Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis wants to fill the most senior posts at the Defense Department with people sympathetic to Islamists – or, almost as bad, people sympathetic to Barack Obama. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis wants to tap the former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, as his undersecretary of defense for policy, but the Pentagon chief is running into resistance from White House officials, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation. As ambassador to Egypt between 2011 and 2013, Patterson worked closely with former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and his Islamist government. She came under fire for cultivating too close a relationship with the regime and for discouraging protests against it – and White House officials are voicing concerns about those decisions now. For Mattis's part, he has "put her name forward and he doesn't quite understand why people have an objection," the person said. How can he...(Read Full Post)