Trump taps Pompeo, Flynn for top intelligence posts

With the selections of Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., as CIA director and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser, President-elect Donald Trump is granting power to some of the sharpest critics of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. Neither Pompeo nor Flynn, announced today as picks for their respective posts, has shied from naming radical Islam as a serious threat to the United States, and both have denounced the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran.

Pompeo, a tea party Republican elected in 2010, said after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that Muslim leaders should speak more boldly against terror attacks committed in the name of Islam.

After leaks from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the U.S. government’s domestic surveillance of electronic and cell phone communication, Pompeo wrote, “I am convinced that their intelligence collection actions are not only lawful and constitutional, but also consistent with the critical mission of defeating radical Islamic terrorism.” Pompeo has also called Snowden a traitor and said he deserves to go to prison.

Flynn is a Democrat who served in military intelligence roles throughout his career, which culminated in a stint as director of the federal Defense Intelligence Agency under President Barack Obama. Flynn, who retired early in 2014 from his position in the Obama administration, told a reporter in a final interview that he felt like the “lone voice” sounding the alarm on continuing threats from Islamic terrorism. (That was just months after Obama referred to Islamic State as the “JV team.”)

As a national security and foreign policy adviser to Trump on the campaign trail, Flynn helped to gather endorsements from 88 top military officials who would support the GOP nominee’s candidacy. He shares Trump’s interest in rekindling military cooperation with Russia in the Middle East.

Pompeo’s appointment will require confirmation from the Senate, but Flynn’s will not.