CNN's Jennifer Bixler, John Bonifield, William Hudson and Joe Sterling contributed to this report.

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Some alternate-history novels have envisioned a separate Texas, notably 1990's "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, which explores what might have happened to the world had computers been perfected in Britain a century earlier.

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Yesterday, I nominated William Webster, a man of sterling reputation, to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

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