Rumsfeld's "Slip of the Tongue": Is it the Truth?

I found out about this news item from Katharine O'Moore Klopf's site, EditorMom.

On Christmas Eve, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made an offhand remark during an address to troops in Baghdad that has touched off an old controversy. Referring to the United Airlines flight that crashed in Pennsylvania after the passengers staged a rebellion against the hijackers, Rumsfeld said, "The people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania."

A Pentagon spokesman insisted that Rumsfeld simply misspoke, but Internet conspiracy theorists seized on the reference to the plane having been shot down.

"Was it a slip of the tongue? Was it an error? Or was it the truth, finally being dropped on the public more than three years after the tragedy" asked a posting on the Web site WorldNetDaily.com.

Some people remain skeptical of U.S. government statements that, despite a presidential authorization, no planes were shot down September 11, and rumors still circulate that a U.S. military plane shot the airliner down over Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Of course, Rumsfeld would never deliberately tell the truth, but maybe he has done so inadvertently this time.