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Obama to beef-up US security
US President Barack Obama will overhaul the country's security network by expanding its national and international dossier, says the president's top security aide. National security adviser James Jones said the National Security Council (NSC) will be "dramatically different" under the new president, reports the Washington Post."The world that we live in has changed so dramatically in this decade that organizations that were created to meet a certain set of criteria no longer are terribly useful," said Mr Jones. The retired Marine general said he will be the primary conduit of national security advice to Mr Obama. "We're not always going to agree on everything, so it's my job to make sure that minority opinion is represented to the president," said Mr Jones. "But if at the end of the day he turns to me and says, 'Well, what do you think, Jones?,' I'm going to tell him what I think," he said. The new structure will be outlined in a presidential directive later this week. Mr Jones told The Post that the newly configured NSC will reach far beyond the range of traditional foreign policy issues and will include Cabinet and departmental seats at the table -- historically occupied only by the secretaries of defense and state -- on an issue-by-issue basis. He noted that the national security community historically has meant the Defense Department, the NSC itself and a parts of the State Department, but now could be extended depending upon the circumstances to include the Energy, Commerce and Treasury Departments, law enforcement agencies, and the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Posted by: tipper 2009-02-08 |
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