Matthew Olsen

Nominee, head of National Counterterrorism Center (since July 2011); National Security Agency (NSA) general counsel

(Department of Justice)

Why He Matters

Olsen is one of the most powerful attorneys in the federal governmen as the general counsel for the ultra-secrative National Security Agency, a post which has been empty since the retirement of a career NSA lawyer in late 2009.

In July, 2011, President Obama nominated Olsen to replace Michael Leiter as head of the National Counterterrorism Center, the nation's top counterterrorism official.

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Corrections?

Background

At a Glance

Career History: Associate Deputy Attorney General (March-June 2010); Executive Director of the Guantanamo Review Task Force (Feb. 2009-Jan. 2010); Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Natural Security Division (2006-2009)
Alma Mater: University of Virginia, B.A., Harvard University Law School, J.D.

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Path to Power

Olsen received his B.A. from the University of Virginia, and went on to attend Harvard Law School, where he was an executive editor of the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review and graduated cum laude.

After graduation, Olsen clerked for Norma Holloway Johnson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and then went into private practice at D.C.-based firm Arnold & Porter.

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The Issues

Olsen has spent the better part of his professional career working on national security issues. As a federal prosecutor, he prosecuted major terrorism and espionage cases. He was moved to DOJ headquarters in 2006 to help found the National Security Division, and subsequently worked with members of intelligence and other federal agencies as executive director of President Obama's Guantanamo Review Task Force.

Closing Guantanamo

When President Obama created the Guantanamo Review Task Force, a group of 60 lawyers, analysts and intelligence agents charged with determining the fate of Guantanamo's detainees, the task force's conclusions were intended to be part of the plan to close the detention center, a goal that has since quietly faded from the White House agenda.

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As released detainees trickled out in 2009, Olsen praised the cooperation of foreign nations in relocation efforts. Following the transfer of nine detainees in one week in June 2009, Olsen praised the willingness of foreign governments "to assist in the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility."

The task force completed it's work in January 2010 and its complete findings were released in May 2010. Of the 240 detainees up for review, the task force approved 126 for transfer to other countries, and 44 were recommended for trial either in federal court or military commissions.

In addition to 30 Yemeni detainees to be held because of the instability of their country, 48 men were recommended kept in detention because they were ruled too dangerous for release yet unprosecutable, either because a trial would compromise intelligence-gathering measures, or because evidence was obtained using force. This decision angered civil-liberties groups and made the closing of Guantanamo seem an increasingly distant goal.

Electronic Surveillance

One of Olsen's responsibilities under the George W. Bush administration was to oversee the enactment of new legal procedures governing the administration's electronic-surveillance program once such surveillance activities became became public. Among other things, he represented federal agencies asking for authorization from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to wiretap American citizens.

Along with three other government attorneys, Olsen penned a response to the American Civil Liberties Union attempts to get the FISC to release records related to the warrantless wiretapping program. Denying the ACLU requests, the document read, "there is no tradition of public access to the proceedings of the FISC, regardless of whether they result in opinions of broad legal significance."

The NSA, Olsen's new institutional home, engages in electronic surveillance on a global scale, using some of the world's most powerful computer systems to listen in on conversations around the world from its sprawling complex in Fort Meade, Md.

The Network

Having spent his entire career in Washington, Olsen has a strong network in the Justice Department. He also has strong ties to the intelligence community, as evidenced by his recent appointment to the NSA.

While serving as executive director of the Guantanamo Review Task Force, Olsen also worked with senior members of the Defense and State Departments, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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