Down The Memory Hole?

A strange piece of news:

The Pentagon said Wednesday it deleted a key section from a transcript of an interview that reporter Bob Woodward conducted last year with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld...

At the briefing, Rumsfeld was disputing a passage in Woodward's new book, "Plan of Attack," alleging that Saudi Prince Bandar was told by Rumsfeld two months before the invasion of Iraq that it was "going to happen," and he could "take that to the bank":

"I don't remember saying it, to be perfectly honest," Rumsfeld said.

Woodward contends he got that information directly from Rumsfeld. "Don Rumsfeld is on the record, if you look on the Pentagon Web site, saying that he said, 'This war plan, you can take it to the bank. It's going to happen,'" the reporter said in a CNN interview earlier this week.

But he was wrong. The transcript of the October 23 interview posted by the Pentagon had been edited -- and that quote had been deleted with no reference on the Web site that any deletions had been made.

No need to worry though, because we have Donald Rumsfeld's word and a hearty serving of his classic wit to boot:

"I can say of certain knowledge that nothing was taken out that would naysay what I just indicated in my response to the question."

"No 18-minute gap?" a reporter asked.

"And you can take that to the bank," Rumsfeld responded, eliciting laughter.