Raj De US Homeland Security advisor

Attorney Raj De has been appointed to the board of advisors of the United States Department of Homeland Security and Defense Business Council to which he is expected to `bring an impressive range of public and private sector legal and policy experience.'

The Council is a non-profit, non-partisan organisation established to promote the role of industry `in achieving the vision and mission for homeland security in the United States and globally.'

De is an attorney at the Washington, DC, office of the international law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe and Maw.

It is composed of senior executives from its member companies -- the most well-known and experienced companies in the homeland security industry - and seeks `to ensure that the private sector is aligned with homeland security priorities at the federal, state and local levels.'

De told Rediff India Abroad he was honoured and humbled by the Council's statement that had said that his `impressive qualifications and unique professional background' had made him 'an ideal selection' for its board of advisors, particularly since he would be among the youngest to serve on this board, otherwise largely composed of several former high-level

executive and legislative branch officials.

An alumnus of Harvard College from where he received his bachelor's degree and the Harvard Law School, De was a trial attorney at the Department of Justice.

He then served as counsel to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, otherwise known as the 9/11 Commission. He most recently was counsel to the Special Bipartisan Staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, where he was the lead drafter of intelligence reform legislation creating a new Director of National Intelligence and National Counter-terrorism Centre.

He is the only child of Dr Nirmal De and the late Dr Rekha De, both physicians, who migrated to the United States more than three decades ago from their native Kolkata.