Protesters disrupt Rumsfeld speech

Protesters repeatedly interrupted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during a speech Thursday and one man, a former CIA analyst, accused him of lying about Iraq prewar intelligence in a vociferous display of anti-war sentiment.

“Why did you lie to get us into a war that caused these kind of casualties and was not necessary?” asked Ray McGovern, the former analyst, during a question- and-answer session.

“I did not lie,” shot back Rumsfeld, who waved off security guards ready to remove McGovern from the hall at the Southern Center for International Studies.

Three protesters were escorted away by security as each interrupted Rumsfeld’s speech by jumping up and shouting anti-war messages.

Boston

Big Dig workers face fraud charges

Six men who worked for the Big Dig’s largest concrete supplier were arrested Thursday on federal charges accusing them of falsifying records to hide the inferior quality of concrete delivered to the massive highway project.

The six, all current or former employees of Aggregate Industries, face a variety of charges including making false statements, mail fraud and conspiracy to defraud the government.

The indictment charges the men with recycling concrete that was too old or already rejected by inspectors, and in some cases double-billing for the loads.

The Big Dig, formally called the Central Artery and Third Harbor Tunnel project, buried Interstate 93 in tunnels beneath downtown and connected the Massachusetts Turnpike to Logan Airport with a third tunnel beneath Boston Harbor.