Meanwhile, his national security aides kept one eye on a drama playing out half a world away, in Indonesia.

A national security aide will be sent to Cuba to investigate that situation, Administration officials added.

"Yes, they are secure," he said, sounding more definitive than many of his national security aides.

The next day his senior national security aides gathered shortly before 9 a.m. for a staff meeting.

He would advise the President-elect on appointments of national security aides.

The announcement today had been previewed for weeks in comments by the President's national security aides.

The Senate committee must determine how the breakdown occurred and who overruled national security aides.

His national security aides say there is no other way.

The President and his national security aides seemed thunderstruck at first by the idea of using military power.

It took him more than two decades to apologize for his role in the wiretapping of 17 national security aides and journalists.