Donald Rumsfeld: Why I Kept The Pentagon Open On 9/11

WASHINGTON -- Then-Defense Department Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he did not close the Pentagon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to send a message that terrorism could not shut down the seat of American defense.

"It was clear they had hit the seat of economic power in New York and the seat of military power of the United States in Washington," he said on CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "And I just made a decision that when the fire marshal said to evacuate the building, I said, 'No, get the non-essential personnel out of there and we'll leave it open.'"

"I don't want the world to think that a group of terrorists could shut down the U.S. Department of Defense," he added.

There were no plans for how to move forward, which Rumsfeld said was one of the hardest parts of dealing with the attacks. "There was no roadmap. There was no guidebook. There was no war plan on the shelf that the Pentagon had thought through, 'This is what you do,'" he said.

Then-President George W. Bush was "very decisive," Rumsfeld said. "He said immediately, 'We're not gonna pound sand. We're not gonna simply indict some people in absentia and fire off a few cruise missiles. We're going to deal with this problem before something this bad or something worse happens to the American people,'" Rumsfeld said of Bush.

Still, he said on BBC on Friday that he urged the president not to call the United States' response a "war" because it implied that the Pentagon could solve the problem alone.

"I think once you say the word 'war,' the implication is it's going to be a battle of bullets and tanks and airplanes," he said. "And what we're engaged in here is much more than that. It's not going to be won by bullets. It's a problem of a competition of ideas, a way to live lives."

Comments

[mcmutter]

05:20 PM on 09/12/2011

why isn't Rummy swinging from a DC lampost by his ankles ... ?

[rambisfan]

02:40 PM on 09/14/2011

because DC isn't in Somolia....Why don't you check your heart?

[Andythelawyer]

05:14 PM on 09/12/2011

Remind me -- Was Rummy fired, or did he resign in disgrace?

[Dandy12]

05:09 PM on 09/12/2011

Rumsfeld like Bush/Cheney is a rewriter of history with no apologies. Doubtful he'll write his own "The Fog of War".

[joeinvt]

04:58 PM on 09/12/2011

Oh Donald, if only you been President from 2001 to 2009 instead of Cheney.

[rollo tomasi]

04:31 PM on 09/12/2011

Rummy looks like he has the weight of a hundred sins on his shoulders...Oh wait....

[Clearing-Brush]

03:08 PM on 09/12/2011

First - turn yourself in at the Hague, then I hear what you have to confess - I mean say....

[pandag]

02:57 PM on 09/12/2011

The only interview I'm interested in seeing from Rummy is the one he gives from Federal Prison serving life for crimes of high treason, torture, crimes against the American people and against the people of the world.

[Athelstane]

05:02 PM on 09/12/2011

You are absurdly excessive.

[kapalabhati]

09:09 PM on 09/12/2011

Did you sleep through the mid-aughties?

[Gay Iberian]

02:06 PM on 09/12/2011

Rumsfeld is right when he says that "...what we're engaged in in here is much more than that (bullets, tanks, airplanes). It's not going to be won by bullets. It's a problem of competition of ideas, a way to live lives."

[BacSi]

01:32 PM on 09/12/2011

Why oh why did they not close down the outer E ring BEFORE that attack? They sure had time after the Towers were hit.

The senior NBC pentagon talking head (blanking on his name at the moment) said he was warned by a senior official, right after the 2nd tower was hit, not to be in the E ring that day.

"We are next"

After the attack he saw that Official again. He asked him if he had spent any time in the E Ring after they had last chatted.

"No"

I have a friend whose entire section was killed when that plane hit the E Ring.

He was on travel.

Not 2nd guessing. Just wondering who was asleep on their watch.

Surely not Donald?

[Bude]

12:57 PM on 09/12/2011

I couldn't care less what this clown did.

If he truly loved America, he would just go away.

[azted123]

12:47 PM on 09/12/2011

Rumfield didn't have a chance to close the pentagon because the whole event took place fairly early in the morning. He didn't or did he know about the attack, Did some one know that 9/11 was going to happen? The whole 9/11 is fishy. Just too many things don't fit in. Example The Saudi's flying those planes and some one knew what was going to happen. The Saudi Royal family was allowed to fly out on the 12th after the attack. Why? No other aircraft was allowed to fly on the 12th Was this a plan to justify huge money outlay for a war? Cheney's unbid contract for Halliburton still smells of corruption.

[gblank1603]

01:37 PM on 09/12/2011

Actually no planes flew until 9/13

[rdschuler]

12:39 PM on 09/12/2011

For those unfamiliar with the Pentagon,it's main purpose is to be the center of control of any attack on the United States .It is built to withstand just about any weapon thrown at it .That area damaged were offices ,and not the headquarters of the control unit .It would be treason to abandon your post,if it was required to counter any invasion of the enemy .Can you imagine the crew of a ship abandoning their post because they were being attact?Think about it if instead he told everone to leave their post and go home .

[american-dolt]

12:32 PM on 09/12/2011

Whenever I see Rumsfeld I think of the Dylan song "Masters of War".

Disgusting human being.

[JFranco]

03:09 PM on 09/12/2011

What I can't get over is how much he resembled Robert McNamara. Is there a lab somewhere that clones these creeps?

[Michael Dubacher]

07:49 PM on 09/12/2011

yes and the answer my friend is the hot air blow'n in the wind.................

[davide463]

12:20 PM on 09/12/2011

Almost as if he knew something was going to happen. I kind of rehearsed reaction.

[Wake Up Call]

12:20 PM on 09/12/2011

Now for some T R U T H - the real reason the Pentagon wasn't closed? Because there was never any danger in the first place! The section that the jet SUPPOSEDLY crashed into just happened to be in an area that had been previously evacuated several days ahead of time for "cleaning" - the first time that any section of the Pentagon had EVER been evacuated. Next problem - within SECONDS - LITERALLY SECONDS, agents rushed in to every location in the area that had a video security camera set up that would have been in a position to see the SUPPOSED jet crash, and they seized all evidence. They KNEW this was going to happen, because they acted INSTANTLY. Now look at the crash site. The explosion CLEARLY came from inside the building and blew outwards. This idea that the entire jet vaporized which is why there wasn't ANY recovered debris is the most outlandish lie ever told. There is absolutely no way that an entire jumbo jet would be vaporized on impact - and why were they SO intent on collecting every video tape in the area? 9/11 makes the Kennedy assassination look like the perfect crime. Bush's team of morons left OBVIOUS evidence that this was an inside job. If you don't believe anything else, how about the guy who owned the World Trade Center taking out an insurance policy against a terrorist attack just one month before 9/11? Think that's a coincidence?

[digitalvex]

12:44 PM on 09/12/2011

Uhhh....

[BacSi]

01:36 PM on 09/12/2011

I have a friend whose entire section was killed when that plane hit the E Ring. His entire section. He was on travel that day.

I know one guy who actually saw the plane come in and hit the ERing.

I think you do a disservice to the dead. Those killed by that plane.