Today, during a speech in Atlanta, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was heckled and verbally nailed to the wall for his pre-war claims about WMD’s in Iraq. One audience member asked Rumsfeld during a question and answer session, “Why did you lie to get us into a war that caused these kind of casualties and was not necessary?” That audience member was 27-year CIA veteran Ray McGovern who has been an outspoken ciritc of the Bush administration and the Iraq war.

“I did not lie,” shot back Rumsfeld, who waved off security guards ready to remove McGovern from the hall at the Southern Center for International Studies.

The interchange with McGovern and Rumsfeld went on for a few moments. ThinkProgress first reported this here and then CNN confirmed the questioner was former CIA veteran Ray McGovern. You can watch the video here:

AP reports, “Three protesters were escorted away by security as each interrupted Rumsfeld’s speech by jumping up and shouting antiwar messages.”

Throughout the speech, a fourth protester stood in the middle of the room with his back to Rumsfeld in silent protest. Officials reported no arrests.

And here’s the transcript (hat tip to C&L):

McGovern: and So I would like to ask you to be up front with the American people, why did you lie to get us into a war that was not necessary, that has caused these kinds of casualties? why?

RUMSFELD: Well, first of all, I haven’t lied. I did not lie then. (applause) Colin Powell didn’t lie. He spent weeks and weeks with the Central Intelligence Agency people and prepared a presentation that I know he believed was accurate, and he presented that to the United Nations. the president spent weeks and weeks with the central intelligence people and he went to the American people and made a presentation. I’m not in the intelligence business. they gave the world their honest opinion. it appears that there were not weapons of mass destruction there.

McGovern: You said you knew where they were.

RUMSFELD: I did not. I said I knew where suspect sites were and we were…..just…(crosstalk)

McGovern: You said you knew where they were Tikrit, Baghdad, northeast, south, west of there. Those are your words.

RUMSFELD: My words…. my words were that …. no, no, no wait a minute, wait a minute. Let him stay one second. Just a second.

McGovern: This is America, Huh.

(applause)

RUMSFELD: You’re getting plenty of play, sir.

McGovern: I’d just like an honest answer.

RUMSFELD: I’m giving it to you.

McGovern: Well we’re talking about lies and your allegation there was bulletproof evidence of ties between al Qaeda and Iraq. Was that a lie? or where you mislead?

RUMSFELD: Zar…, Zarqawi was in Baghdad during the prewar period. That is a fact.

McGovern: Zarqawi? He was in the north of Iraq in a place where Saddam Hussein had no rule. That’s where he was.

RUMSFELD: He was also… (crosstalk) He was also in Baghdad.

McGovern: Yes, when he needed to go to the hospital.

Come on, these people aren’t idiots. They know the story.

RUMSFELD: You are… Le…,Let me, Let me give you an example it’s easy for you to make a charge, Um, but why do you think that the men and women in uniform every day when they came out of Kuwait and went into Iraq put on chemical weapon protective suits, because they like the, ah, style (laughter) They honestly believed that there where chemical weapons Saddam Hussein had used Chemical weapons on his own people previously, he’d used them on his neighbor the Iranians and they believed he had those weapons. We believed he had those weapons.

McGovern: That’s what we call a non-secretor, it doesn’t matter what the troops believe, it matters what you believe

(crosstalk)

Moderator: I, I Think, I think, I think mister secretary the debate is over we have other questions, that courtesy to the audience.

Last but not least, a reader on CrooksandLiars provided a quip from a transcript of Rumsfeld on This Week on March 30, 2003 that verifies that Rumsfeld lied:

MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, weapons of mass destruction. Key goal of the military campaign is finding those weapons of mass destruction. None have been found yet. There was a raid on the Answar Al-Islam Camp up in the north last night. A lot of people expected to find ricin there. None was found. How big of a problem is that? And is it curious to you that given how much control U.S. and coalition forces now have in the country, they haven’t found any weapons of mass destruction?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Not at all. If you think — let me take that, both pieces — the area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.

After all the calls for Rumsfeld to resign, it does appear he really stepped in it today.

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