Michael Chertoff
Michael Chertoff (November 28, 1953), is the current United States Secretary of Homeland Security.
He previously served as a United States Court of Appeals judge and former federal prosecutor, and assistant U.S. Attorney General. He was nominated as Homeland Security Secretary by President George W. Bush on January 11, 2005 to succeed Tom Ridge as Secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security. He was confirmed in this position by the U.S. Senate on February 15, 2005, in a unanimous 98-0 vote, and sworn into office the same day (although a ceremonial swearing-in presided over by Bush took place on March 3).
Early history
Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the son of a rabbi and El Al's first flight attendant (Livia Chertoff), Michael Chertoff went to The Pingry School in high school. He later attended Harvard University, graduating in 1975. He then graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1978, going on to clerk for appellate judge Murray Gurfein for a year before clerking for United States Supreme Court justice William Brennan from 1979 to 1980. He worked in private practice with Latham & Watkins from 1980 to 1983 before being hired as a prosecutor by Rudolph Giuliani, then the U.S. attorney for Manhattan, working on mafia and political corruption-related cases.
Public service
In 1987, Chertoff joined the office of the U.S. Attorney for the state of New Jersey. He was appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 as United States Attorney for the state in 1990. Chertoff was asked to stay in his position when the Clinton administration took office in 1993, at the request of Democratic Senator Bill Bradley; he was the only U.S. attorney not replaced. Chertoff stayed with the U.S. Attorney's office until 1994, when he entered private practice, returning to Latham & Watkins as a partner.
Despite his friendly relationship with some Democrats, during the Whitewater scandal investigation of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Chertoff was special counsel for the Senate committee studying allegations against the Clintons. When Chertoff faced Senate confirmation in 2003 for a federal judgeship, Hillary Rodham Clinton, then a Senator from New York, cast the lone dissenting vote against Chertoff's confirmation. She explained that her vote was in protest of the way junior White House staffers were "very badly treated" by Chernoff's staff during the Whitewater investigation.
In 2000, Chertoff worked as special counsel to the New Jersey State Senate Judiciary Committee, investigating racial profiling in New Jersey. He also did some fundraising for George W. Bush and other Republicans during the 2000 election cycle and advised Bush's presidential campaign on criminal justice issues. From 2001 to 2003, he headed the criminal division of the Department of Justice, leading the prosecution's case against terrorist suspect Zacarias Moussaoui and against accounting firm Arthur Andersen for destroying documents relating to the Enron collapse. His prosecution of Arthur Andersen was controversial resulting in the collapse of the firm and the loss of employment by its 26,000 employees. The Supreme Court overturned the conviction and the case has not been retried. At the DOJ he also came under fire as one of the chief architects of the Bush Administration's legal strategies in the War on Terror, particularly regarding the detainment of thousands of Middle Eastern immigrants. Chertoff was appointed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia by Bush on March 5, 2003, and was confirmed by the Senate 88-1 on June 9.
In late 2004, after the controversial Bernard Kerik was forced to decline President Bush's offer to replace the outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, a lengthy search ensued to find a suitable replacement. Citing his experience with post-9/11 terror legislation, Bush nominated Chertoff to the post in January 2005. He was unanimously approved for the position of Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security by the Senate on February 15, 2005.
Most recently Chertoff has managed the FEMA response to Hurricane Katrina. On the third of September, several days after the initial strike of the hurricane many (including the New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin) indicated severe dissatisfaction with the response from Washington, citing the delay between the general knowledge of the storm's likely impact and any effective federal response. Lousiana's Governor Blanco declared a state a state of emergency on August 26 [1]; a week later, New Orleans remained in a state of chaos.
Chertoff himself appeared misinformed about the situation, presumably because of the LA governor, even calling the situation at the Convention Center "rumors" after it had been in the news most of the day. While defending the federal government's response in a September 3, 2005 press conference, Chertoff asserted that no one had ever predicted a disaster of this magnitude; however, warnings had in fact come for years from experts in the private sector as well as government agencies at all levels, including FEMA itself, who had identified a disaster such as this as one of the three most likely catastrophes to strike the US. CNN: [2] Houston Chronicle: [3].
Personal Crisis
The Hurricane Katrina disaster was the first major test of Department of Homeland Security with Michael Chertoff at the helm. There were questions on who was in charge of the disaster response and who had jurisdictional authority. However the Department of Homeland Security became the ultimate authority on August 30,2005 (the day after Katrina hit the coast) when Chertoff triggered Homeland Security's National Response Plan [4], thus establishing himself as the designated leader of the federal, state, and local response efforts from that date going forward.
Critics (both in the media and political body) of Chertoff's actions say the response to the disaster was inadequate in terms of leadership and promptness. To illustrate a typical view of those critical of the department, State Representative Peter Sullivan said "Director Brown and Secretary Chertoff have given incompetence a bad name. Their planning was nonexistent. Their response to the crisis was lethargic. Their attempt to shirk responsibility is revolting. At a time when our country needs forthright leaders, this administration [has given] us two men more concerned with partisan spin than with human suffering. Brown and Chertoff failed America, and they must be fired immediately".
On the other hand, supporters maintain that the complexity and scope of the greatest natural disaster in American history made a quicker response difficult if not impossible. At least some of the criticism represents an attempt to exploit a natural disaster for political gain. The dialogue in the media clearly has a political flavor to it with Democrats and Republicans pointing fingers. Even a recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll shows that Americans view the handling of the Katrina disaster somewhat along party affiliations. [5]
Michael Chertoff Trivia
- Chertoff was born an Israeli citizen, by virtue of Israeli citizenship laws. There's no record of his ever having renounced his Israeli citizenship. Actually, neither is there any record of Chertoff being an Israeli citizen, aside from vague, unverifiable accusations leveled on rightwing extremist websites, such as Stormfront.org and Rense.com.
External links
- President Nominates Michael Chertoff as Secretary of Homeland Security transcript
- Bush names new US security chief
- Chertoff: 'Let's Not Let Them Get Johnnie Cochran on the Phone'
- Michael Chertoff: Ashcroft's Top Gremlin
- USDOJ Resume
- A rabbi’s son with sense of balance nominated to head Homeland Security
- Chertoff and Torture
- Robert Novak: Unyielding Chertoff
- Michael Chertoff and the sabotage of the Ptech investigation
- Michael Chertoff's Profile in BBC
- Homeland Security by the Colors
- Security Nominee Gave Advice to the C.I.A. on Torture Laws
- Michael Chertoff's history of political donations
