Obama picks more senior DoD leaders - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Obama picks more senior DoD leaders

President-elect Barack Obama has named several more of his intended appointees for top Pentagon jobs.

Pentagon veterans William Lynn and Michèle Flournoy will fill the deputy defense secretary and defense undersecretary for policy posts, the presidential transition office said in a Jan. 8 statement.

Flournoy is co-chair of Obama’s Defense Department transition team.

Former Air Force comptroller Robert Hale is tapped to become the Pentagon’s next comptroller, while and New York lawyer and former U.S. prosecutor Jeh Johnson has been named to be DoD general counsel.

“Together with Secretary [Robert] Gates and our military, we will work to responsibly end the war in Iraq, defeat al-Qaida and the Taliban, and renew America’s strength and standing in the world. I am honored that they have joined me in this mission, and I trust that they will serve the American people well,” Obama said in the statement.

A Gates spokesman said the secretary was looking forward to working with the four nominees.

“He interviewed each of them, came away impressed with their personal character, and professional credentials, and recommended the President-elect hire them,” said DoD press secretary Geoff Morrell.

A list of Bush administration officials across the department are expected to stay through the transition, sources say.

Sources also say Obama transition officials are considering Ashton Carter, a former assistant secretary of defense for international security policy, for Pentagon acquisition executive. Carter is a physicist who now is a science and international affairs professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Under the Clinton administration, Lynn was Pentagon comptroller from 1997 until 2001 and director of the Defense Department’s powerful Program Analysis and Evaluation (PA&E) directorate from 1993 until 1997. He is Raytheon’s senior vice president for government operations and strategy.

Flournoy held two posts simultaneously during the Clinton administration: principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and threat reduction, and deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy. Flournoy, a former member of the Defense Policy Board, is president of the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank she recently co-founded.

The pick for comptroller, Hale, was assistant secretary of the Air Force for financial management and comptroller during the Clinton administration. He held the post from 1994 until 2001. He now is executive director of the Alexandria, Va.-based American Society of Military Comptrollers, a professional organization that works to develop solid military and Coast Guard financial managers.

Hale also directed the national security division at the Congressional Budget Office for 12 years, and is a member emeritus of the Defense Business Board.

Johnson is a partner with the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and was an Obama fundraiser during the presidential election, according to his bio on the firm’s Web site.

During the campaign, Johnson advised Obama on national security and international law issues, according to the bio.

William McMichael contributed to this report.