(APN) ATLANTA - Protester Gloria Tatum, 62, was injured at a protest against Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defense, today, from when she was shouting at Rumsfeld, and has a bruise on her back, Tatum says. The noted local activist gave her first hand account of the heckling of Rummy to Atlanta Progressive News.
"I had a bruise and I thought someone hit at me from behind. When I look at the tape, the woman was pulling me down, but I don't know if she was in the crowd or with security. At the time, it felt I had been hit from behind and I do have a bruise on my body. It sure felt like someone hit me. Someone said that they saw a woman hitting me, I think Wendy said that. Maybe I just got injured being drug out," of the auditorium, she said.
She didn't file a police report because she said it all happened very fast and she was worried about getting arrested herself for shouting at Rumsfeld.
"The majority of people were Republicans who were supporters of Bush and his policy and supporters of Rumsfeld," Tatum said.
The activists represented the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, World Can't Wait, and the International Action Center, among other groups.
Rumsfeld sounded "defensive against someone with authority [Ray McGovern], a CIA person, someone he can't lied to, someone who calls him on it. Someone he couldn't just flippantly lie to. Of course he said he's not lying, but I've read several places were the Niger uranium that they talked about, they got that from someone named Curveball that the CIA told them that that information wasn't credible and they used it anyway," Tatum told Atlanta Progressive News.
"So it's not so much they got bad intelligence, the Bush administration," Tatum explained of her protest.
"It's that they chose intelligence that fit their policy. The Downing Street Memos state that they were going to do that and they did that. Some of the intelligence came from some rightwing graduate student thesis paper. They came from sources that weren't credible that they were told they weren't credible but they used it anyway because they fit their policy," Tatum said.
"I don't know why the news media didn't talk about this," Tatum said.
Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern questioned Rumsfeld at length during the unusual public question and answer session. McGovern asked Rumsfeld why he lied to the American people about weapons of mass destruction and Rumsfeld said he didn't lie, CNN clips show.
"Well, if he's saying that he's a psychopath, that he doesn't know the difference between truth and lies, then I don't know what to think of that. If he tells a lie and he thinks it's the truth. Does he not know they difference between a lie and the truth?" Tatum remarked.
McGovern's exchange with Rumsfeld was fascinating.
Rumsfeld started talking about how Colin Powell and President Bush said Iraq had WMDs and how the troops believed it. So, implicitly, it's not a lie if you believe it?
McGovern asked about Rumsfeld saying he knew where the weapons were. Rumsfeld first denied saying that, but the quote has been confirmed.
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