WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- A new post at the Department of Homeland Security will get it up to speed with the latest intelligence about terror threats from weapons of mass destruction.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced this week that Maureen McCarthy, a career government scientific advisor, had been appointed to the new post of senior advisor for weapons of mass destruction, or WMD, intelligence programs within the department's Intelligence and Analysis Directorate.
McCarthy "will be responsible for improving the department's capability to acquire timely and actionable strategic intelligence in support of homeland security operations that counter WMD threats," said Chertoff in a statement Wednesday.
During the Clinton administration, McCarthy was science advisor to Ernest Moniz, an undersecretary at the Department of Energy serving under Secretary Bill Richardson. She was later chief science advisor to retired Gen. John Gordon, when he headed the National Nuclear Security Administration. She has served in the homeland security Science and Technology Directorate since the department's formation in March 2003.
