Bush summons ex-Cabinet members for advice

WASHINGTON — President Bush summoned most of the living former secretaries of state and defense to the White House on Thursday for what participants described as a cordial but pointed discussion about Iraq.

The bipartisan advice-seeking was virtually unprecedented for this White House, which has drawn criticism for being insular in its policy deliberations and dismissive of dissenters.

The session included a photo opportunity and presidential statement after the president spent an hour with such prominent foreign-policy voices as Robert McNamara, a Democratic secretary of defense during the Vietnam era 40 years ago, and James Baker III, the secretary of state for Bush's father during the Persian Gulf War.

While Bush was challenged once or twice in the meeting, according to participants, White House aides believed they accomplish their twin goals of portraying a more solicitous president and underscoring the broad bipartisan agreement that a speedy withdrawal from Iraq would be unwise.

"Not everybody around this table agreed with my decision to go into Iraq," Bush said of the 13 former Cabinet heads in attendance. "I fully understand that."

In a rarity for Bush, he invited and sat listening to sharp critics of his Iraq policy, including Madeleine Albright, President Clinton's former secretary of state.

Harold Brown, defense secretary for President Carter, said the meeting was clearly designed to provide a public-relations boost to Bush and show that "there is a fairly broad consensus we have to try make it work as far as we can."

Albright said a few participants complained that it took Bush five years to bring together Democratic and Republican foreign-policy luminaries. "This all should have happened a lot earlier," Albright said.

Largest oil refinery closes

a day after convoy ambush

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's largest oil refinery closed again Thursday, a day after insurgents ambushed a convoy of tanker trucks carrying gas from the facility, an Iraqi official said.

The official told Dow Jones Newswires that pumping to the Beiji refinery also had been suspended because its reserves were full.

The refinery, which pumps 140,000 barrels a day, closed Dec. 18 after insurgents threatened to kill drivers transporting oil and blow up their trucks. It reopened Sunday and drivers began carrying fuel after the government promised extra protection.

Top general says remarks

by Murtha hurt recruiting

WASHINGTON — A Democratic congressman's remarks about the military are damaging to troop morale and to the Army's efforts to rebound from a recruiting slump, the nation's top general said Thursday.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked to comment on remarks by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a Marine Corps veteran who has become a leading voice in Congress advocating an early withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Pace was asked about an ABC News interview this week in which Murtha, 73, said if he were eligible to join the military today he would not, nor would he expect others to join.

"That's damaging to recruiting," Pace said. "It's damaging to morale of the troops who are deployed, and it's damaging to the morale of their families who believe in what they are doing to serve this country."

Compiled from The Associated Press and The Washington Post