Calls for Rumsfeld Resignation

Youth Radio: "Throughout these hearings there have been calls for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's resignation due to the scandal. "

Separate Article
from CNN:
ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Anti-war protesters repeatedly interrupted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld during a speech Thursday, and a former CIA analyst accused him in a question-and-answer session of lying about Iraq prewar intelligence.
"Why did you lie to get us into a war that caused these kind of casualties and was not necessary?" asked Ray McGovern, the former analyst.
"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. (Watch protesters confront Rumsfeld -- 3:20)
Three other protesters were escorted away by security as each interrupted Rumsfeld's speech by jumping up and shouting various anti-war messages.
Rumsfeld focused his speech on a U.S. need to increase its emphasis on more flexible partnerships with foreign militaries and rethinking of the role of long-established alliances like NATO.
Rumsfeld noted that some NATO countries have resisted calls to increase their defense budgets, even as the alliance has taken on new challenges in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
"A growing concern is that this declining spending is likely to drop even further given the demographic trends of much of Europe, coupled with their prevailing threat assessments," he said in his prepared remarks, which were made available at the Pentagon.
Thus it is "all the more urgent" to transform NATO to make the most of its available resources, he added.
At the outset of Rumsfeld's appearance, a protester was escorted out of the room by security guards after she interrupted the defense secretary. The woman jumped up and held up a cloth banner that said "Guilty of War Crimes!"
"I cannot stay silent," the woman shouted at Rumsfeld. "This man needs to be in prison for war crimes."
The woman was booed and others in attendance muttered "Get out of here."
Rumsfeld responded with a smile and told the audience, "I think we can count her as undecided."
In his prepared remarks, Rumsfeld singled out the increasingly close U.S. military relationship with Pakistan as an example of how the Bush administration believes it can improve U.S. national security in the long run by building ties to non-traditional allies.
He noted that when U.S. troops were in Pakistan last year to help with rescue and relief operations following a devastating earthquake, the Americans noticed that while senior Pakistani officers worked well with U.S. forces, the junior Pakistani officers seemed suspicious of the United States' motives for getting involved.
The difference, he said, can be explained by the fact that while most senior Pakistani officers had firsthand experience working with Americans early in their careers, the junior officers had not. That is because the U.S. government cut off military-to-military relations in the 1990s in response to Pakistan's nuclear program.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.