Trump Presidency: Conservative Loyalists for Top Security Jobs

Local Editor

US President-elect Donald Trump picked three conservative loyalists to lead his national security and law enforcement teams on Friday, underscoring his campaign promise to take a hard line confronting extremist militancy and curbing illegal immigration.

Senator Jeff Sessions for attorney general, Representative Mike Pompeo as CIA director and General Mike Flynn as national security advise had been chosen by president-elect Donald Trump on Friday.

All three men have accepted Trump's offer, the transitional official said.

In choosing Jeff Sessions as the nation's chief law enforcement officer, Trump would award a loyalist whose hardline and at times inflammatory statements on immigration were similar to his own.

Sessions opposes any path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and was an enthusiastic backer of Trump's promise to build a wall on the border with Mexico.

According to CBS News, Sessions, 69, a former Alabama attorney general and US attorney, received a telephone call offering him the job.

Trump had named retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn as his new national security adviser, according to a close source.

The 57-year-old three-star general, who once ran the Defense Intelligence Agency [DIA], is considered a controversial figure in US circles for a number of reasons.

In May, he claimed in an al-Jazeera interview that the rise of extremism in the Middle East, including the emergence of al-Nusra Front and Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"] in Syria, was not the result of chance or ignorance - but of calculated thinking.

The Pentagon veteran, who was a key figure in the Bush administration's War on Terror, also lambasted Washington for criticizing Russia's plans to fight Daesh in Syria.

Flynn told RT in October that he strongly believes that "Russia and the United States working together and trying to work with the other partners that we all have in this region can come up with some other solutions."

"We have to understand as Americans that Russia also has foreign policy; Russia also has a national security strategy. And I think that we failed to understand what that is," said the former DIA chief.

Flynn was heavily criticized for taking this position.

Republican Congressman Mike Pompeo, according to Reuters had been offered the job of CIA director.

Pompeo had accepted the offer, according to an unnamed transition team official cited by the news agency.

Speculation had been rife that the Kansas Representative was in line for a top position in the incoming administration after news emerged he met with Trump this week.

CIA director or army secretary were two likely possibilities based on Pomeo's background in military and intelligence, according to Mc Clatchy DC.

News of his appointment is already drawing criticism as the lawmaker had come under fire for controversial statements made in relation to Muslims.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team