"The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, or vice versa."
(Rumsfeld, DoD briefing, February 12, 2002)
(http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=2636)

"There's another way to phrase that and that is that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. It is basically saying the same thing in a different way. Simply because you do not have evidence that something does exist does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn't exist."
(Rumsfeld press conference at Nato headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, June 6, 2002)
(http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=3490)

On Iraq's weapons of mass destruction

"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
(Donald Rumsfeld, on ABC's This Week, March 30, 2003)

"Old Europe" is a term that was popularized in January 2003 after then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld used it to refer to European countries that did not support the 2003 invasion of Iraq, specifically France and Germany.

"You're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe. If you look at the entire NATO Europe today, the center of gravity is shifting to the east. And there are a lot of new members. And if you just take the list of all the members of NATO and all of those who have been invited in recently -- what is it? Twenty-six, something like that? -- you're right. Germany has been a problem, and France has been a problem." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Europe)

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tells hundreds of US military personnel gathered at the US Aviano airbase in northern Italy that Washington does not expect a possible war with Iraq to last long and is not planning to mobilise all its reservists. He says a war with Iraq, if it happens, would last "six days, maybe six weeks" but certainly less than six months. (Rumsfeld, press briefing, US airbase in Aviano, Italy, February 7, 2003)

"It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could be six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."
- Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 2/7/03
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2738089.stm)

"The idea that it's going to be a long, long, long battle of some kind I think is belied by the fact of what happened in 1990. Five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that."- Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 11/15/02
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/20/iraq-retrospective-read-_n_92575.html)

"We're not running out of targets, Afghanistan is." (Donald Rumsfeld, quoted in "Plan of Attack," page 110)

"Secretary Powell and I agree on every single issue that has ever been before this administration, except for those instances where Colin's still learning." (http://www.rightwingnews.com/quotes/rummyquotes.php)