Obama chooses new counterterror chief

President Barack Obama's choice for his next counterterrorism chief is a lawyer and former prosecutor with extensive experience in intelligence matters for the US government, the White House announced Friday.

Matthew Olsen, if confirmed by the Senate, would direct the National Counterterrorism Center, an agency born in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the US. That agency is charged with analyzing and integrating information gathered across the intelligence community and then providing assessments to the president and other senior policymakers. (AP)