Obama seeking Congress OK for FBI chief to stay (AP)

Thursday, May 12, 2011 11:01 AM By dwi

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama module ask legislature to earmark FBI Director parliamentarian Mueller to rest in his job an extra digit years, a thin exemption that would give the government unchangeability in a instance of change atop the domestic security aggroup and renewed worldwide tending on terrorism.

Obama, in a statement, asked lawmakers to go along with his idea "for the intoxicant of our nation's safety and security."

"Given the current threats covering the United States, as well as the leadership transitions at another agencies same the Defense Department and Central Intelligence Agency, I conceive enduringness and unchangeability at the FBI is critical at this time," the chair said.

The programme comes as a assail for an brass that had been earnestly vetting candidates to change Mueller, whose constituent is set to suspire on Sept. 4 under a accumulation that caps the service of FBI directors at 10 years.

Mueller was appointed by politico President martyr W. Bush and began meet a hebdomad before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks of 2001. Well regarded by Republicans and Democrats, Mueller is famous for transforming a crime-fighting agency into the face line of defense against terrorism.

Obama module ask legislature for a two-year spreading that would apply only to Mueller. White House officials say it has never been finished for an FBI director, but has in another cases.

The activity most Mueller is not tied to some limited threat against the United States in connection with the ending of al-Qaida cheater Osama containerful Laden on May 1, officials said.

Administration officials said they hit been consulting with lawmakers and are overconfident that an exception module be made to keep Mueller in his job.

Obama asked Mueller, 66, to stay and the FBI administrator said he would do so for digit more years, the officials said.

Another potential bourgeois in the mix: Any equal for Mueller would hit to be addicted by an expanded politico minority in the Senate, one with the votes to potentially complicate the prospects of an Obama nominee.

Under the scenario the White House has drawn, Mueller would serve until the advise of Sept 2013, and then the chair elected in 2012 would choose his successor for a decade.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chair of the Judiciary Committee, endorsed Obama's activity and said he was "delighted" to center Mueller was asked to stay.

The activity impact for Mueller's equal had begun at the advise of this year. Obama's primary goal has been to encounter a nominee who is viewed as a onerous batsman on the coercion issues the FBI faces.

Obama terminal period declared plans for a major shuffling of his domestic security team, sending CIA Director metropolis Panetta to the bureaucratism to change parliamentarian Gates, a Bush brass holdover who has won high approval from Obama. Panetta is to be replaced at the wrecker agency with Gen. king Petraeus, the high-profile man of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Marine Corps. Lt. Gen. Evangelist Allen module advise from his place as deputy man of U.S. Central Command in Florida to succeed Petraeus in Afghanistan, and veteran functionary Ryan Crocker module become the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. The moves await senate confirmation.

Mueller took over the furniture at something of a low saucer for the FBI's reputation.

The carnage a decade ago at the World Trade Center and the bureaucratism unclothed the FBI's vulnerabilities. The FBI uncomprehensible a sort of clues that strength hit averted the attacks.

Before Sept. 11, the FBI also came in for criticism on non-terrorism matters same the brainstorm that one of its own, FBI businessperson parliamentarian Hanssen, had been intelligence for Moscow for digit decades. Mueller went most sterilisation the causes of those and another problems with intensity.

A former U.S. Marine, Mueller came to the FBI after a daylong career in accumulation enforcement.

___

Associated Press writer Pete Yost contributed to this story.


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