Bush Administration

WASHINGTON -- Adm. William J. Fallon, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, whose views on Iran and other issues have seemed to put him at odds with the Bush administration, is retiring early, the Pentagon said yesterday. The retirement of Fallon, 63, who only a year ago became the first Navy officer to be named the commander of the U.S. Central Command, was announced by his civilian boss, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who said that he accepted the admiral's retirement request "with reluctance and regret."

U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta insists he's not interested in dismantling Amtrak or cutting service in the Northeast Corridor. But David L. Gunn, whose recent ouster as Amtrak's chief executive is viewed by transit experts as a turning point for the railroad, says those will be the inevitable results of the Bush administration's transportation policies. One thing they agree on is that matters are coming to a head at the government-run national passenger rail system. "Let me be clear about this.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - For days now, the battle between rich and poor nations has dominated the United Nations talks here on the environment and development, with marches and fiery debates over how to reduce poverty. But one of the fiercest struggles has been raging behind the scenes as the United States and the European Union clash over strategies to preserve the planet. The allies are battling over the question of targets and timeframes for the conversion from oil and gas to windmills and solar panels, for the cleanup of garbage and pollutants, and for the preservation of endangered plants and animals.

WASHINGTON -- Every November for three decades, former Ford administration aides gathered at an exclusive club just down the street from the White House to reminisce over lunch, make speeches and snap pictures. But when President Bush took office, the venue changed. The Ford advisers had assumed key positions in the new administration, including the vice presidency. And their new meeting spots inside Washington's highest corridors of power reflected a surprising legacy of Gerald R. Ford's presidency: a deep impact on the actions of the current White House.

THE SCENARIO for an international crisis: Saddam Hussein is threatening war in the Middle East. President Bush, a Yale graduate who nonetheless struggles with his syntax, gathers his advisers in the Oval Office. At his side stand Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Andrew Card. And on the phone, James Baker. What year is it? And which President Bush? With his initial personnel selections, George W. Bush has assembled a cast that played a major role in his father's White House.

WASHINGTON -- Amtrak's board fired the company's president yesterday morning, widening a divide between the Bush administration and Congress over the future of the railroad. The board chairman, David M. Laney, said that the president, David L. Gunn, had helped develop a strategic plan that would have injected more competition into passenger operations, but that Gunn's "enthusiasm and commitment seems to have drained away." Laney said Gunn had failed to move forward on simpler initiatives, such as outsourcing maintenance and catering in a way that would cut expenses.

WASHINGTON -- A broad consensus is emerging among U.S. military planners, defense analysts and former Reagan and Bush administration officials that American forces in Europe can be cut to a level advocated by Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton without losing significant combat capabilities.Because this view is shared by an expanding lineup of defense hard-liners in both major political parties, the Bush administration is becoming increasingly isolated on one of the thorniest post-Cold War issues facing the United States and its NATO allies.

As courts in the United States hear more lawsuits over disputes beyond the country's borders, government officials and legal scholars are saying the trend is creating a situation rife with diplomatic pitfalls and the Bush administration is complaining that it is hampering the fight against terrorism. The examples in recent weeks have been many and the sums involved large. A federal judge in Washington ordered Iraq to pay nearly $1 billion to U.S. soldiers who were captured and tortured in the 1991 Persian Gulf war. Another ordered Iran to pay $313 million to the children of a U.S. woman who was killed in a suicide bombing at a Jerusalem market in 1997.

The Bush administration recently announced it will allow select members of Congress to read Justice Department legal opinions about the CIA's controversial detainee interrogation program that have been hidden from Congress until now. But as the administration allows a glimpse of this secret law - and it is law - we are left wondering what other laws it is still keeping under lock and key. It's a given in our democracy that laws should be a matter of...

WASHINGTON - Defying Senate Democrats, the Bush administration will withhold some documents written by Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. while he worked for Republican administrations, advisers to the White House said yesterday. The documents, written while Roberts worked in President Ronald Reagan's White House and the first President George Bush's Justice Department, will be withheld on grounds of attorney-client privilege, they said on Sunday news shows. But some Democratic senators disputed the need to keep them secret and argued that precedent suggests they should be released.