Chiefs Of Staff

WASHINGTON -- NATO Supreme Commander Gen. Wesley Clark, architect of the allied victory in the Kosovo conflict, will leave his post three months ahead of schedule to accommodate the promotion of Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston as his replacement, the White House said yesterday.Ralston, a favorite of Defense Secretary William S. Cohen, had withdrawn from contention for the top job of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff two years ago after admitting to an extramarital affair.White House spokesman Joe Lockhart strongly denied reports that Clark's early departure signified any reproach of the four-star U.S. Army general, who urged a more aggressive policy against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic than his superiors in the Pentagon and administration at first desired.

WASHINGTON -- A third wave of U.S. and British missiles slammed into Iraq last night, as Pentagon officials said that more than 100 targets were struck during the first two days of bombing. One top officer noted the only surprise was Saddam Hussein's lack of a vigorous defense."United States and British forces are continuing to attack a wide range of military targets in order to decrease Iraq's ability to threaten its neighbors," Defense Secretary William S. Cohen told reporters. "We continue to be satisfied with the results."

WASHINGTON -- The candidacy of an Air Force general to become the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff seemed increasingly imperiled yesterday as a growing number of senators said the officer's adulterous affair in the mid-1980s should disqualify him.Defense Secretary William S. Cohen met yesterday morning with a dozen senators from the Armed Services Committee, which would vote on the nomination, to explain his decision to consider Gen. Joseph Ralston for...

TNT offers a double dose of presidential paranoia tonight, courtesy of director John Frankenheimer (whose most recent work, "George Wallace," debuted on TNT last weekend). Both are taut, suspenseful and pretty much guaranteed to hook you, once started, into watching the whole thing.First up is "The Manchurian Candidate" (8 p.m.-10: 45 p.m.), with Laurence Harvey as a brainwashed Korean War vet with his sights set on the White House. Frank Sinatra is the commanding officer whose brain has been similarly programmed, although perhaps not as well.

WASHINGTON -- Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston withdrew from consideration as the nation's top military officer yesterday, having concluded that he could not win Senate confirmation because of an adulterous affair he had 13 years ago while separated from his wife.Ralston's decision followed a tumultuous week in which he became a flash point for a debate on adultery in the military and whether a double standard excuses the highest-ranking male officers while punishing female or lower-ranking officers.

WASHINGTON -- A towering Army Green Beret general who led the air assault in the Persian Gulf war and directed the peaceful invasion of Haiti has been selected by President Clinton to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sources said yesterday.The general, Henry Hugh Shelton, a 55-year-old North Carolina native who heads the U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla., emerged from a field of better-known generals after a rugged selection process.Clinton plans to announce the nomination as early as today.

LIKE THE proverbial bad penny, Webster Hubbell keeps turning up. A friend of Bill and a one-time law partner of Hillary, the former associate attorney general is the central figure in the latest sensation to plague the Clinton administration. Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr would like nothing better than to prove that Mr. Hubbell was paid $400,000 in hush money between the time he was convicted of fraud in 1994 and the time he went to prison for 17 months.The Clinton entourage insists that attempts to help Mr. Hubbell were acts of compassion for an old friend.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening's budget secretary has been forced to resign and two top State House aides have been shifted to other jobs as part of an administration shake-up, officials said yesterday.Marita B. Brown resigned over the weekend as state budget secretary in what Mr. Glendening termed a "mutual" decision.But sources said the governor was unhappy with Ms. Brown's failure to alert him to the political controversy that surrounded some of his budget-cutting proposals in the General Assembly.

Anne Arundel Medical Center has announced the appointments of three new chiefs of staff.A. Stott Carleton, a staff member since 1988, has been named chief of staff for Oral Maxillofacial Surgical and Dental Medicine. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, Carleton earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Dental Medicine.Robert Verklin has been appointed chief of staff for Orthopedic Medicine. A specialist in orthopedic surgery, Verklin is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he also received his medical degree.

COLIN POWELL, after his compelling call for compassionate conservatism at the Republican National Convention, has quickly let it be known that if there is a Dole administration, "I would consider anything the president asks me to do."This compares to his rebuff to President Clinton when he reportedly offered the general the job of secretary of State late in 1993. "Powell said he had to honor the contract to finish his memoirs and could not consider the appointment," according to journalist Bob Woodward's best-selling book, "The Choice."

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said after meeting with top U.S. military leaders yesterday that targeting extremists will be a top priority for the armed forces in Afghanistan. Obama met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the secure Pentagon conference room known as the "Tank" for nearly two hours. He emerged to shake hands with troops and pledged to increase involvement in Afghanistan by civilian government agencies, addressing a longstanding Pentagon complaint. The meeting and Obama's comments follow recent indications that the new administration intends to limit U.S. goals in Afghanistan while intensifying the military aspects of the war. Vice President Joe Biden, who accompanied Obama yesterday, said earlier in the week that U.S. forces would step up action to counter recent Taliban advances.

WASHINGTON --For all this week's fevered rhetoric, endless squabbling over benchmarks and charts and debating of troop numbers, a critical piece of the Iraq puzzle has gone largely unmentioned: jobs. President Bush often boasts of past American successes in rebuilding war-ravaged Europe and South Korea. But Iraq, after four years of U.S. occupation and a $44 billion investment by American taxpayers, still is an economic basket case, a country with a stagnant economy, dozens of idle factories, dysfunctional government ministries that cannot provide sufficient electricity, clean water or basic health care, and millions of unemployed workers.

Now is not the time to have any illusions about an American military withdrawal from Iraq. The Democratic candidates for president, in particular, act as though U.S. soldiers and Marines can depart in a way that will minimize the turmoil in the country they leave behind. That's wishful thinking; it's likely to get very ugly. A reasonably planned withdrawal is nonetheless the right thing to do. We have argued in the past that there are no good options in Iraq. That's not just a turn of phrase.

WASHINGTON -- Bowing to congressional anger over the course and management of the Iraq war, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that he will recommend that Gen. Peter Pace, who has been at the highest levels of war strategy and decision-making since 2001, be replaced as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when his term ends in September. Thwarted in his desire to keep Pace on for another two years, Gates' decision cuts short what normally is a four-year stint as the nation's senior military officer and chief military adviser to the president.

WASHINGTON -- After a lengthy and difficult search, President Bush has tapped a three-star Army general as his new "war czar," with full White House authority to pull together increasingly frayed federal efforts to deal with protracted military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, the operations director for the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff, will fill the job, which is part of the White House National Security Council, administration officials said. He would be an assistant to the president, empowered by Bush to secure cooperation, support and personnel for the Pentagon's war efforts from across the federal government.

Joseph F. Steffen Jr., the aide to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. who was banished after discussing rumors about Mayor Martin O'Malley on the Internet, said he was sent into state agencies to identify employees who should be fired not because of their party affiliation but because they were not performing up to par. Breaking his silence eight months after leaving his job, Steffen said in an interview with The Sun that he was neither the rogue operator nor...

WASHINGTON - Earlier this year, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., just three months into his job as vice chief of staff of the Army, appeared at a luncheon at Fort Myer, Va. He recalled visiting soldiers in Iraq and talking with National Guard troops in the United States as they prepared to go to the Persian Gulf. Casey said he could see their focus and determination. The challenges of his own three-decade career, from preparing to battle the Soviet Union to peacekeeping in the Balkans, "pale in comparison to what our soldiers and leaders are dealing with in Iraq today," he told the gathering of active-duty and retired officers.

Comcast set to televise Naval Academy graduation Comcast plans to televise the U.S. Naval Academy's graduation this morning on cable Channel 8 in Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will speak at the ceremony. Comcast will carry a live shot from the stadium beginning at 8 a.m. and then cover the actual graduation at 11 a.m.

In Carroll County Ravens to continue training at McDaniel through 2010 WESTMINSTER - Purple, black and gold will continue to reign in Westminster. The Baltimore Ravens have agreed to hold their summer training camp at McDaniel College through 2010. The new contract, announced yesterday by officials of the school and the National Football League team, means tens of thousands of fans will continue to flock to the campus to catch a glimpse of their favorite players and bring business to the city's downtown restaurants and shops.

WASHINGTON - As his troops regrouped after the deadliest week since the fall of Baghdad, Iraq, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq acknowledged yesterday what many critics have been saying for months: The American-led force needs more troops. An expected deployment of thousands more troops for duty in Iraq answers congressional calls for backup and comes as administration officials work to prevent allies from following Spain's planned withdrawal of its forces. But the request yesterday also revealed the Pentagon's lack of options for finding reinforcements.