Trump names Michael Flynn national security adviser

Trump on November 18 announced that his national security adviser would be former military intelligence chief Michael Flynn and the nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) would be Republican congressman Mike Pompeo.

The selection of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn for National Security Adviser has local Muslim leaders concerned about what it could mean for their community members.

Trump is a foreign policy novice and his early moves on national security are being closely watched both in the USA and overseas. Flynn traveled past year to Moscow, where he joined Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials in a celebration of the RT network, a Russian government-controlled television channel.

A 57-year-old registered Democrat, Flynn is a decorated combat veteran who retired as a three star general.

While advising Trump during his campaign, the elder Flynn also provided consulting services to global clients, including one with close ties to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But Friday’s picks offered a concrete indication that Trump’s presidency may in fact be headed sharply to the right on issues of national security.

“[Flynn] served as the director of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East; the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation mission in Afghanistan; and the Joint Special Operations Command”, Politico previously reported.

While foreign agents who disclose lobbying activity for foreign principals under the Lobbying Disclosure Act are exempt from registering under FARA, lobbying for foreign governments or political parties is never exempted, and it is unclear whether or not Flynn’s activities qualifies for this exemption. We’ll hear more about Trump’s choice for attorney general in a moment.

This year, Flynn tweeted that fear of Muslims was rational.

WELNA: Pompeo appears likely, though, to be confirmed by a Republican-run Senate. He’s unsuited to be National Security Advisor. Now that Donald Trump is president-elect, which Trump will govern? Muslim activists are troubled by the prospect of a Trump administration that might include Flynn.

Flynn’s stated view that fighting terrorism should be the No. 1 priority, rather than Russia’s aggression in Ukraine or Chinese actions in the South China Sea, is also out of step with the thinking of many US military officials.

A member of the House intelligence committee, Pompeo said former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden should face the death penalty for taking and releasing secret documents about surveillance programs in which the US government collected the phone records of millions of Americans. He was reportedly forced out in 2014, however, because “his vision” for the agency “was seen as disruptive”, a former Pentagon official who worked closely with Flynn told The Washington Post in 2014. Flynn was sacked from that position in 2014, amid reports that his views and management style were disruptive and chaotic.

But in his August interview with NPR, he said he did not favor sending USA troops into Raqqa. Romney is scheduled to meet with Trump in NY on Saturday.

Sessions is chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, and served as an adviser on Trump’s immigration policy plan during his campaign. Since then, he’s been a brash critic of President Barack Obama and the national security establishment’s approach to defeating terrorism-and he’s made no secret of his disdain for Islam.

The role of national security adviser has varied by administration, but usually centers on coordinating the policy positions of the secretaries of state, defense, justice and other members of a president’s national security team.