Shahani: "Do you Lie often?"
Runmsfeld: "It is not a pretty picture. It's a difficult situation. We live in a dangerous and untidy world, this is not an easy time for the world. It might just be in the words one uses, and someone would then say, oh, my goodness, he thinks this and someone else thinks that. How it'll shake out, I don't know. People are doing that all over town. They do it at the State Department. They do it in my office. I do it. And I haven't put any Rumsfeldian code words on it. On the other hand, it's a good sign. And that's not inaccurate from a grammatical standpoint, or from a semantic standpoint. Now that I think of it, I shouldn't have mentioned it.
There are clearly risks to acting in any instance. But there are also risks to not acting. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. I now just got the wrap-up signal. Really I'm just a piece of meat. They just move me from here to there. So I'll take some more questions. So it's a very different kind of thing, and it's evolving over time, and we certainly hope it evolves in a very peaceful and constructive way. All of us in this business read intelligence information. And we read it daily and we think about it and it becomes, in our minds, essentially what exists. And that's wrong. It is not what exists."
Shahani: "OK",
"So do you or don't you lie?"
Rumsfeld: "
The message is that there are no knowns. I hate to fuss at folks, I really dont. Our relationship with them is multi-faceted, it's political, it's economic, and clearly there are security implications.
It is not a pretty picture. It's a difficult situation. We live in a dangerous and untidy world, this is not an easy time for the world. Well, you know, the United States has a wonderful record of humanitarian assistance, and caring about people, and participation in funding of medical activities, and food programs for people, and we're not against any religion. As a country, we're not against any race.
You don't know what you don't know.
Well, one has to be hopeful. Certainly if you're not attentive and not trying to help the situation it's likely it could get worse. If you are attentive and trying to help it it is not necessarily clear that you'll be able to solve it."
Shahani: "Right". "Good clear thinking, Mr Rumsfeld. Thank You."
(
shahani walks away shaking his head thinking how all politicians and military folks are alike when it comes to CYA) 
Linear Mode
