A strong advocate of the controversial national missile defence project has been nominated back to the job of US Defence Secretary which he occupied in the Ford administration, Patrick Smyth reports. President-elect George Bush yesterday named veteran Washington insider, Mr Donald Rumsfeld (68), as his choice, ahead of the supposed favourites for the job, former Senator Dan Coates and former Pentagon official Mr Paul Wolfowitz. Mr Rumsfeld served as defence secretary between 1975 and 1977 and had previously served in the Nixon administration as chief of staff. He is a former senator from Illinois and ambassador to NATO.
Responding to questions from journalists yesterday, Mr Rumsfeld insisted that the rationale for "National Missile Defence", the potential missile threat from rogue states like North Korea and Iraq, was "a real one". Mr Rumsfeld chaired a commission established by Congress in 1995 to assess it and which concluded that CIA estimates of a declining threat were unduly optimistic. Mr Bush said that he hoped to complete his cabinet nominations by the end of the first week in January but will name two more members this morning.