First, I hope all of you had a thankful Thanksgiving.  Today Barack Obama, the President Elect, named the members that will make up his National Security Team.  As expected, Hillary Clinton will take the position as Secretary of State, and Robert Gates will keep his position as Defense Secretary and Eric Holder will hold the position of Attorney General, Janet Napolitano will take position of Homeland Security Secretary, Susan Rice will be U.N. Ambassador, and General James Jones will be the National Security Advisor.

Many believe that his choices show us that he is not choosing based on liberal inclinations, but on the wisdom that the members he has chosen bring to the table.  Remember, Obama has very little experience, and he is going to hold the HIGHEST office in the United States, so must surround himself with older, wiser and more experienced individuals. It appears that this is just what he is doing, and in my humble opinion shows some measure of humility and wisdom on the part of the President Elect.

We will get into the individuals more over time, for now, what does the National Security Council do?

According to the web page on whitehouse.gov, (the photo will change there shortly, by the way), the establishment of the National Security Council took place in 1947, and became part of the Executive Office of the President in 1949.

The National Security Council is chaired by the President. Its regular attendees (both statutory and non-statutory) are the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the statutory military advisor to the Council, and the Director of National Intelligence is the intelligence advisor. The Chief of Staff to the President, Counsel to the President, and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy are invited to attend any NSC meeting. The Attorney General and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget are invited to attend meetings pertaining to their responsibilities. The heads of other executive departments and agencies, as well as other senior officials, are invited to attend meetings of the NSC when appropriate.

The team advises the President on matters related to the security of our Nation, and foreign policies, and the coordinating and distribution of the polices to the appropriate government agencies.

Tags: , Barack, Clinton, council, general, gnl., hillary, homeland security, james jones, janet napolitano, national security, Obama, robert gates, secretary of, state, susan rice, team

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Barack Obama, Choosing our Leaders, Foreign Policy, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Military, National Security Council, PRESIDENT ELECT BARACK OBAMA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.