[NYTr] Another one bites the dust: Bush Homeland Security Adviser Resigns

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP - Nov 19, 2007
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH_TERRORISM_ADVISER?SITE=CALAK&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Bush Homeland Security Adviser Resigns

By BEN FELLER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Fran Townsend, the leading White House-based
terrorism adviser who gave public updates on the extent of the threat
to U.S. security, is stepping down after 4 1/2 years.

President Bush said in a statement Monday morning that Townsend, 45,
"has ably guided the Homeland Security Council. She has played an
integral role in the formation of the key strategies and policies my
administration has used to combat terror and protect Americans."

Her departure continues an exodus of key Bush aides and confidants,
with his two-term presidency in the final 15 months. Top aide Karl
Rove, along with press secretary Tony Snow, Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and senior presidential
adviser Dan Bartlett, have already left.

In her handwritten resignation letter to Bush, Townsend wrote, "It is
with a profound sense of gratitude that I have decided to take a
respite from public service." White House press secretary Dana Perino
said Towsend struggled with the decision, talking about it with the
president for months.

In an interview, Townsend said she hates to leave when figures like
Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, remain
at large. "Do I wish that I was going to be standing here when they are
captured or killed? Absolutely. But I have no doubt that we will
ultimately be successful," she said.

Townsend decided it was time to take a break from government work -
only a break, not an end, she insisted - and look for a job in the
private sector.

She hopes to work in global risk management for a large bank or
financial services company. Townsend also said she has now changed her
mind and would consider running for public office someday. In the past,
she prosecuted violent crimes, narcotics offenses, Mafia cases and
white-collar fraud as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y.
and as an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan.

For someone who at one point had figured in speculation as to who would
head the then-new Department of Homeland Security or assume the newly
created post of national intelligence director, she became a familiar
face for the administration, often appearing on morning news and Sunday
interview shows to present Bush's case.

When Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold called on Bush to refrain from using
the phrase "Islamic fascists" on grounds it was offensive to Muslims,
Townsend explained the president's use of the phrase.

"Regardless of what label you pin on it, it is this form of radical
extremism that really wants to deny people freedom and impose a
totalitarian vision of society on everyone," she said at a news
conference.

During the devastating wildfires in California, she said the federal
effort to help was going "exactly the way it should be" and assured
Californians that Washington's performance would be "better and faster"
than after Hurricane Katrina's strike against the Gulf Coast states in
2005.

She said that the revamping of federal emergency response after
Katrina, which she led, has resulted in a FEMA that "is better and
stronger today" and a more aggressive mind-set among federal officials
about not waiting to be asked for help. However, Townsend said, "We
still have work to do."

There was no word on a successor for Townsend. Perino said officials
intended to act "relatively soon," because Bush wants some overlap
between Townsend and her replacement before she leaves just after the
first of the year. Townsend said she has overcome persistent doubts and
believes that the White House must continue to have a Homeland Security
Council despite the existence now of a separate Homeland Security
Department.

"There's not enough hours in the day for the national security adviser"
to do all that the job entails and all the coordinating among many
agencies can't be done from outside the White House, Townsend said.

Bush has seen a substantial revamping of the lineup of players on the
team he brought to Washington as the just-elected president in a
disputed election with Democrat Al Gore in 2000.

He saw longtime friend, aide and confidant Gonzales resigned earlier
this fall in the face of a convulsive uproar on Capitol Hill over the
dismissals of a slew of federal prosecutors and in connection with the
administration's warrantless wiretap program. And Rumsfeld resigned
just after the time of the 2006 elections in which Democrats, harping
on a get-out-of-Iraq theme, regained control of Congress.

Perino shrugged off the notion that a loss of top talent will hurt
Bush's last months in office, noting the recent recruitment of
experienced hands such as new Attorney General Michael Mukasey and
White House counselor Ed Gillespie.

© 2007 The Associated Press.