WASHINGTON — Leery of further shaking up his national-security team, President Barack Obama said Thursday that he wants to stick with FBI Director Robert Mueller, the sturdy face of the bureau whose term has encompassed the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and the killing of its mastermind, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Key lawmakers indicated support for Obama’s surprise decision. Keeping Mueller on the job would require an act of Congress because the law allows an FBI director to serve only 10 years, and Mueller’s term is up Sept. 4.
Obama said he wants Mueller to remain for two more years, which would keep him in place well after the next presidential election, into September 2013.
Mueller is the longest-serving FBI chief since J. Edgar Hoover, whose checkered 48-year term ended with his death in 1972 and led Congress to put the term limit in place.
Obama said the exemption for Mueller was needed for continuity and “for the sake of our nation’s safety and security.”
Obama already is in the midst of a reshuffling of his national-security team, moving CIA Director Leon Panetta to Pentagon chief and Gen. David Petraeus to leader of the spy agency. The changes await Senate confirmation at a time of renewed global attention to the threat of terrorism.
Obama had been looking for a successor for Mueller since the start of the year. Other likely names surfaced. But White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to say whether the president had met with candidates.
The Republican House Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, backed Obama’s move on the same grounds of “continuity for our intelligence community.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa called the 10-year term limit on an FBI chief’s service “an important safeguard against improper political influence and abuses of the past.” Still, he added: “We live in extraordinary times.”
Robert Mueller
The former Marine arrived at the FBI after a long career in law enforcement. He was appointed director of the FBI by Republican President George W. Bush and began a week before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. Mueller, 66, is known for transforming the crime-fighting agency into a front line of defense against terrorism.
