“Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.”

 United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld — news briefing (February 12, 2002)

June 30 2021 — Former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, one of the main architects of the Iraq and Afghan wars, has died at the age of 88. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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Rumsfeld is the only person to serve twice as Pentagon chief. The first time, in 1975-1977, he was the youngest ever. The next time, in 2001-2006, serving under President George W Bush, he was the oldest.

Donald Rumsfeld was a leading proponent of the administration’s “war on terror”.

The war in Afghanistan has outlasted Rumsfeld. US troops will withdraw on September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Rumsfeld argued that the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction posed a danger to the world, but no such weapons were ever found.

Rumsfeld never accepted any blame for the debacle in Iraq. Until his death he kept arguing that the Middle East would be “far more perilous than it is today” if Saddam had remained in power.

In 2004, Rumsfeld was blamed after photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners detained at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad emerged.

Rumsfeld had personally authorized harsh interrogation techniques for detainees and later oversaw the opening of the detention camp at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where foreign terrorist suspects were tortured.

One of his most memorable moments came at a 2002 news briefing when – asked about the lack of evidence linking Saddam Hussein to weapons of mass destruction – he gave a meandering answer about the concept of “known knowns” and “known unknowns”.

“If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.”

Donald Rumsfeld

But there are also unknown unknowns

“You fucked this up like you fucked up everything else. You fucked up Iran-Contra, fucked up Ames, 9/11, WMD, Afghanistan, Iraq, Benghazi… Not, you yourself of course! You are just the latest in a long line of fuck-ups who turned this agency into a cesspool of politics and special interests on behalf of weapons makers and the surveillance industry who get rich while we get weaker.”

Dying of the Light (2014) – “I Resign!”

REFERENCES

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who oversaw Iraq war, dies at 88 — CNBC

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Breaking News — Ex-US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld dies at 88