Veteran investigator is named CIA watchdog

David B. Buckley, currently a senior manager for Deloitte Consulting, will have to be confirmed by the Senate before he can fill the watchdog post charged with unearthing abuses inside the spy agency.

The nomination comes after months of congressional frustration with the White House about not putting forth a candidate for the job. Several candidates had previously been mentioned but none made the cut.

Because the CIA’s activities are mostly conducted in secrecy, the position is one of the most important at the agency.

The government’s inspectors general are charged with rooting out corruption, fraud and other abuses.

“It’s great to see that the administration has finally nominated someone to serve as permanent IG at CIA, but it shouldn’t have taken this long,’’ said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight. “Given the recent history of abuse and misconduct, the CIA is clearly in need of independent and aggressive oversight. We hope Buckley is up to the task.’’

John Helgerson, the agency’s previous inspector, stepped down in March 2009. His former deputy, Patricia A. Lewis, has run the office since then.

Buckley has a long history conducting investigations in the US government.

He has more than 30 years of experience working in the federal government. He has served as minority staff director of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and chief investigator for the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

He was also the special assistant for the inspector general at the Department of Defense, and special agent for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations after eight years on active duty with the Air Force.

— Associated Press

An audience in the East Room of the White House, filled with Kagan’s friends and extended family, along with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Anthony Kennedy, shouted with joy and applauded as Obama introduced “Justice Elena Kagan.’’

Kagan, 50, drops the title of US solicitor general today.

“While she may be feeling a twinge of sadness about giving up the title of general — a cool title — I think we can agree that Justice Elena Kagan has a pretty nice ring to it,’’ Obama said of his second successful appointment to the court.

The Senate on Thursday confirmed Kagan as the nation’s 112th justice. She will be the fourth woman ever to serve on the high court.

Kagan was to be sworn in today at the Supreme Court as the successor to retired Justice John Paul Stevens.

Kagan will not be formally installed as a justice until Oct. 1 in a courtroom ceremony at the start of the court’s new term.

Kagan thanked Obama for trusting her enough to nominate her to the Supreme Court and pledged to fulfill an “obligation to uphold the rights and liberties afforded by our remarkable Constitution’’ and “to provide what the inscription on the Supreme Court building promises: equal justice under law.’’

— Associated Press

Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel wrote to employees Thursday to say the Minnesota-based discount retailer was “genuinely sorry’’ over the way a $150,000 contribution to MN Forward donation played out.

Steinhafel said Target would set up a review process for future political donations.

MN Forward is running television ads supporting Republican Tom Emmer, an outspoken conservative opposed to same-sex marriage and other gay rights initiatives that have come before Minnesota’s Legislature.

Steinhafel said the contribution from the corporate treasury to a political effort, which until this year wasn’t allowed, was designed to support Emmer’s stance on economic issues.

Ads run by the group were focused on budget policy, not social issues.

— Associated Press