White House homeland security adviser named
WASHINGTON (AP) - March 19, 2008 "In his new role, Ken will coordinate our nation's homeland
security efforts to ensure that we continue to make progress on
combating terrorism, securing our borders, and strengthening our
emergency preparedness," Bush said in a statement Wednesday.
Wainstein declined to comment when AP asked him about the new
job, which was formerly held by Frances Fragos Townsend.
He currently heads the Justice Department's anti-terror efforts.
He has also been the top federal prosecutor for the District of
Columbia, and the top lawyer at the FBI.
"He's uniquely qualified," said David Kelley, once a senior
terrorism prosecutor now in private practice in New York, where he
and Wainstein worked together years ago.
"He has served the role of counselor - Certainly with the FBI
director he served in that role. The nature of the role is not new
to him, and the subject matter is not new either," said Kelley.
Wainstein's nomination to his current job at the Justice
Department became a political football last year, when Sen. Carl
Levin, D-Mich., for a time held up the confirmation trying to force
the department to supply more information from FBI agents who
reported witnessing aggressive, at times abusive, interrogations of
detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a Defense Department facility.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey said he was sorry to see
Wainstein leave the department where he has worked for 20 years,
but added: "I can think of no better choice to serve as the
president's homeland security adviser."
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Associated Press Writers Lara Jakes Jordan and Ben Feller
contributed to this report.
