The Pentagon removed the following text from Bob Woodward's Oct. 23 interview with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld before posting the transcript on the Web:
Question: Because these countries, Jordan particularly, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait needless to say made giant commitments and you know hung it all out and I think there are times in the last week where I think March 14th the Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar came up here to talk to you because he was worried. I think he had seen the President, that we weren't going to go. You recall that?
_____Pentagon Transcripts_____
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Oct. 23, 2003 (as edited and released on April 20)
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Sept. 20, 2003 (as edited and released on April 20)
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Rumsfeld: I met with him on occasion.
Q: And I think the President said don't start -- not you.
Rumsfeld: Have you met with the Vice President? You're not going to meet with the Vice President are you?
Q: Well I hope so.
Rumsfeld: I doubt it.
Q: You know better than I.
Rumsfeld: I remember meeting with the Vice President and I think [Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] and I met with a foreign dignitary at one point and looked him in the eye and said you can count on this. In other words at some point we had had enough of a signal from the President that we were able to look a foreign dignitary in the eye and say you can take that to the bank this is going to happen.
Q: Do you remember when that was?
Rumsfeld: I do not. But I can't tell you who it was but I remember it was the Vice President, Dick Myers and me.
Q: [Was] that when Myers gave the briefing to Bandar in Cheney's office because I think you were there.
Rumsfeld: When was that?
Q: I have the date -- it was in February I think or maybe it was late January.
Rumsfeld: Sounds early.
Q: Sounds early yeah. It struck me as early too and it could be later in February. I don't have it on my list here.
Rumsfeld: We're going to have to clean some of this up in the transcript when you publish it. We'll give you a -- I mean you just said Bandar and I didn't agree with that so we're going to have to -- I don't want to say who it is but you are going to have to go through that and find a way to clean up my language too.
The transcripts of Woodward's interviews released by the Pentagon can be read at www.washingtonpost.com/politics.
