Trump taps ex-Bush official Bossert to
counter domestic threats
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[December 28, 2016]
By Richard Cowan
PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S.
President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday selected former Bush
administration official Thomas Bossert as a counterterrorism adviser who
will focus heavily on cyber threats.
As assistant to the president for homeland security and
counterterrorism, Bossert will concentrate on domestic security issues
and help craft the administration's cyber security policies, the
transition team said.
"We must work toward cyber doctrine that reflects the wisdom of free
markets, private competition and the important but limited role of
government in establishing and enforcing the rule of law ... and the
fundamental principles of liberty," Bossert said in a statement.
Cyber security has been a hot button issue in recent weeks as Trump, a
Republican, has lashed out against assertions that Russia directed hacks
of U.S. Democratic Party emails to influence the U.S. presidential
election.
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U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia was behind the
hacks.
In a departure from the current administration, Bossert will report
directly to Trump and will have his own staff that is not under the
National Security Council, Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said.
The structure is similar to the approach of Republican President George
W. Bush, who set up a Homeland Security Council in the aftermath of the
Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington.
Bossert served as deputy homeland security adviser under Bush.
Democratic President Barack Obama merged the Homeland Security Council
staff with the National Security Council staff.
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President-elect Donald
Trump claps at the USA Thank You Tour event at the Iowa Events
Center in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., December 8, 2016. REUTERS/Shannon
Stapleton/File Photo
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Peter Feaver, a professor at Duke University who served on the National
Security Council during the second Bush administration, said that making
Bossert report to the president was not a large change.
"You could not call this a radical departure. This is the kind of
evolutionary change that always happens with administrations," Feaver
said.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Ginger Gibson, writing by Ayesha Rascoe;
Editing by Doina Chiacu and Lisa Shumaker)
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