Pentagon issues memo to counter critics

The newspaper said the one-page memorandum was sent by e-mail to the group, which includes several retired generals who appear regularly on television, and came as the Bush administration stepped up its own defence of Rumsfeld.

The memorandum begins by stating, "US senior military leaders are involved to an unprecedented degree in every decision-making process in the Department of Defence," the paper quotes the document as saying.

It says Rumsfeld has had 139 meetings with the Joint Chiefs of Staff since the start of 2005 and 208 meetings with the senior field commanders, the report said.

Seeking to put the criticism of the relatively small number of retired generals into context, the e-mail message also notes that there are more than 8,000 active-duty and retired general officers alive today, The Times pointed out.