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CORRECTED: Rumsfeld says 'I have no plans to retire'

Posted on: Thursday, 8 December 2005, 15:53 CST

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)

Source: REUTERS

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