Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Gives Center Award to Former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger

Says U.S. Should Continue Anti-Terrorism War After Afghanistan

(Washington, D.C.): November 6 – “We will conduct a sustained campaign to take out al-Qaeda and their Taliban protectors. And then we’d best get after the rest,” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said as he introduced former Defense and Energy Secretary James R. Schlesinger, the 2001 recepient of the Center for Security Policy’s annual “Keeper of the Flame” award.

Rumsfeld had just returned from a three-day, six-country trip to the former Soviet Union, Pakistan and India when he and much of the Pentagon’s senior leadership attended the Center’s event. Noting the Center’s long-standing support for missile defense, Rumsfeld made a pitch for deployment: “Does anyone doubt for a moment that if [al-Qaeda] had had missiles and weapons of mass destruction capable of killing, not thousands, but hundreds of thousands, they would hesitate for one moment to use them?”

Former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, architect of the military buildup that is credited with hastening the collapse of the Soviet Union, joined Rumsfeld in presenting the award to Schlesinger. Weinberger and Rumsfeld are previous “Keeper of the Flame” recipients.

The “Keeper of the Flame” Award is the Center for Security Policy’s annual recognition of individuals who devote their public careers to the propagation of democracy, respect for individual rights and policies of peace through American strength.

The Center for Security policy is a non-profit educational foundation that supports a strong national defense. Its President, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., acted as an assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration. Douglas Feith was the Center’s board chairman until earlier this year when he became Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

Rumsfeld said in his speech, “Frank Gaffney, few have done more than you and the Center to inform the national debate; to challenge the fashionable – and sometimes erroneous – assumptions; and to fight for a robust and ready U.S. military.”

Website: www.CenterforSecurityPolicy.org

Annual report:
/aboutus/annualreport.shtml

Text of the evening can be found at: Flame Dinner 2001