White House push irritates Rumsfeld

WASHINGTON - The White House yesterday sought to paper over any differences with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who complained he was not told of a postwar Iraq organisational shake-up.

Rumsfeld's annoyance at the White House emerged during an interview he gave to London's Financial Times newspaper, a rare display of public pique within President George W. Bush's famously disciplined inner circle.

And it came at a time when the White House, confronting falling poll numbers, is launching an aggressive public relations push aimed at bolstering declining support among Americans for the Iraq mission.

Bush used a US$14 million ($23.2 million) fundraiser yesterday to reassure Republican campaign contributors that "America did the right thing" in Iraq and that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction was well under way.

Under pressure to bring stability to Iraq, Bush announced a major reorganisation of US efforts to bring control to Iraq, headed by White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

In the Financial Times interview, Rumsfeld sounded annoyed that Rice, who heads the National Security Council, had decided to draw attention to a memo establishing the reorganisation by giving a "background" briefing to the New York Times.

"I don't quite know what the purpose of the backgrounding was ... she gave a background, she said what she said, and the way I read the memorandum is that it is basically what the responsibility of the NSC is and always has been, which is what's been going on," Rumsfeld said.

He said he did not know Rice was writing the memo, but admitted he writes memos himself that colleagues do not know about until they receive them. He said the memo should not be classified and should be released.

But answering questions from reporters in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he was attending a defence ministers meeting, Rumsfeld said he was "not at all" upset about the memo, which he said apparently had been discussed at a lower level than him and need not have been brought to his level.

But the move was perceived in Washington as giving the State Department a greater say in postwar reconstruction in Iraq. State Department officials have felt sidelined from what would normally be an effort they would lead.

"What it means is that, at least in the policy formulation stage, other agencies are going to have a bigger voice than they had up to this point," said Ivo Daalder, a defence analyst at the Brookings Institution think tank.

"And in that sense, by definition you're seeing a diminution of Rumsfeld's ability to control that process."

Meanwhile, Turkey's decision to send troops to Iraq has caused uproar in Iraq and in Turkey.

And as US troops continued to be targeted by ambushes, the military announced the capture of 112 Iraqis, including a general said to have had links with former president Saddam Hussein.

It said troops from the US 3rd Armoured Cavalry captured Abed Hamed Mowhush al-Mahallowi, a Republic Guard air defence commander, who also allegedly had ties with anti-coalition financiers.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq