and was comfortable in his retirement at the bush library and to be able to persuade him to come back, given his knowledge and working with general petraeus in the past. i think was a great -- >> just very briefly does it signal any shift in policy or is this continuing. >> no, i really don't. i think more a continuation. we have somebody intimately familiar with the problems we're facing so i think is more of a continuation.ie >> david brooks, mark shields, thank you very much. >> thank you. vi >> warner: again, the major develo

accountable-- so do you believe that president bush and dick cheney, the vice president, and donald rumsfeldsecretary of defense, should be held accountable in an international court for the iraqi invasion? >> it doesn't have to be an international court but there has to be a process of investigation. there has to be a due process of who is accountable for all these hundreds of thousands of life that has been pulverized, charlie, on the basis of an act of deception. yes, i'm saying that. >> rose: but as you know, other administrations in our history, including the clinton administration, have said that they believe that saddam hussein had nuclear weapons. so they, too, were deceived by erroneous information. r. >> right, and that exactly proves my point, that president bush could have been deceived by erroneous information, but should be has to be held accountable, whether intelligence, whether hose who made decisions on deceptive information, i don't know. all i am say, charlie, is somebody in the chain of command has to be held accountable, both in the u.s. and in the umpd k., and all thes