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Citing a 'Shamed America,' Gore Calls for Rumsfeld, Rice, Tenet and 3 Others to Resign

(By JAMES BARRON, New York Times, May 27, 2004)

video link at C-span---see Al Gore Talk on Iraq Policy


from NYTimes...Declaring that the Bush administration "shamed America" with its policy on Iraq, former Vice President Al Gore yesterday called for the resignations of six high-ranking officials, including the secretary of defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld; the director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet; and the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice.

In an hourlong speech to 900 people at New York University that was interrupted by applause more than a dozen times, Mr. Gore also accused President Bush of "utter incompetence" on Iraq, adding that the president had "made the world a far more dangerous place and dramatically increased the threat of terrorism against the United States."

Mr. Gore's appearance, which was sponsored by New York University College Democrats, a student organization, and MoveOn.org PAC, an offshoot of an online organization that has run advertisements criticizing the president and his administration, amounted to a broad-gauge attack on the man who defeated Mr. Gore in 2000.

"The president convinced a majority of the country that Saddam Hussein was responsible for attacking us on Sept. 11, when in truth he had nothing whatsoever to do with it," Mr. Gore said. "The president convinced the country with a mixture of documents that turned out to be forged and blatantly false assertions that Saddam was in league with Al Qaeda."

Mr. Gore said that the three cabinet-level officials and three of Mr. Rumsfeld's top civilian deputies - the deputy defense secretary, Paul D. Wolfowitz; Douglas J. Feith, the under secretary for policy; and Stephen A. Cambone, the under secretary for intelligence - should step aside because of "the catastrophe we are facing in Iraq."

"We desperately need a national security team with at least minimal competence," Mr. Gore said, "because the current team is making things worse with each passing day." He accused the officials he singled out of "endangering the lives of our soldiers and sharply increasing the danger faced by American citizens everywhere in the world, including here at home."




from transcript>>
transcript of talk by Gore

Listen to the way Israel's highest court dealt with a similar question when, in 1999, it was asked to balance due process rights against dire threats to the security of its people:

"This is the destiny of democracy, as not all means are acceptable to it, and not all practices employed by its enemies are open before it. Although a democracy must often fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless has the upper hand. Preserving the Rule of Law and recognition of an individual's liberty constitutes an important component in its understanding of security. At the end of the day they (add to) its strength."

The last and best description of America's meaning in the world is still the definitive formulation of Lincoln's annual message to Congress on December 1, 1862:

"The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise - with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history...the fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation...We shall nobly save, or meanly lose the last best hope of earth...

posted by moshido 1:42 PM