Chertoff, Michael

Chertoff, Michael
▪ 2006
 In 2005 the biggest challenge for Michael Chertoff, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, was not an external terrorist threat but a domestic natural disaster. In August, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, killing more than a thousand Americans and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency), since 2003 subordinate to DHS, bore primary responsibility for providing immediate assistance to victims of natural disasters of this sort and for managing the recovery effort. Accordingly, Chertoff was one of the federal authorities who was faulted for the slowness and inadequacy of the official response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The disjointed actions of his cabinet-level department—despite its confident statements—compounded the human tragedy among those who were stranded or made refugees by the storm.

      Chertoff was born on Nov. 28, 1953, in Elizabeth, N.J., and was educated at Harvard University (A.B., 1975; J.D., 1978), graduating with top honours. He was admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia (1980), New York (1987), and New Jersey (1990). He began his career as a federal prosecutor, and, after receiving his law degree, he served as a clerk for Supreme Court Associate Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., and later worked in the U.S. Attorney's Office, becoming U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey in 1990. In 1994–96 he was special counsel for the U.S. Senate Whitewater Committee. He worked in the private sector at Latham & Watkins in 1980–83 and again in 1994–2001. He held dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship.

      Chertoff first worked for George W. Bush as an adviser in his campaign for the presidency in 2000, and following the election he served in the Department of Justice Criminal Division. There he advocated the detention of hundreds of people of Arab ancestry following the 9/11 attacks, a position for which he was later criticized. Chertoff served as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit from June 2003.

      In February 2005 Chertoff was appointed secretary of homeland security, the second person to hold the post, upon the retirement of Tom Ridge and after an earlier nominee, Bernie Kerik, withdrew his candidacy. Chertoff received immediate and unanimous confirmation by the Senate, and supporters lauded him as a disciplined prosecutor who would take a hard-line stance against terrorism. He set about reorganizing the sprawling DHS, focusing on improving the screening of passengers boarding airplanes, the security of the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada, and the safety of urban mass transit. Chertoff attempted to balance the needs for homeland security with civil liberties, on which Americans place a high value.

Tom Michael

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Universalium. 2010.

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