http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/us/politics/08council.html?_r=1&hp President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to scrap the way President Bush oversaw domestic security in the White House and name a former Central Intelligence Agency official to coordinate counterterrorism, people close to the transition said Wednesday.
The plan would eliminate the independent domestic security adviser’s office and assign those duties to the National Security Council to streamline sometimes overlapping functions. A deputy national security adviser would be charged with overseeing the effort to guard against terrorism and to respond to natural disasters.
Democrats close to the transition said Mr. Obama’s choice for that job is John O. Brennan, a longtime C.I.A. veteran who was the front-runner to head the spy agency until withdrawing in November amid criticism of his views on interrogation and detention policies. Unlike the case with the C.I.A. director, the new job would not require Senate confirmation.
Mr. Obama has made no final decision about how to structure domestic security in his White House, and advisers plan to wait until his inauguration to conduct a formal review. But many key advisers have publicly advocated folding domestic security into the National Security Council, and those involved in discussions said the only real questions appeared to be how to do it and how to explain it without looking like domestic security was being downgraded as a priority.
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