President Bush named former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik to replace Ridge at Homeland Security. Kerik originally gained national attention as then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's chief law-enforcement lieutenant in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Bush had earlier sent Kerik to Iraq to work on rebuilding that nation's police forces. "In four and a half months in Iraq," writes Deborah Orin of the New York Post, "Kerik built from scratch a force of 40,000 cops, 450 police cars and 35 new police stations in Baghdad alone." She notes that he "often dined out in Baghdad despite the dangers." His job now will be to shut down the borders that Ridge left open.
