Peter Pace

President Bush will award the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to a veteran federal judge, Laurence H. Silberman, whose controversial role in national security issues has made him a champion to conservatives, and retired Marine Gen. Peter Pace, who was denied a second term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Also receiving the award are educator Donna E. Shalala, president of the University of Miami; doctors Anthony S.

Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Tuesday that he could not explain the apparent contradiction between a military dossier on Iranian interference in Iraq and comments by the Pentagon's top general. White House spokesman Tony Snow said that he had phoned Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and that there was no disagreement. A military official on Pace's staff said the general stood by his comments.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed mild regret Tuesday for calling homosexual acts "immoral," but he stopped short of an apology as gay rights groups and a powerful Republican senator rebuked him for the comments.

Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback is backing the Pentagon's top general over his remarks that homosexual acts are immoral. The Kansas senator said Thursday that he planned to send a letter to President Bush supporting Marine Gen. Peter Pace, who this week in an interview with the Chicago Tribune likened homosexuality to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gay personnel to serve openly.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has decided Marine Gen. Peter Pace will not serve a second term as the nation's top uniformed officer, saying Friday that the military could not afford a bruising confirmation fight. Pace will be the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since the Lyndon Johnson administration not to be renominated.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the nation's top military officer, told superiors last month that he would not retire voluntarily, forcing the Bush administration to make a public declaration last week that it had decided to replace Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In his first public remarks since his departure was announced, Pace said that he and Defense Secretary Robert M.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is expected to advise President Bush to reduce the U.S. force in Iraq next year by almost half, potentially creating a rift with top White House officials and other military commanders over the course of the war. Administration and military officials say Marine Gen. Peter Pace is likely to convey concerns by the Joint Chiefs that keeping well in excess of 100,000 troops in Iraq through 2008 will severely strain the military.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, facing calls for his resignation by three retired senior officers for his handling of the Iraq war, received a full-throated endorsement Tuesday from the U.S. military's top general, who insisted that "this country is exceptionally well served" by Rumsfeld's leadership. Marine Gen.

The nation's top general Monday tearfully recalled his Italian parents' struggles when they arrived in the United States, and senators said his emotional testimony could help them gain leverage in the battle over changing the nation's immigration laws. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace, a Marine general who has served in Vietnam and Somalia, testified at a special field hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. It was designed to highlight the role of immigrants in the military.