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Ex nypd replaces tom ridge { December 3 2004 }

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   http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0412030284dec03,1,4743584.story?coll=chi-news-hed

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0412030284dec03,1,4743584.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Bush taps ex-NYC police chief
Likely Homeland Security nominee went to scene to coordinate response on 9/11

By Frank James, Washington Bureau. Bernard Kerik sidebar by the Associated Press
Published December 3, 2004

WASHINGTON -- President Bush was expected Friday to name the street-smart former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to be the nation's new homeland security secretary.

Kerik, 49, a high school dropout who became an undercover narcotics detective and eventually rose to head the nation's largest police force, witnessed firsthand the horror of terrorism on U.S. soil. As the World Trade Center towers burned after Al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Kerik was on the scene helping coordinate the emergency response.

An administration official confirmed Thursday evening that Kerik was the president's choice to succeed Secretary Tom Ridge, the first leader of the Homeland Security Department. Ridge announced this week he was resigning to devote more time to his family.

There were other moves in the top levels of the Bush administration Thursday as the Cabinet for the president's second term takes shape. Bush named Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns to become agriculture secretary, and UN Ambassador John Danforth announced he was resigning.

If confirmed by the Senate to take over the sometimes unwieldy Homeland Security Department, Kerik will confront a number of significant challenges that Ridge was unable to resolve, homeland security experts said.

Perhaps the most formidable challenge facing Kerik, a confidant and business partner of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, will be Congress. Capitol Hill has failed to streamline its oversight structure for homeland security matters, presenting the department with a jumble of committees with jurisdiction over the agency.

What's more, the department must deal with turf battles with other agencies sharing responsibility for protecting the nation from terrorist attacks, namely the Justice and Defense Departments.

Meanwhile, the merger of 22 federal agencies with more than 180,000 employees is a work in progress, with internal rivalries still a considerable factor, experts said.

"The bottom line is, it's the most superhuman challenge for anybody to get in Washington," said Stephen Flynn, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations. "And it's one that has a level of urgency to it given the ongoing threat."

In choosing Kerik, Bush has tapped a manager with a proven record of taking on difficult assignments, sometimes at personal risk. The president also selected a man known for his absolute loyalty to his boss, who in New York was Giuliani.

9/11 performance faulted

Though Kerik was hailed in the aftermath of Sept. 11, a consulting group's study found problems in the response by New York Police and Fire Departments to the Trade Center attacks. McKinsey and Co. said in a report in August 2002 that the NYPD leadership suffered from the lack of a "single, strong operational leader" and a clear command structure.

Earlier this year, the independent Sept. 11 commission held hearings in New York, where commission members criticized top New York police, fire and emergency officials for the city's Sept. 11 response.

Kerik recently spent several months in Iraq leading the effort to train the Iraqi police force. However, he departed the country before some observers expected him to, and certainly before the Iraqi police proved capable of providing security.

By nearly every measure, Kerik has an unusual background for a top-level administration post, more the stuff of Hollywood movies than the rarified atmosphere of the White House Cabinet Room.

Kerik was born in gritty Paterson, N.J., across the Hudson River from New York City. His mother, a convicted prostitute, abandoned him early in life. He later learned she had been murdered, possibly by her pimp.

After dropping out of Eastside High School he joined the Army, eventually serving as a military policeman in South Korea. After leaving the military he went to work as a private security guard for the Saudi royal family.

Career in U.S.

After his return to the U.S., he became warden of the Passaic County Jail in New Jersey, and in 1986 he joined the New York Police Department, becoming a highly decorated narcotics detective. He won the NYPD's Medal of Valor for his actions during a shootout with a drug dealer.

From the NYPD, he became head of the city's Correction Department. In 2000, Giuliani made him police commissioner, a job he served in for two years before stepping down to follow Giuliani into the private sector to work for the former mayor's consulting firm, Giuliani Associates.

As head of the Correction Department and the Police Department, Kerik was known as a hard-nosed manager who made accountability a priority.

Violence at the city's jails fell during his tenure. And while leading the city's Police Department, he received some credit for the decline in New York's crime rate, though previous commissioners also were credited.

Saying whoever the president selected as the new secretary would face a singular task, Frank Cilluffo, associate vice president of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, said if he had to put the task on a bumper sticker, it would be "To connect."

"First connect all the many federal departments and agencies with some role in securing the homeland . . . and connect with the state and local authorities," Cilluffo said.

"Connect with the private sector. They own and operate the vast amount of the infrastructure in the country [that terrorists could attack or use for attacks.] And connect with the American people. That's what makes this challenge so unique."

- - -

Bernard Kerik

AGE 49

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

- Named New York Police Department commissioner in 2000; oversaw the department's response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks

- Most recently worked as a consultant helping to rebuild Iraq's police force

OTHER BACKGROUND

- Served as a military policeman in South Korea in the 1970s

- Once worked as a private security worker in Saudi Arabia

- Joined the New York Police Department in 1986

- Served as New York City's commissioner of the Department of Correction from 1998-2000

Source: Associated Press
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune





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