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Donald Rumsfeld, US
defense secretary, said on Tuesday he had not been told by
President George W. Bush or the National Security Council that the White
House was to restructure the handling of postwar Iraq before the media were
briefed on the plan by NSC officials.
Mr Bush has ordered
the creation of an "Iraq Stabilization Group," which will be run
by Condoleezza Rice who is head of the NSC, which co-ordinates foreign
policy in the White House.
In an interview with the Financial Times and
three European news organizations, Mr Rumsfeld insisted that the new NSC
role appeared to be no different from the policy-co-ordinating structure
that had existed for more than a year.
He said he did not
know why Ms Rice, Mr Bush's national security adviser, had felt it
necessary to send a memorandum about the new organization to cabinet
officials or brief the New York Times about the move.
"That's what
the NSC's charter is," Mr Rumsfeld said. "The only thing unusual
about it is the attention. I kind of wish they'd just release the
memorandum."
Mr Bush on Monday
welcomed the new organization, saying: "Condi's job, and Condi's team
is going to make sure that the efforts are continued to be co-ordinated."
Mr Rumsfeld declined
to comment on the perception that the move was an attempt by the White
House to strip control of the rebuilding from the tight grip of the
Pentagon. He sought to portray it as a reiteration of existing policy and
seemed perturbed that Ms Rice had decided to draw attention to the memo by
"backgrounding" the media.
"I don't know
quite 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," he said.
Mr Rumsfeld added:
"My impression of it is that that is what is the charter of the
National Security Council, and I haven't been able to detect any difference
from the memo - unfortunately it's a classified memo, it shouldn't be,
there's nothing in it that's classified."
Mr Rumsfeld said he
was not upset that he had not been told about Ms Rice's memo beforehand.
Senior administration officials frequently produced such policy memorandums
and distributed them to "principals" without informing them the
missive was being produced.
But people close to
the Pentagon said on Tuesday that Mr Rumsfeld's account appeared
to be at odds with that of Ms Rice who told the New York Times that she had
devised the new structure with Mr Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, the secretary of
state, and Dick Cheney, the vice-president.
Before issuing her
memo, Ms Rice had been criticized for giving the Pentagon too much control
in Iraq.Paul Bremer, civilian administrator, and General John Abizaid,
chief military commander, report to Mr Rumsfeld.
©
Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2003
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