U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has moved to fill some of the top positions in his government by selecting a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director, a national security adviser, and an attorney general.
Trump said in a statement he had chosen Representative Mike Pompeo (Republican-Kansas) to be CIA director, retired General Michael Flynn for the post of national security adviser, and Senator Jeff Sessions (Republican-Alabama) as the country's top prosecutor.
Pompeo and Sessions require confirmation by a majority vote in the Senate; Flynn does not.
Trump said Pompeo will be a "brilliant and unrelenting leader" as chief of the CIA.
Pompeo is a member of the Republican Party's conservative wing, the Tea Party, having been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010.
He graduated top of his class from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and graduated from Harvard Law School before spending five years in the army.
Pompeo, 52, has been critical of the deal that the United States and five other world powers signed with Tehran to curb Iran's controversial nuclear program.
He said on November 15, after the passage of a bill extending sanctions on Iranian weapons programs, that he voted for the legislation to keep "Americans safe" and to stand "against Iranian aggression."
Trump said he was happy to have Flynn by his side to "defeat radical Islamic terrorism."
Flynn, 57, served as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014, a position he was nominated for by President Barack Obama.
He served in the military from 1981 to 2014, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, before retiring with the rank of lieutenant general.
Flynn graduated from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College as well as the Naval War College.
He says he considers radical Islam the greatest threat to global stability and has been critical of the Obama administration's policies in fighting the Islamic State (IS) group.
Flynn has said Washington could work with Russia to fight IS and other Islamic extremists. His appearance at a dinner in Moscow -- sitting next to President Vladimir Putin -- honoring the state television station RT alarmed many who noted his previous accommodating views of Russia's role in Ukraine.
Mike Flynn's appearance (left) at a dinner in Moscow -- sitting next to President Vladimir Putin (right) -- honoring the state television station RT alarmed many who noted his previous accommodating views of Russia's role in Ukraine.
Trump said Sessions, his pick for attorney general, was "greatly admired by legal scholars" and possesses a "world-class legal mind."
Sessions, 69, has been a senator since 1996, running for the seat after serving as attorney general of his home state of Alabama.
One of the most conservative members of the Senate, Sessions upholds a tough line against illegal immigrants and on border security.
He failed to gain a federal judgeship in 1986 after allegations he had made racist comments to African-Americans while attorney general.
Sessions was the first U.S. senator to pledge his support to Trump as a Republican candidate for president and was considered by Trump as a vice-presidential candidate.
He served in the army reserve before getting his law degree from the University of Alabama.