It alleges they engaged in conspiracy to facilitate the terrorist attacks and purposefully failed to warn those inside the Pentagon, contributing to injuries she and her two-month-old son incurred.
This lawyer is going to attempt to prove that the defendants knew or at least suspected that an aircraft was going to target the Pentagon and that they deliberatly did not order an evacuation in order to increase the death toll which they could use for political gain?
Good luck with that.
With the attacks in NYC one could argue that Rummy et al could at least suspect that there might be another aircraft targeting the Pentagon and the Whitehouse. That much is true.
This would not however support a MIHOP senario, only a callous disregard for the personell under their command. I could buy into callous disregard as a possibility and perhaps even being proven satisfactorily for this lawsuit.
Furthermore, Rumsfeld and ,IIRC, General Myers, were both in the Pentagon at the time the aircraft hit the building (and Cheney was in the White House). In order to prove that they actually knew for certain that the building they were in were targeted by the terrorists ( thus showing LIHOP at least) the litigant will have to show not only how they knew that but also how it was that they knew they would be safe even if they remained in the buildings.
Rumsfeld never left his office until impact. In order to prove MIHOP then not only does Rumsfeld have to shown to have known about the targeting of the Pentagon but also the exact part of the building that the plane was to hit (which is the only way to show MIHOP) and that he could have enough confidence in that to allow him to remain in his office. That or show that Rumsfeld was enough of a zealot to set himself up as a potential martyr.
This is the best the TM can muster?
What would be the defence?
Well for starters the men remained in their respective buildings. They will strongly state that they are not the type to seek martyrdom.
They will show the number of threats to the Pentagon and the White House that are identified every year. This was yet another one.
They will speak about the fact that they needed their respective organizations to be up and running on Sept 11/01 and that ordering an evacuation would have compromised that effort. The White House was eventually evacuated showing that as the events of the day unfolded that measure was taken to ensure the large number of civilians in that building were safe, much as was the case with the Capitol building.
Far from desiring a higher death toll, Rumsfeld and Myers could argue that the USA was under attack and that the Pentagon is a military installation, not a civilian one and that during an attack it must continue to operate at full capacity.
