CORRECTED: Rumsfeld says ‘I have no plans to retire’

In WASHINGTON story headlined “Rumsfeld says ‘I have no
plans to retire”‘ … please read in second paragraph … New
York Daily News … instead of … New York Post …

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, the craftsman of U.S. Iraq war strategy and a magnet
for criticism, said on Thursday he had no plans to retire from
the post more than 2-1/2 years into the conflict.

“Those reports have been flying around since about four
months after I assumed my post in 2001,” Rumsfeld, 73, told
reporters on Capitol Hill when asked about a New York Daily
News report that White House officials are telling associates
they expect him to quit early next year.

“I have no plans to retire,” added Rumsfeld, who has been
criticized over the conduct of the Iraq and the treatment of
detainees in U.S. military custody.

The New York Daily News reported that Gordon England, the
No. 2 official at the Pentagon, was the “inside contender” to
replace Rumsfeld, but that Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut
Democrat, also was a possibility.

In fact, the Defense Department said Rumsfeld held an
early-morning meeting at the Pentagon on Thursday with
Lieberman. The senator’s views of the Iraq war, in contrast
with many other Democrats, have been quoted approvingly in
recent speeches by President George W. Bush, Vice President
Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld himself.

“He has breakfast with members of Congress all the time,”
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. “Senator Lieberman just
returned from Iraq and he had some interesting observations.
And he’s been very outspoken about what he’s seen and the
progress that he thinks is being made there.”

Rumsfeld has been criticized for the conduct of the war,
with some prominent Democrats including Massachusetts senators
Edward Kennedy and John Kerry demanding his resignation.
Rumsfeld also has had frosty relations even with fellow
Republicans in Congress.

A combative former collegiate wrestler and Navy fighter
pilot, Rumsfeld has established himself as the most powerful
Pentagon chief since Vietnam War era defense secretary Robert
McNamara. He was the youngest man to hold the job when
President Gerald Ford appointed him in 1975 and now, in his
second stint in the post, is the oldest.

Rumsfeld said in February that he twice offered his
resignation to Bush last year over the Abu Ghraib prisoner
abuse scandal, but both times was asked to stay in the job.

(Additional reporting by Vicki Allen)