NEW YORK // Donald Trump on Friday signalled a sharp rightward shift in US national security policy with his picks for three top posts in his administration, including a candidate for CIA director who opposes the nuclear deal with Iran.
The US president-elect chose senator Jeff Sessions for attorney general, Mike Pompeo to head the CIA and former military intelligence chief Michael Flynn as his national security adviser.
All three have been fierce critics of president Barack Obama’s handling of terrorism and international relations. In tapping Mr Sessions and Mr Flynn, Mr Trump was also rewarding loyalty from two of his staunchest supporters during the presidential campaign.
The billionaire businessman is a foreign policy novice and his early moves on national security are being closely watched both in the US and overseas.
Mr Flynn, 57, is a former military intelligence chief who sees militant Islam as the biggest threat to global stability.
The retired three-star general, a veteran of America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has courted controversy with extreme statements that critics say border on Islamophobia.
Meanwhile, the 57-year-old has taken a more flexible line on Russia and China, countries the outgoing administration of Barack Obama regards as the country’s principal strategic opponents.
Mr Flynn’s army career was mainly in intelligence units. In the 2000s he served in Iraq and then Afghanistan, where he became director of intelligence for coalition forces.
A registered Democrat, he was named by Mr Obama in 2012 to lead the Defence Intelligence Agency, but was forced out in less than two years amid a turbulent restructuring effort and clashes with his superiors.
Since then he has repeatedly criticised the Obama government as inadequately focused on the threat from extremists. In book published this year titled The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies, he argues that Muslim countries must be forced to recognise and stamp out radical beliefs, which he says are "metastasising" around the world.
Mr Trump said on Friday that Mr Flynn would be “by my side as we work to defeat radical Islamic terrorism, navigate geopolitical challenges and keep Americans safe at home and abroad”.
Unlike the other two Trump choices announced on Friday, Mr Flynn’s appointment does not need approval from the senate.
Mr Pompeo is a conservative Republican legislator and a strident critic of Mr Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. A three-term congressman, he graduated from the West Point military academy and from Harvard law school.
The 52-year-old made his name as one of the leaders of the controversial Benghazi committee, which targeted Mr Trump’s presidential rival Hillary Clinton in its investigation of the 2012 attack on the US consulate in the Libyan city which left four Americans, including the US ambassador, dead.
Mr Pompeo gained exposure to intelligence matters in 2013 when he was appointed to the house intelligence committee.
As a member of the committee he levelled scathing criticism of the deal to lift sanctions on Iran in exchange for halting its programme to develop nuclear weapons.
Ahead of his nomination, he tweeted on Thursday: “I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.”
Mr Trump called Mr Pompeo “an unrelenting leader for our intelligence community to ensure the safety of Americans and our allies”.
His nomination was hailed by Republican Devin Nunes, the chairman of the intelligence committee, which will have to approve his appointment.
However, Mr Trump’s choice for attorney general could face obstacles in his confirmation hearing, even with Republicans in control of the senate.
Mr Sessions withdrew from consideration for a federal judgeship in 1986 after being accused of making racist comments while serving as a US attorney in Alabama, including calling a black assistant US attorney “boy”. Mr Sessions denied the accusation.
He has clashed with the past two Democratic attorneys general on whether terrorism suspects deserve American constitutional rights in civilian court and on the planned closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. He has also been protective of the attorney general’s right to refuse a legally unsound directive from the president.
Announcing his choice of Mr Sessions, the first senator to endorse Mr Trump’s candidacy, the president-elect described him as “a world-class legal mind”.
Mr Trump is still weighing a range of candidates for other leading national security posts. His choices for secretary of state are said to include former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, Tennessee senator Bob Corker and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who met with Mr Trump on Thursday.
On Saturday, Mr Trump plans to meet retired Gen James Mattis, a contender to lead the Pentagon. Gen Mattis would require a congressional waiver to serve as defence secretary because he has not been out of uniform for the required minimum of seven years.
* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
