General's remarks prompt an inquiry
International Herald Tribune
October 22, 2003
Brian Knowlton

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who had earlier defended the record of a Pentagon general facing criticism for comments viewed as deriding Muslims, said Tuesday that an internal investigation would be opened into the general's remarks.

The officer, Lieutenant General William Boykin, is deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, and his comments, made while in uniform to a number of fundamentalist Christian groups, have spawned controversy.

He said at one meeting that Muslims worship an "idol" and not a "real God"; in another, he said that in the fight against Islamic extremists, the American enemy was "a guy called Satan."

Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, on Sunday denounced such comments, saying: "This is not a war between religions. No one should describe it as such."

But Rumsfeld again declined to criticize Boykin for the comments, which have been widely aired on television, though in amateur videos with poor sound quality. Rumsfeld said, in fact, that the tapes he had seen "had a lot of very difficult-to-understand words with subtitles which I was not able to verify," so that he was still unsure what Boykin had said.

The defense secretary also said he had agreed to an investigation only because Boykin, a highly decorated special operations officer, had himself requested it.

"If that's his request," Rumsfeld said, "I think it's appropriate."

General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Boykin had told him "how sad he was that his comments have caused the furor that they have."

"There's no doubt in my mind in talking to him that if he could pick his words more carefully, he would," Pace said at the same regular Pentagon news briefing where Rumsfeld appeared.

"There's also no doubt in my mind that he does not see this battle as a battle between religions. He sees it as a battle between good and evil."

General Boykin, who calls himself a born-again Christian, issued an apology Friday to "those who have been offended by my statements."

Rumsfeld, in an earlier briefing before studying the Boykin videotapes, indirectly defended the general.

"There are a lot of things that are said by people in the military, or civilian life, or in the Congress, or in the executive branch, that are their views, and that's the way we live," Rumsfeld had said. "We're a free people."

And General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said then that Boykin's comments did not appear to have broken rules on speech permitted by U.S. officers who are, in some guise, representing the service.

But on Tuesday, Rumsfeld said at least one and possibly two investigations, by both the army inspector general and the Defense Department inspector general, would be conducted.

That announcement came just a day after President George W. Bush, in a tense moment at the Asian summit meeting in Bangkok, told Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia that his comment that Jews ran the world by proxy was "wrong and divisive" and "stands squarely against what I believe in."

Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune