Mereja.Forum

[Abe Abraham]

There are known knowns




"There are known knowns" is a phrase from a response United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave to a question at a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) news briefing on February 12, 2002, about the lack of evidence linking the government of Iraq with the supply of weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups.


Rumsfeld stated:

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 tends to be the difficult ones.


The statement became the subject of much commentary including a 2013 documentary film, The Unknown Known, directed by Errol Morris.

[Abe Abraham]

You guys are speculating about many things why the junta sergo-geba have come as far as Lalibela to die like a dog. Who let the dog out ? Who let the dog in Amhara territory ?

As the great philosopher D. Rumsfeld said :

" 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 tends to be the difficult ones. "

Rumsfeld was republican.