Holden names advisor on homeland security

Associated Press WriterJEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Gov. Bob Holden has hired a retired Army colonel to review Missouri's emergency response plans in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Timothy Daniel was named Wednesday as Holden's special adviser for homeland security -- a Cabinet-level position mirroring that created recently by President Bush.

Holden said Missouri is one of the first states to create such a position. He said Daniel would serve as a liaison to Tom Ridge, the newly named national director of homeland security.

"If and when another crisis hits, Missourians can have every confidence that all resources will be in place to protect their lives and property," Holden said during a review of state emergency preparedness with Cabinet officials and the state's military leaders.

Daniel, 51, of Columbia said he will start work immediately, focusing first on Missouri's crisis response plans and then on deterrence and prevention. He will earn $100,000 and remain on the job up to a year, Daniel said.

He pledged a rapid assessment of the state's emergency efforts with recommended improvements for Holden.

"To do our job in this war against terrorism, we must be vigilant and seek to deter ... and be poised to minimize the consequences of any attack," he told state emergency officials and the media.

Daniel has nearly 30 years of military experiences. He retired in August as the strategic planner and adviser to the chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

From 1995 to 1997, he was a strategic planner at the Pentagon, where he initiated the "Army After Next" program, influencing the future plans for the military through studies, conferences and war games.

He also has served as a battalion and garrison commander at Fort Leonard Wood, where he helped develop security procedures for chemical defense training at the post.