Bush picks Kerik to lead DHS

Bush picks Kerik to lead DHS    President Bush today will nominate former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to take the reins of the Department of Homeland Security from Tom Ridge, according to print and broadcast media reports.
   Ridge resigned this week as the nation’s first secretary of homeland security, a monumental job that required managing the merger since March 2003 of 22 agencies, their information and financial systems, and 180,000 employees. Ridge was able to set up an operational structure for the fledgling department, but critics charge that many of the agencies still don’t work well together and that security gaps remain at airports, ports and the nation’s borders.
   Kerik, 49, helped lead rescue efforts as head of police following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. A former bodyguard for then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Kerik rose through the ranks to become the city’s top cop, but he only held the job for 16 months. New York Sens. Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, both Democrats, applauded Kerik as someone who understands how to deal with terrorism and first responders.
   His lack of Washington experience could prove a challenge when it comes to budget matters or dealing with bureaucratic problems that remain with completing the transition to a single department, some unnamed officials said.
   Kerik spent four months in Iraq last year helping to set up an Iraqi police force during the U.S. occupation of that country and now works for Giuliani Partners, the security consulting firm set up by his old boss. Kerik rapidly expanded the police force in Iraq to more than 80,000, but the force has since been cut in half by U.S. advisors and defections. Officials have since determined that officers are poorly trained and are revamping the training program, according to the Washington Post and L.A. Times.
   Kerik campaigned for President Bush during the election and praised him for making America safer during a speech at the Republican National Convention last summer.