POLITICS | Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:15pm EDT

Former CIA chief who urged Iraq war signs on as Trump adviser

By Jonathan Landay | WASHINGTON

Former CIA Director James Woolsey, a vocal advocate of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq who promoted allegations that Saddam Hussein harbored illegal weapons, will serve as a senior national security adviser to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the campaign announced on Monday.

Woolsey’s hiring contrasted with Trump’s repeated assertions that he was a stalwart opponent of the invasion, although he initially supported it.

In the announcement, Woolsey said he supports Trump’s plan to expand the U.S. military, which calls for ending Pentagon budget caps and spending billions of dollars for additional troops, ships and aircraft.

"Mr. Trump’s commitment to reversing the harmful defense budget cuts signed into law by the current administration, while acknowledging the need for debt reduction, is an essential step toward reinstating the United States’ primacy in the conventional and digital battlespace," Woolsey said.

Woolsey, who served for two years as CIA chief under then-President Bill Clinton, also criticized the presence of classified information in emails stored on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s private server.

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