Why was Wesley Clark relieved of his command?

CS Monitor photo of Wesley Clark as NATO commander in '99

A Newsweek article raises questions regarding why Gen. Wesley Clark was relieved of his command of NATO forces in the Balkins.

According to a knowledgeable source, then Gen. Wesley Clark ran afoul of William Cohen (the Secretary of Defense) and Gen. Hugh Shelton (then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) by being less than totally forthcoming in morning conference calls during the Kosovo war in the spring of 1999. From his NATO headquarters in Brussels, Clark wanted to wage the war more aggressively, but back in the Pentagon, Cohen and Shelton were more cautious. They would give Clark instructions on, for instance, the scale of the bombing campaign. "Clark would say, 'Uh-huh, gotcha'," says NEWSWEEK's source. But then he would pick up the phone and call [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair and [Secretary of State] Madeleine [Albright]." As Clark knew full well, Blair and Albright were more hawkish than Shelton and Cohen. After talking to the State Department and NATO allies, Clark would have a different set of marching orders, says the source, who has spoken about the matter with both Cohen and Clark. "Then, about 1 o'clock, the Defense Department would hear what Clark was up to, and Cohen and Shelton would be furious."

Unfortunately for the voters, the "knowledgeable source" is not identified, and Shelton and Cohen are not commenting. Shelton has refused to elaborate on his comment last September that Clark was relieved for "integrity and character issues."