Gates staying on as defense chief

By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has agreed to stay on at the Pentagon well into next year, providing some continuity as the nation fights two wars and putting a Republican face on President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet, according to two officials with direct knowledge of the transition team's deliberations.

The announcement that President Bush's Pentagon chief will keep his job is slated for next week when Obama plans to roll out his national security team -- which is also expected to include Senator Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, the officials said.

One aide to a top Pentagon official described the decision as "about 85 percent a done deal." He said several key issues are still being finalized, including how long Gates will stay, along with identifying which of Gates' top aides will stay on as well and how many Obama defense advisers will come to work for him.

Gates, the aide said, has expressed a desire to stay on for at least a year to ensure he is not viewed as a "lame duck" and has sufficient standing in the new administration to implement the new president's policies.

At the same time, "There are staffing complications that have to be worked out," according to the aide, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak publicly. "There is a whole lot of Democrats who waiting to take on Pentagon jobs."

The possibility of Obama retaining Gates, who replaced Donald H. Rumsfeld in December 2006, was first discussed during the presidential campaign when it was raised by Richard J. Danzig, a top Obama defense adviser and former Navy secretary who has also been mentioned as a possible Pentagon boss or number two.

Gates, a registered independent, is widely respected by both parties. Although he opposed increasing US troops in Iraq when he was nominated by President Bush, he nonetheless carried out the so-called "surge" strategy that is credited with helping improve the security situation in the country. Over the objections of members of Bush's war cabinet, Gates has also advocated engaging Iran diplomatically.

He made headlines earlier this year when he delivered a speech at Kansas State University -- which aides said he wrote personally -- advocating for strengthening America's "soft power," including diplomacy and economic influence, and warning that the United States's increasing reliance on military power to achieve its objectives is self-defeating.

And like Obama, Gates believes the United States must turn its attention from the war in Iraq to a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.

Speaking before NATO defense ministers in Toronto over the weekend, Gates indicated that the United States will be boosting its military presence in Afghanistan above and beyond current plans to expand the force.

"We are clearly going to be putting more troops in," he said.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting that John Brennan, Obama's top adviser on intelligence, took his name out of the running today for any intelligence position in the new administration.

Brennan wrote in a letter to Obama that he did not want to be a distraction. His potential appointment as CIA director has provoked protests from liberals who associate him with the Bush administration's interrogation, detention, and rendition policies.