Rumsfeld adviser resigns as Pentagon shake-up looms

WT

The Pentagon's top special operations policy-maker is quitting in a move that several Bush administration sources say is the first negative fallout from a major reorganization of advisers in the office of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Thomas W. O'Connell, assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict (SOLIC), has told Eric Edelman, undersecretary of defense for policy, that he will leave in several months. Administration officials said the generous lead time is partly political. The Pentagon does not want to be without its top special operations adviser during the November elections at a time when covert warriors are playing a leading role in hunting and capturing al Qaeda terrorists.

Mr. O'Connell's resignation comes as Mr. Edelman is instituting a reordering of his policy shop, which advises Mr. Rumsfeld on the war on terrorism, Iraq and Afghanistan, and on military relations with allies and adversaries alike.

A second of four assistant secretaries in the policy shop, former Rep. Paul McHale, who oversees homeland defense, also has informed his bosses that he will leave, although no date has been set. Officials say his departure is not be related to the reorganization.