"I have never, that I can recall, heard the subject of a permanent base in Iraq discussed in any meeting," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference. "The likelihood of it seems to me to be so low that it does not surprise me That it's never been discussed in my presence -- to my knowledge."

"There has been zero discussion among senior Bush administration officials, the way I define senior, on that subject," Mr. Rumsfeld said.

Such linguistic precision is taken only with issues of the highest human importance.

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