U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday nominated a veteran Justice Department official as assistant Treasury secretary for terrorism finance, moving quickly to fill a key vacancy created earlier this month, Reuters reported. If confirmed by Congress, Patrick O'Brien would replace Juan Zarate, who moved to the White House as counterterrorism adviser in early June. O'Brien is currently the senior counsel in the office of the deputy attorney general, and has previously served as counsel to the director of the FBI and as principal deputy assistant attorney general for legislative affairs. The nomination takes care of the last major counterterrorism vacancy in the government. Bush has recently moved to fill a series of long-standing openings, including the heads of the State Department's counterterrorism office and the National Counterterrorism Center. The president also recently nominated Janice Gardner as the Treasury's first assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis, an anti-terrorism financing position that had been vacant since it was created over a year ago. Congress is currently considering the nomination, and she is expected to be confirmed. --SP 2259 Local Time 1959 GMT
