Rumsfeld says 'I have no plans to retire'

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N08289639.htm

Rumsfeld says 'I have no plans to retire'


WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (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 Post 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.

...

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.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/03/politics/main671641.shtml

Bush Wouldn't Let Rumsfeld Quit


(AP) Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld disclosed he had offered President George W. Bush his resignation twice during the height of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal last year. He said he wanted the decision on his future to be placed in Bush's hands.

"He made that decision and said he did want me to stay on," Rumsfeld told CNN's "Larry King Live" on Thursday.

In the CNN interview, Rumsfeld asserted, as he has many times in the past, that as defense secretary he could not be expected to know all that takes place in war zones halfway around the world. But he also indicated that he could have done more to head off the trouble.