Bush selects federal judge to lead Homeland Security

WASHINGTON -- President Bush nominated federal judge Michael Chertoff as the new homeland security chief Tuesday, completing the second-term Cabinet with a former prosecutor who recently called for a new look at the tough terrorist detainee laws that he helped craft after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Chertoff, who took his seat on the 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals less than two years ago, is expected to easily win Senate approval. He has won confirmation three times during his career, as U.S. attorney in New Jersey, assistant attorney general and appellate judge.

"Mike has shown a deep commitment to the cause of justice and an unwavering determination to protect the American people," Bush told a White House audience that included Chertoff's wife, Meryl, and their children. "Mike has also been a key leader in the war on terror."

Chertoff would replace Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who helped build the new department after the terror attacks by combining 22 existing -- and often competing -- federal agencies. Ridge, often identified with the color-coded terror alerts, plans to step down from his post Feb. 1.

Ridge "leaves some very big shoes to fill," Chertoff said.

Known by colleagues as a fiery workhorse, Chertoff headed the Justice Department's criminal division at the time of the attacks. He said at the White House: "If confirmed as secretary, I will be proud to stand again with the men and women who form our front line against terror."

Chertoff was the president's second pick for the job. Bush's first choice, former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, withdrew last month citing immigration problems regarding a nanny.

Chertoff's resume includes stint as a Supreme Court clerk and as the Senate Republicans' chief counsel for the Clinton-era Whitewater investigation. He helped develop the USA Patriot Act, which greatly expanded the government's surveillance and detention powers.

His role in crafting that law, a measure that has become a flashpoint for critics who say it has eroded civil liberties, is expected to bring sharp questioning in Senate confirmation hearings.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday that as an architect of the act, Chertoff seemed to view the Bill of Rights "as an obstacle to national security rather than a guidebook for how to do security properly."

But since joining the federal bench in Philadelphia in June 2003, Chertoff has repeatedly called for taking a fresh look at the policy of detaining terror suspects and has questioned the extent to which that process should be open to judicial review.

"Two years into the war on terror, it is time to move beyond case-by-case development," Chertoff wrote in The Weekly Standard, a conservative publication, in December 2003. "We need to debate a long-term and sustainable architecture for the process of determining when, why, and for how long someone may be detained as an enemy combatant, and what judicial review should be available."

Chertoff's call for a review "is a good thing," said former Solicitor General Ted Olson, a friend of the nominee. "I know he believes the act was necessary and was working well and has not been abused, but there's nothing wrong with looking at it," Olson said.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said he doubted Chertoff's role in crafting the Patriot Act "will be, in itself, a disqualification." More pressing, Lieberman said, are Chertoff's plans to manage a sprawling bureaucracy prone to infighting and competition with outside law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Another major part of Chertoff's job would be working with an estimated 80 congressional committees and subcommittees that have homeland security oversight. Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said he was confident Chertoff was up to the task.

"There is no human being the president could pick that would come to the job as an expert in all of the areas of the department's responsibilities," Cox said. "But Mike Chertoff is an outstanding selection, because he will quickly master the new parts of the job, and he has deep experience in so much of it already."

Several Democrats also quickly offered praise for Chertoff's credentials. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Chertoff has "the resume to be an excellent Homeland Security secretary."

Chertoff's tenure at the Justice Department included high-profile cases that his criminal division either lost or that have yet to be resolved:

-- The collapse in Detroit of the first post-Sept. 11 prosecution of an alleged terrorist sleeper cell. The charges were thrown out because of misconduct by prosecutors.

-- The case of a Saudi college student in Boise, Idaho, who was acquitted for lack of evidence on charges he created an Internet network that prosecutors claimed fostered Islamic extremism and helped recruit potential terrorists.

-- The still-incomplete prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only U.S. defendant charged in an al-Qaida conspiracy that includes the Sept. 11 attacks.

As the U.S. attorney for New Jersey from 1990 to 1994 -- named by Bush's father -- Chertoff oversaw prosecutions of Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann, New York chief judge Sol Wachtler and the kidnappers and killers of Exxon executive Sidney Reso. Chertoff personally handled the stock fraud trial of Eddie Antar, founder of the failed Crazy Eddie discount electronics chain.

As chief Republican counsel to the Senate Whitewater Committee, Chertoff played a major role in the investigation of various allegations against then-President Clinton, including his Arkansas business dealings and the suicide of Clinton aide Vincent Foster.

In 2000, Chertoff worked in Trenton, N.J., as special counsel to the state Senate Judiciary Committee that investigated racial profiling.

Chertoff and his wife each donated $1,000 to Bush's first presidential campaign.

The administration also announced Tuesday that White House homeland security adviser Fran Townsend would continue to serve in the same position in Bush's second term. Townsend had been mentioned as a possible candidate for the new post of director of national intelligence director, which has yet to be filled.