Editorial: Rummy’s failing memory

Friday, June 23, 2006 | 7:18 a.m.

It took the Pentagon a year to honor a newspaper's request, made under the Freedom of Information Act, to have a transcript released of an interview that Pentagon investigators conducted with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld regarding the department's overall purchase practices, including a $30 billion defense procurement scandal. Now we know why there was such foot-dragging in releasing the information.

According to a recent story by The Washington Post, which had filed the FOIA request, Rumsfeld told investigators for the Pentagon's inspector general that his poor memory and distraction with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were reasons he didn't know why his department spent $30 billion to lease tanker aircraft that his own experts had said were not needed.

The transcript gives some insight as to why reports by the Government Accountability Office and Pentagon's inspector general have concluded that the Defense Department's method of buying new weapons is in shambles.

In an April memo, David Walker, the U.S. comptroller general, said that the Defense Department is not able to deliver quality weapons on time, the Post reported. Walker cited a "long-standing record" of missed deadlines and significant cost overruns that have occurred because "there hasn't been any accountability."

Rumsfeld - a former business executive who once issued "rules" that include, "Be precise - lack of precision is dangerous" - told investigators that he "may very well have" authorized the tanker purchase. But he was unsure because he was focused on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than how the department under his direction was spending billions.

As this rudderless war in Iraq continues with its bloated budget and a sickening death toll, it is stunning that the U.S. defense secretary considers himself too busy to sweat $30 billion details. Such failures, in Rumsfeld's own words, "are dangerous." Under the Bush administration, evidently, they are acceptable.