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Rumsfeld gets flack for not signing condolence letters Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7132329 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7132329 Rumsfeld to Sign Condolence Letters Himself Sun Dec 19, 2004 09:11 AM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will now personally sign letters of condolence to families of troops killed in action, after the Pentagon acknowledged signing machines had been used in the past. In a statement provided to the military newspaper "Stars and Stripes" and printed in its Dec. 19 edition, Rumsfeld said, "I wrote and approved the now more than 1,000 letters sent to family members and next of kin of each of the servicemen and women killed in military action." "While I have not individually signed each one, in the interest of ensuring expeditious contact with grieving family members, I have directed that in the future I sign each letter." Military families told the newspaper the autopen-signed letters reflected a lack of respect for the losses the families had suffered. "To me it's an insult, not only as someone who lost a loved one but also as someone who served in Iraq," Army Spc. Ivan Medina whose brother Irving was killed in Iraq this summer, told the newspaper. "This doesn't show our families the respect they deserve," said Medina. Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita told the newspaper Rumsfeld had not signed each letter "in the interest of ensuring timely contact with grieving family members." More than 1,000 U.S. troops have been killed in the war in Iraq.

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