Developing Story

Rumsfeld resignation letter focused on famed Letters of Transit
By
Nate Mecredi
Special to the Bubble News Service

(Washington, Feb. 15, 2007) A deeply placed source within the Pentagon claims former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation letter advocated abandoning efforts to uncover Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, and instead wanted U.S. forces stationed there to begin looking for two missing “Letters of Transit.”
The source said there is a report from British Intelligence suggesting the real possibility that Saddam Hussein had once been in possession of these letters, and may have originally considered attempting to use them to escape Iraq following the United States’ invasion there.
“You must understand that such letters are absolutely critical in escaping a hostile war zone,” the source said. “Especially when you’re already behind enemy lines.”
The source added that when Rumsfeld read the intelligence report suggesting Saddam could have simply showed the letters to U.S. soldiers guarding Iraqi border crossings, and then been allowed to pass, without even bothering to disguise himself, the Secretary is said to have whistled and muttered, “Hey, those are some letters!”
Letters of Transit have long been used during periods of open hostilities to enable the free flow of individuals critical to the conduct of that war. They were first employed in World War II, and permitted spies and rebels within German-controlled territories, such as Casablanca, to escape and continue their subversive work on free soil.
“The Letters of Transit employed during World War II had been signed by General DeGaulle himself and could not be rescinded for any reason, even if the German army had seized known spies or subversives in their own territory,” the source explained. “Even spies known to have been plotting with the French Resistance in German-occupied Vichy France would have to be released when such Letters were shown.”
The source said Rumsfeld believed it’s these Letters of Transit that possibly explains why the United States has been unable to capture members of the Taliban or Osama bin Laden.
“They probably all have these letters,” Rumsfeld is reported to have said.
But a British intelligence officer has warned that the United States should not put too much stock in the report concerning the existence of those letters.
“We have not been able to verify either the authenticity of the intelligence or the actual existence of these ‘Letters of Transit,’” the officer told a British tabloid. “We’re trying to locate the author of that report right now. We understand he is in Paris, perhaps attending a Humphrey Bogart Film Festival.”
The Pentagon source, who spoke only on condition of complete identification, and wished to be known as Rick, said he asked Rumsfeld, after the Secretary had signed his resignation memo, if the Letters could also have been used to ferry Saddam’s WMD’s out of the country in advance of invading U.S. forces.
“I saw Rumsfeld furrow his brow and then shrug,” Rick said. “And then he told me, ‘It’s getting harder and harder to get the American people to believe whatever we tell them.’”