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ByJuliePaceand Jonathan Lemire The Associated Press NEW YORK President-elect Donald Trump signaled a sharp rightward shift in U.S. national security policy Friday with his announce- ment that he will nominate Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general and Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo to head the CIA, turning to a pair of staunch conserva- tives as he begins to fill out his Cabinet. Trump also named re- tired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn as his national security ad- viser. A former military in- telligence chief, Flynn has accused the Obama admin- istration of being too soft on terrorism and has cast Islam as a "political ideol- ogy" and driver of extrem- ism. Sessions and Flynn were ardent Trump supporters during the campaign, and their promotions were seen in part as a reward for their loyalty. The selections form the first outlines of Trump's Cabinet and national secu- rity teams. Given his lack of governing experience and vague policy proposals during the campaign, his selection of advisers is be- ing scrutinized both in the U.S. and abroad. Trump's initial deci- sions suggest a more ag- gressive military involve- ment in counterterror strategy and a greater em- phasis on Islam's role in stoking extremism. Ses- sions, who is best known for his hard-line immi- gration views, has ques- tioned whether terror sus- pects should benefit from the rights available in U.S. courts. Pompeo has said Muslim leaders are "po- tentially complicit" in at- tacks if they do not de- nounce violence carried out in the name of Islam. Pompeo's nomination to lead the CIA also opens the prospect of the U.S. resum- ing torture of detainees. Trump has backed harsh interrogation techniques that President Barack Obama and Congress have banned, saying the U.S. "should go tougher than waterboarding," which sim- ulates drowning. In 2014, Pompeo criticized Obama for "ending our interroga- tion program" and said in- telligence officials "are not torturers, they are patri- ots." Trump did not announce his Cabinet choices in per- son, instead releasing a statement. He has made no public appearances this week, holing up in his New York skyscraper for meet- ings. He is spending the weekend at his New Jersey golf club. Sessions and Pompeo would both require Senate confirmation before assum- ing their designated roles; Flynn would not. Members of minority groups have voiced alarm at Trump's staff appoint- ments so far, saying his choices threaten national unity and promise to turn back the clock on progress for racial, religious and sexual minorities. They say comments attributed to Trump's picks could em- bolden some Americans to lash out at members of mi- nority groups Most of Trump's nom- inees are expected to be confirmed relatively easily given the GOP majority in the Senate. Pompeo, who graduated first in his class at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, is a conservative Republican and a strong critic of Obama's nuclear deal with Iran. He has said former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden should enjoy due process and then be sen- tenced to death for taking and releasing secret docu- ments about surveillance programs in which the U.S. government collected the phone records of millions of Americans. Of Trump's new person- nel picks, Flynn will have the most direct access to the president. The national security adviser works from the West Wing and is of- ten one of the last people to meet with the president before major foreign policy decisions are made. PRESIDENT-ELECT Pushing US policy rightward, Trump taps Sessions, Pompeo CAROLYNKASTER—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. and Kellyanne Conway, campaign manager for President-elect Donald Trump, speaks to reporters at Trump Tower in New York, on Thursday. By Eric Tucker and Chad Day The Associated Press WASHINGTON The Sen- ate confirmation hearing of Sen. Jeff Sessions, Presi- dent-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, is likely to rehash racially charged allegations that derailed his efforts to be- come a federal judge and made him a symbol of black-voter intimidation under the Reagan admin- istration. The expected focus on Sessions' record on race, policing and immigration comesastheJusticeDepart- ment's Civil Rights Division has surged in prominence under the Obama admin- istration. If confirmed, Ses- sions would have broad lat- itude to define how federal prosecutorsacrossthecoun- try wield their powers and makechangestotheJustice Department's priorities. Lawmakers and ad- vocates expressed con- cern Friday that Sessions could sideline or undo the Obama administra- tion's civil rights efforts, which have included in- vestigations of police de- partments for unconstitu- tional practices and law- suits meant to protect the rights of transgender indi- viduals and black voters. "Given some of his past statements and his staunch opposition to immigra- tion reform, I am very concerned about what he would do with the Civil Rights Division at the De- partment of Justice and want to hear what he has to say," incoming Demo- cratic Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said in a statement. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Ken- tucky Republican, said he strongly supported Ses- sions, who he said "has worked tirelessly to safe- guard the public and to improve the lives of Ameri- cans from all walks of life." Sessions' peers on the Senate Judiciary Com- mittee will almost cer- tainly delve into the Ala- bama senator's past state- ments on race. The panel's top Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, hinted as much on Friday, saying the "American people de- serve to learn about Sena- tor Sessions' record." Leahy voted against Ses- sions for a district judge- ship when he last came be- fore the Judiciary Commit- tee in 1986. During that hearing, Sessions was criticized for joking in the presence of a Civil Rights Division attor- ney that the Ku Klux Klan was "OK" until he learned they smoked marijuana. He was also said to have called a black assistant U.S. attorney "boy" and the NAACP "un-American" and "communist-inspired." Gerry Hebert, a former Justice Department law- yer who worked with Ses- sions in the early 1980s, said he remembered Ses- sions making racially of- fensive remarks. Sessions, a former pros- ecutor, has said the ra- cially charged allegations against him have been painful to him and an un- fair stain on his reputa- tion. He called the matter "heartbreaking" in a 2009 CNN interview and de- scribed the allegations as "false charges." In defending his record, Sessions is likely to point to his vote to confirm Eric Holder as the country's first black attorney gen- eral and to his co-sponsor- ship of the Fair Sentencing Act, which sought to re- duce racial disparities in how black and white drug offenders are treated. ATTORNEY GENERAL PICK Hearing for Sessions li ke ly t o re vi si t ra ce i ss ue InPrintEveryTuesday-Thursday-Saturday Online:Publishes24/7 www.redbluffdailynews.com Threeadditionalonline locations at no extra cost! 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