President Barack Obama named, on October 17th 2013, Jeh Johnson as Secretary of Homeland Security  [1], replacing Janet Napolitano who became president of the University of California.

Jeh Johnson is the grandson of sociologist Charles S. Johnson, famous for his works on segregation and for being the first black president of Fisk University.

Mr. Johnson is a long-standing member of the Democratic Party. He served as special counsel to John Kerry’s 2004 campaign, and subsequently the major New York fund raiser for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.

He pursued his legal career as a partner at the Paul & Weiss law firm, except in 1989-1991, when he left to serve as assistant United States Attorney in the South District of New-York. He was appointed General Legal Counsel of the Air Force by President Bill Clinton, 1998-2000, supervising the legal responsibilities during the bombing of Yugoslavia (under US law, since this bombing constitutes an act of aggression according to international law).

As soon as Obama took office, Jeh Johnson was named General Counsel of the Defense Department. In this capacity, he defended the interests of the federal state. 
 
– He crafted the legal doctrine of the Obama administration’s counterterrorism policies : the continuation of military commissions, and the detention without trial of prisoners in Guantánamo, etc. 
 
– Along with General Carter Ham, he carried out a study on the situation of gays within the army. Both men performed a balancing act, trying to reconcile the Pentagon’s recruitment needs with the resistance among the staff. 
 
– He was involved in the repression against the Wikileaks collaborators, and constituted the legal military file which ended in Bradley (Chelsea) Manning’s 35-year prison sentence.

Known for his aplomb, he assimilated, in a speech, the assassins of Dr. Martin Luther King (who was not only the leader of the civic movement, but also an opponent of the Vietnam war) with the opponents of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, since they all refuse to follow his teachings and be ’’good Samaritans’’ (sic).

Translation
Alizée Ville

[1] Frequently, the European Atlanticist press incorrectly translates "Homeland Security" as "Internal Security." Indeed, the powers in the hands of the secretary aren’t limited to US territory, but are exerted over the entire world. The expression ’’Homeland Security’’ was especially chosen by George W. Bush for it’s authoritarian and nationalistic connotations that deter the European allies.