Romney assembles top-notch foreign policy team
(CNN) – On the eve of his foreign policy speech at The Citadel in South Carolina, former Massachusetts Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced selections for his foreign policy and national security team.
Romney revealed the names Thursday. They include former Sec. of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, who will serve as a special adviser and co-chair Romney's counterterrorism/intelligence working group.
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Napolitano: U.S. will never be 'totally immune' from terrorism
(CNN) - Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Sunday that the United States is “never going to be totally immune from threats” to its national security.
One day after the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Napolitano said in an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley on "State of the Union" that the country is safer now than it was then, but added, “there is no 100 percent guarantee” that we won’t be attacked again.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff echoed Napolitano’s assessment.
“We have reduced the risk, we have not eliminated the risk,” Chertoff told Crowley on Sunday.
Napolitano said a small number of American citizens have become “radicalized to violence,” but said that it is “not unique” to the United States, “nor was it unanticipated that that could occur.”
Liberal groups seek disbarment of Bush lawyers over torture
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/05/18/torture.bush.lawyers/art.alberto.gonzales.cnn.jpg caption="Alberto Gonzales is among the former attorneys general named in the complaints."]WASHINGTON (CNN) - A coalition of progressive groups sought Monday to have 12 Bush administration lawyers disbarred for their roles in crafting the legal rationale for so-called enhanced interrogation techniques that many view as torture.
"It is time to hold these lawyers accountable for violating their legal oath," Kevin Zeese, an attorney for the coalition, said in a written statement.
"Just as the bar would suspend an attorney who advised a police officer to torture and brutalize a detained immigrant or criminal defendant, the bar must suspend these attorneys for advocating and causing the torture of war detainees. The disciplinary boards that hear these complaints must act or they will be seen as complicit in the use of torture."
Zeese called disbarment "an important step toward the ultimate accountability of criminal prosecution."
The group registered formal complaints against David Addington, John Ashcroft, Stephen Bradbury, Jay Bybee, Michael Chertoff, Douglas Feith, Alice Fisher, Timothy Flanigan, Alberto Gonzales, William Haynes II, Michael Mukasey, and John Yoo.
Chertoff says massive security ready for inauguration
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/01/17/art.getty.chertoff.jpg caption="Chertoff believes this is the largest and most complex security event in history."]WASHINGTON (CNN) - If anything were to go seriously wrong at the inauguration of Barack Obama, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is the man who would manage the crisis response. He is trying to make sure everything goes right.
"I don't anticipate anything disruptive. Part of my job is to hope for the best and plan for the worst," Chertoff said during a final tour of key sites around Washington. CNN exclusively accompanied Chertoff on the tour.
Chertoff said authorities are not aware of any credible threat to the inauguration.
"We are constantly scrubbing and rescrubbing intelligence to see if there is a threat that we should be concerned about. And that is going to continue, frankly, through the inauguration itself," he said. "We are literally going to be watching this every minute between now and the conclusion of events on the 20th."
Senior admin. officials: Chertoff may get nod
Chertoff may be nominated to succeed Gonzales.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Bush may nominate Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to replace Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General, senior administration officials told CNN Monday.
Chertoff, 53, previously sat on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which handles appeals from New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and the Virgin Islands.
Before becoming a judge, he was assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice's criminal division from 2001 to 2003.
Chertoff received his law degree from Harvard University and was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William H. Brennan Jr. in 1979 and 1980. He first stepped into a prosecutorial role as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1987.
From there, he moved to the District of New Jersey and was assistant U.S. attorney from 1987 to 1990 and U.S. attorney until 1994.
Between 1994 and 1996, Chertoff was counsel to the GOP Whitewater committee investigating the business dealings of President Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton, who is now New York's junior senator and a candidate for president of the United States.
An independent counsel later determined that the Whitewater investigation did not uncover sufficient evidence to warrant any criminal charges against the Clintons.
As a senator, Mrs. Clinton cast the only vote against Chertoff when he was nominated for the appeals court in 2003.
UPDATE: A Senate aide with close connections to the Department of Justice tells CNN's Dana Bash Chertoff will not be the president's choice to replace Gonzales.
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