President Barack Obama will combine the staffs of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, with all 240 employees now reporting to national security adviser James Jones. The move aims to reduce overlapping bureaucracies, though it stops short of the full merger recommended by the 9/11 Commission. Obama will preserve the HSC, which oversees issues such as terrorism, pandemics and weapons of mass destruction. “The idea that somehow counterterrorism is a homeland security issue doesn’t make sense when you recognize the fact that terror around the world doesn’t recognize borders,” Jones told reporters on Wednesday. (Source)