The Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday approved the nomination of Charles Stimson to be General Counsel of the Department of the Navy, the Navy’s top lawyer.
While serving at the Pentagon in a position that placed him charge of military detainees in 2007, Stimson made controversial remarks expressing his dismay about U.S. law firms representing detainees in Guantanamo Bay, which led to Stimson’s resignation.
On Wednesday, Stimson said that the remarks were a “boneheaded statement” and “an emotional response generated by the loss of my 295 colleagues who were … killed on 9/11 at the World Trade Center.”
The committee ended up approving him in a voice vote, a sign that his statement was not controversial among Republicans or Democrats.
The committee also approved 3,879 military nominations in the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, including Gen. Paul J. Selva, USAF, to be reappointed as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Other nominees approved by the committee included David J. Trachtenberg to be principal deputy undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Owen O. West to be assistant secretary of defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict and Ryan D. McCarthy to be undersecretary of the Army.
All the nominations now move to the Senate floor for confirmation by the full upper chamber.
