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This is a normal post I sort of agree.
The one that puzzled me was all the piss taking Rumsfeld got for his "know unknowns" speech. I thought it was an excellent way to explain the basics of intelligence gathering to a room full of idiots who were bleating "how could you let this happen? Why didn't you know?" He did actually miss one out though, "unknown knowns", where you have information but fail to realise its relevance or pertinence.
 (I helped save b3ta! Prufrock Lucifer, son of the morning!, Wed 10 Dec 2014, 15:28, Reply)
This is a normal post Probably his 'merkin accent, innit

(I helped save b3ta! DinivanX Has stinging piss after drinking Pact Coffee, Wed 10 Dec 2014, 15:51, Reply)
This is a normal post They might have been bleating 'how could you let this happen'
on the back of a military that 'defends' it's country with a military budget which is more than virtually everyone else on the planets combined

and yet failed to detect the rise of a bunch of psychotic Wahhabi hard-right fascists on it's radar, born in a country which was supposedly one of it's allies

or something
 (I helped save b3ta! Jahled Three shades of black, Wed 10 Dec 2014, 15:52, Reply)
This is a normal post The reason he didn't talk about "unknown knowns" is that it would have been an admission of fault.
Two of the 911 hijackers were well know to be senior Al Qaeda operatives by the CIA, but inexplicably they were allowed to enter the states, and the FBI was not alerted to their presence. Although they were 'known', what they were up to wasn't, and they weren't being watched. Unknown knowns.
 (I helped save b3ta! Prufrock Lucifer, son of the morning!, Wed 10 Dec 2014, 16:05, Reply)
This is a normal post Yes... the unknown unknowns was actually excellent.
It might sound a bit clumsy at first, but it really is the simplest way of explaining the concept of information which you do and don't have. It's a shame that Rumsfeld got mocked as though he was the stupid one, when he was attempting to dumb it down for those very people who mocked him.
 (eViLegion Chief Commissioner of the Scottish Lunacy Board, Wed 10 Dec 2014, 16:11, Reply)
This is a normal post Stupid people think tautology is stupid,
But it ain't necessarily so. But this is a bit stupid, but it doesn't make it wrong: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_while_John_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_a_better_effect_on_the_teacher
 (I helped save b3ta! Prufrock Lucifer, son of the morning!, Wed 10 Dec 2014, 16:16, Reply)
This is a normal post Not qute the same but
Buffalo buffalo buffalo ... etc.

(I'm not typing it all out on my phone).
 (I helped save b3ta! Ghoti Fingers, Wed 10 Dec 2014, 16:35, Reply)
This is a normal post "An uneaten stone lion."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_Den
 (I helped save b3ta! omnitruncatedkraken from Empire Algol, Wed 10 Dec 2014, 16:47, Reply)
This is a normal post That's beautiful

(I helped save b3ta! Ghoti Fingers, Wed 10 Dec 2014, 23:13, Reply)
This is a normal post what he said was well formed and interpretable
It's just a terrible, inadequate, slimy answer to the question he was given.

Rumsfeld had just said that intelligence showed that Iraq had actively worked on getting chemical weapons out to terrorists. That was support for why the US was actively planning to get involved in Iraq.

If someone then says "Does that evidence actually exist? What is it?"

It is not a good answer to say "There may be evidence out there that we don't know exists yet," when you're getting ready to invade a country.
 (I helped save b3ta! the prick of misery pierced my foot on a spiiiike on, Wed 10 Dec 2014, 17:35, Reply)