Somehow I missed Rumsfeld making a reference to Flight 93 being
shot down over Pennsylvania in his recent
Christmas Eve speech. That is, until I read about it in
this article on CNN.
"I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples' heads on television to intimidate, to frighten - indeed the word 'terrorized' is just that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to alter behavior, to make people be something other than that which they want to be."
I don't doubt for a minute that the idiots-in-charge could have indeed had Flight 93 shot down...and if they did, it would be 100% in-character for them to lie about it, especially considering the heroic attempts the passengers were making to save themselves and their target. And, well, this (mis)administration lies about anything and everything.
(more below)
Since Rumsfeld would know about the jet being shot down, he probably couldn't help but thinking about it in those terms whenever it came up. And of course, to avoid guilt he would probably just consider it "the terrorists" fault that the jet was shot down, hence, "The terrorists shot down the plane." Actually sounds quite plausible to me.
For more on this, I found this blog entry from The Blue Lemur.