SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has joined the Hoover Institution at Stanford University as a visiting fellow and will serve on a task force focused on issues pertaining to ideology and terror, the California think tank said on Friday.

Rumsfeld was one of the top Bush administration officials involved in responding to the Sept. 11 attacks and subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Democrats critical of the Republican administration and some former high-ranking military officers charged his leadership of the Pentagon contributed to a botched occupation of Iraq. He resigned as secretary of defense in November 2006.

Rumsfeld's experience will assist the Hoover Institution's research into terrorism, said institute director John Raisian.

"I have asked Don to join the distinguished group of scholars that will pursue new insights on the direction of thinking that the United States might consider going forward," said Raisian.

Rumsfeld, a former congressional representative, NATO ambassador and White House chief of staff for President Gerald Ford, has served on the conservative Hoover Institution's board of overseers.

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