Bush names new Homeland Security chief

President Bush announced Tuesday that he would nominate Michael Chertoff, a federal judge and former head of the Justice Department's criminal division, to be the new Homeland Security Secretary.

Chertoff currently sits on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. From 2001 to 2003, he was assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. Chertoff also has served in U.S. Attorney's offices in New York and New Jersey. From 1994 to 1996, he was special counsel to the Senate committee investigating the Whitewater scandal.

In a statement at the White House, Bush characterized Chertoff as a "talented and experienced public servant" and a "practical organizer, skilled manager and brilliant thinker."

Chertoff said that if he is confirmed, he "will be proud to stand again with the men and women who serve as our front line against terror."

Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents employees in several DHS units, said the members of the union "look forward to working" with Chertoff. "NTEU also looks forward," she said, "to an early meeting and an open and full dialogue with the incoming secretary on the full range of issues affecting DHS employees, particularly given the impending publication of new personnel rules for the agency."

Chertoff was a key leader in the Bush administration's efforts to track down and prosecute terrorist suspects after the Sept. 11 attacks. Recently, though, he has expressed some concerns about the administration's approach to detaining suspected terrorists.

"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," he wrote in The Weekly Standard magazine in 2004.

Chertoff recently served on a joint task force of Harvard University's law school and the Kennedy School of Government that issued a report concluding that the Bush administration had made a mistake in using military commissions to prosecute recent war crimes cases. The panel called for the use of courts-martial to deal with such cases.

Chertoff is believed to have a relatively easy path to confirmation, since he has already been confirmed by the Senate to federal posts three times.

Bush's first choice to head Homeland Security, Bernard Kerik, attracted controversy. Kerik eventually withdrew his nomination, citing problems with tax payments to a nanny.

Tom Ridge, who has headed the Homeland Security Department since its creation, announced in late November that he would step down from his post on Feb.1, or whenever his successor is confirmed.