It should come as little surprise that a president without an ounce of democracy in soul should name as his chief of staff a general who formerly abused prisoners at Gitmo and whose training was based not on constitutional leadership but on unquestioned military authority. John Kelly is perhaps the strongest sign that Donald Trump has no interest in a democratic republic but wants to run the country as much like a dictator as Americans will permit.
Center for Consttutional Rights, January 2017 - General Kelly’s aggressive oversight of the illegal military prison at Guantánamo Bay disqualifies him to head the Department of Homeland Security. Presiding over a population of detainees not charged or convicted of crimes, over whom he had maximum custodial control, Kelly treated them with brutality. His response to the detainees’ peaceful hunger strike in 2013 was punitive force-feeding, solitary confinement, and rubber bullets. Furthermore, he sabotaged efforts by the Obama administration to resettle detainees, consistently undermining the will of his commander in chief. His temperament and actions make him unfit to lead an agency that currently holds tens of thousands of immigrants, including many fleeing violence and many in long-term indefinite detention.
Kelly’s recent vow to end “political correctness” in U.S. national security policy is a thinly veiled endorsement of policies and practices that are illegal and immoral, including torture and racial and religious profiling.
Common Dreams, Janaruy 2017 - President-elect Donald Trump's selection to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), former Marine General John Kelly, should be "disqualified" from the post due to his "brutal" treatment of detainees at the Guantánamo Bay Detention Center, attorneys warned ahead of Kelly's Senate confirmation hearing.
However, for a position charged with carrying out the orders of a president who wants to wall-off a country, target Muslims, as well as bring back waterboarding —and "worse"—the former general who oversaw the controversial military prison might be just what Trump is looking for.
As former head of U.S. Southern Command, Kelly was responsible for all U.S. military activities in South and Central America, including Guantánamo.
... While overseeing U.S. Southern Command, Kelly once said the "near collapse of societies in the [southern] hemisphere" and the "associated drug and [undocumented immigrant] flow" are an "existential" threat to the United States.
What's more, upon his nomination, Kelly said he would "put a stop to political correctness that for too long has dictated our approach to national security," which many interpreted as a troubling indication of how he would run DHS. The department has a budget of more than $40 billion and employs over 240,000 people across 23 federal agencies.
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