"We're leaving this procurement holiday that the Administration has embarked on," said Representative Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who staunchly supports the B-2.

Human Events stated: It is now obvious the Administration, striving desperately to down Senator McCarthy, has embarked upon a series of moves which, if successful, will take the nation a long way toward dictatorial government.

In announcing the activities, Mr. Rubin said the Administration was embarking on a new policy.

The latest resignations came just as the Administration and the states are embarking on a difficult and potentially wrenching effort to move millions of adults from welfare to work.

Many say that the Administration would never have embarked on what they view as the ill-fated strategy if it had to face tough questioning from Congress.

Mr. Tarnoff called in Mr. Pezzullo on Thursday to tell him that the Administration was embarking on a new course.

But many foreign policy experts feel that the Administration has embarked on a high-risk course that has often failed in the past.

The Administration embarked on the expansion in 1993 after Mr. Clinton met in Washington with President Havel and Lech Walesa, then President of Poland.

A classified 1989 document illustrates how much information about Mr. Hussein's military ambitions and methods was available as the Administration was embarking on its policy of courting Iraq.

The Administration embarked in 1981 on a policy known as "constructive engagement," in which criticism of South Africa's racial policies would be muted so as to improve relations.