Excerpts of Rumsfeld and Cohen testimony at 9/11 hearing — Transcript

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1. 0:00Secretary, Mr. Deputy Secretary, General
2. 0:02Meyers, we would ask you if you could
3. 0:03raise your right hand. And so it may
4. 0:06place you under
5. 0:08oath. Do you swear or affirm to tell the
6. 0:11truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
7. 0:12the truth? I do. I do. Thank you very
8. 0:15much, sir.
9. 0:17Perished. The recent attacks are deadly
10. 0:19reminders that the world's free nations
11. 0:22are at war.
12. 0:24Another attack on our people will be
13. 0:26attempted. We can't know where or when
14. 0:29or by what technique. That reality
15. 0:32drives those of us in government to ask
16. 0:34the tough questions. When and how might
17. 0:36that attack be attempted? And what will
18. 0:38we need to have done today and every day
19. 0:41before the attack to prepare for it and
20. 0:43to if possible prevent it? On September
21. 0:4611th, our world changed. It may be
22. 0:48tempting to think that once the crisis
23. 0:50has passed that things will go back the
24. 0:52way they were. Not so. The world of
25. 0:55September 10th is passed. We've entered
26. 0:58a new security environment, arguably the
27. 1:01most dangerous the world has known. And
28. 1:03if we're to continue to live as free
29. 1:05people, we cannot go back to thinking as
30. 1:08the way the world thought on September
31. 1:1010th, the 21st century through a 20th
32. 1:13century prison what, if anything, might
33. 1:15have been done to prevent it.
34. 1:18First, I must say I knew of no
35. 1:21intelligence during the six plus months
36. 1:23leading up to September 11th that
37. 1:25indicated terrorists would hijack
38. 1:27commercial airliners, use them as
39. 1:29missiles to fly into the Pentagon or the
40. 1:32World Trade Center towers. Launching
41. 1:34such an invasion actually provoked
42. 1:36terrorist
43. 1:37attacks. Even if bin Laden had been
44. 1:39captured or killed in the weeks before
45. 1:41September 11th, no one I know believes
46. 1:44that it would necessarily have prevented
47. 1:46September 11th. Killing bin Laden would
48. 1:48not have removed al-Qaeda's sanctuary in
49. 1:50Afghanistan. Moreover, the sleeper cells
50. 1:53that flew the aircraft into the World
51. 1:54Trade Towers and the Pentagon were
52. 1:56already in the United States months
53. 1:58before the attack. Indeed, if actionable
54. 2:01intelligence had appeared, which it did
55. 2:02not, 9/11 would likely still have
56. 2:05happened. And ironically, much of the
57. 2:07world would likely have called the
58. 2:09September 11th attack an al-Qaeda
59. 2:12retaliation for the US provocation of
60. 2:15capturing or killing Bin Laden. Do you
61. 2:19swear or affirm to tell the truth, the
62. 2:21whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
63. 2:24Thank you very much. You're prepared to
64. 2:26contribute whatever I can to the uh
65. 2:28important uh I believe that we have been
66. 2:30complacent as a society. I think that we
67. 2:33have failed to fully comprehend the
68. 2:35gathering storm. Even now, after
69. 2:37September 11th, I think it's far from
70. 2:39clear that our society truly understands
71. 2:42the gravity of the threat that we face
72. 2:44or is yet willing to do what I believe
73. 2:45is going to be necessary to counter it.
74. 2:47After all, it's commonly noted, it was
75. 2:49noted here again this morning, there no
76. 2:52attacks since September 11th. I think
77. 2:55this is a dangerous delusion. The enemy
78. 2:57is not only coming, he has been here.
79. 3:00Don't recognize geographic. Our plans
80. 3:02were uh to try to quote capture and or
81. 3:07kill or kill, I should say in this
82. 3:09particular case, capture or kill Bin
83. 3:11Laden. That was the directive that went
84. 3:14out, the memorandum of notification. The
85. 3:16president had signed several of those,
86. 3:18refining them in each and every
87. 3:19occasion. Taking that directive, we had
88. 3:23our people in a position should there be
89. 3:26quote actionable intelligence. again the
90. 3:27key word but whenever there was quote
91. 3:30actionable intelligence we were prepared
92. 3:31to take um action to destroy Bin Laden
93. 3:35or or the targets secretary I must I say
94. 3:38you're making my argument the I
95. 3:41supported what the president did in co I
96. 3:42support