Rumsfeld’s “Poor Memory”

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So back in April of last year, two investigators from the Pentagon’s inspector general paid Donald Rumsfeld a little visit to ask him about “the largest defense procurement scandal in recent decades.” Nothing major, just a few questions here and there. The usual. Here’s how the interview went, according to the Washington Post:

Rumsfeld cited poor memory, loose office procedures, and a general distraction with “the wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan to explain why he was unsure how his department came to nearly squander $30 billion leasing several hundred new tanker aircraft that its own experts had decided were not needed…

[A] copy of the transcript [of the Rumsfeld interview], obtained recently by The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act after a year-long wait, says a lot about how little of Rumsfeld’s attention has been focused on weapons-buying—a function that consumes nearly a fifth of the $410 billion defense budget, exclusive of expenditures in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yeah, what’s a few billion dollars anyway? Lucky for us we have a “CEO President” at the helm to make sure everything’s running smoothly…

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GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

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So, two things:

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2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

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