Rumsfeld’s in the Know

Britain’s Plain English Campaign awarded its Foot in Mouth prize for the most baffling comment by a public figure to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for a February 2002 comment regarding the search for banned weapons in Iraq.

“Reports that say something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know,” Rumsfeld said. “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.”