Bush names counter-terror nominee

WASHINGTON, June 10 (UPI) -- U.S. President Bush has tapped retired Navy Vice Adm. John Scott Redd to head the new National Counterterrorism Center, the White House said Friday.

Redd commanded the Fifth Fleet in the Gulf in the mid-1990s. In retirement, he served as executive director of the Silberman-Robb presidential commission on intelligence and was also deputy administrator of the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

Redd, 60, will replace John O. Brennan, the center's interim chief, if confirmed by the Senate.

The counter-terrorism center was established as part of the overhaul of the U.S. intelligence community following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people.