ON CNN: Fran Townsend, Homeland Security Advisor, the Next CIA Director?

[leftchick]

That is what wolfie said he heard was the first name thrown out. omg! :wow:



http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?id=1521846767-2793

Positions that Fran Townsend has held:
Deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism

Fran Townsend actively participated in the following events:

August 2000: Vulgar Betrayal Investigation Shut Down Frances Fragos Townsend.
Vulgar Betrayal, the most significant US government investigation into terrorist financing before 9/11, shuts down. FBI agent Robert Wright launched the investigation in 1996 (see 1996) and was removed from the investigation in late 1999 (see August 3, 1999). Apparently the investigation accomplished little after Wright’s departure. A March 2000 affidavit named Yassin al-Qadi as a source of terrorist funds in Chicago, but no charges are brought against him. Mark Flessner, an assistant US attorney assigned to Vulgar Betrayal in 1996, later will recall, “Vulgar Betrayal was a case where the FBI’s intelligence agents would not cooperate with the criminal agents trying to put these guys in jail. They refused to let us arrest them. They only wanted to watch them conduct their business.” He will also claim that Frances Fragos Townsend, a Justice Department official working a variety of posts, helps close down the investigation. He will say Townsend did not share information but “deliberately obstructed it. And I found that very disconcerting.” He will claim that she completely supports FBI intelligence agents and refuses to share their information with the Vulgar Betrayal investigation. A federal grand jury was impaneled in 1996 to support Vulgar Betrayal, but without the information from FBI intelligence, Flessner did not have enough evidence to return indictments. “I couldn’t even get permission to do the basic things you do, such as collecting phone numbers from their targets’ incoming and outgoing calls, and addresses from their mail.” With the shut down of the investigation in 2000, Flessner will resign from the Justice Department in frustration. After 9/11, Townsend will be appointed President Bush’s Homeland Security Adviser and counterterrorism director for the National Security Council.

[rodeodance]

1. tell me this is a joke/

[Jigarotta]

3. eeek, who is she?

what a news friday, been busy all day, have catching up to do here. ;)

[meganmonkey]

2. Is that a question or a statement?

Either way, here's her 'official' bio:

Ms. Frances Fragos Townsend
Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism


Ms. Frances Fragos Townsend was appointed Homeland Security Advisor by the President on May 28th, 2004. Ms. Townsend chairs the Homeland Security Council and reports to the President on United States Homeland Security policy and Combating Terrorism matters. She previously served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism.

Ms. Townsend came to the White House from the U. S. Coast Guard, where she had served as Assistant Commandant for Intelligence. Prior to that, Ms. Townsend spent 13 years at the U. S. Department of Justice in a variety of senior positions, her last assignment as Counsel to the Attorney General for Intelligence Policy. Ms. Townsend began her prosecutorial career in 1985, serving as an Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn, New York.

In 1988, she joined the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York where she focused on international organized crime and white-collar crime cases. In 1991, she worked in the Office of the Attorney General to assist in establishing the newly created Office of International Programs, the predecessor to the Executive Office for National Security. In December 1993, she joined the Criminal Division where she served as Chief of Staff to the Assistant Attorney General and played a critical part in establishing the Division.s international training and rule of law programs.

From November of 1995 to November of 1997, Ms. Townsend was Director of the Office of International Affairs in the Criminal Division, which serves as the U. S. Central Authority for extradition and mutual legal assistance, and works with the Department of State in the negotiation of international law enforcement treaties. In November of 1997, Ms. Townsend was appointed as Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, where she oversaw international law enforcement and training matters in the Criminal Division, and acted as an advisor to the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General on international law enforcement policy.

In March of 1998, Ms. Townsend was appointed Counsel for Intelligence Policy, managing matters related to national security policy and operations for the Department of Justice. In this capacity she headed the office of Intelligence Policy and Review, an office that provides legal advice and recommendations to the Attorney General and the Department of Justice regarding national security matters, reviews executive orders, directives and procedures relating to the intelligence community, and approves certain intelligence-gathering activities, especially those matters related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

After three years of study, Ms. Townsend graduated cum laude from the American University in 1982 where she received a B.A. in Political Science and a B.S. in Psychology. Ms. Townsend received her J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1984. In 1986, she attended the Institute on International and Comparative Law in London, England.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/townsend-bio.html

[MercutioATC]

4. Hey, at least she didn't run a show horse association...

...this is a big step for Bush.

[leftchick]

5. thanks , I added a little more from her dark side

they suggested her name is been the first to come out as a replacement.

[meganmonkey]

16. Splendid!

Actually, whomever they pick would equally splendid, I suppose, the Bushco clan are all so full of integrity and that Great American Spirit!

But this one's not from Texas, so that isn't a good sign ;)

[Cooley Hurd]

7. Another lipless repug...

What IS it about repugs and their lack of lips?:shrug:

[haab]

18. re-pugs snarl repeatedly....

It tend to drive their lips inwards...

[spanone]

11. It was speculation on CNN....or that's where I heard it.

[Avalux]

6. The CIA will eat her alive.

:popcorn:

[leftchick]

8. ya mon!

:popcorn:

Damn I am full of popcorn today!

[Avalux]

10. I'm on the hard stuff now -

movie theater!!! :popcorn:

[Disturbed]

13. Any female CIA Chiefs in History?

I don't think so. I googled and couldn't find any. This would be a first.

She is a RW shithead.

[leftchick]

15. total RW shithead with a political appointment

she has no credentials to be a CIA head. OMG heads would roll if she was the choice.

[paparush]

9. Another Graduate of the Katherine Harris School of Beauty

Sorry, I know that was tastless and petty.

[babylonsister]

12. Well, she's done a bang-up job at DHS, so why not? The Peter

Principle in action! :crazy:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. because she looks the part. Bourne Supremacy.

[Sinti]

17. Looks like another case of promoting incompetence

Cooperative Research info on her:
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?id=1521846767-2793

[Chiyo-chichi]

19. Some WaPo drivel on her:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/26/AR2005082601511.html

Just a little over two years ago, she had never met Bush and was viewed with suspicion by the inner circle of a tribalistic White House that does not easily accept outsiders. But the hard-charging Townsend has parlayed a succession of powerful patrons into one of the government's most important jobs. Along the way, in a city where partisan lines are rarely bridged, she has transformed herself from confidante of then-Attorney General Janet Reno to a confidante of George W. Bush.

In many ways, Townsend is the perfect match for a leader who sees the battle with al Qaeda as a black-and-white struggle against radical outlaws. At a time when experts in and out of government complain that the White House is more focused on killing and capturing Osama bin Laden's inner circle than the broader task of countering a rapidly metastasizing global jihad movement, Townsend offers Bush a "tactical, one-at-a-time prosecutor, 'get the bad guys' approach," said a former senior official who worked closely with her.

[Chiyo-chichi]

20. from Government Executive magazine

http://www.govexec.com/features/0204hs/0204HS_exec20.htm

When Townsend took the NSC job, some Republicans voiced concern that she was a Democrat and potential political infiltrator. She laughs it off: "I've been a registered Republican voter since the age of 18."

[napi21]

21. Somewhere I read that the job was offered to Townsend and the

answer was NO! Sorry, it was in an email from one of the newsy websites, but I don't recall which one.

[magellan]

22. Rumor is she's already been approached and turned it down

And more...

War and Piece
I hear that when Porter Goss went to meet with Negroponte today, he didn't know he was going to be leaving the job. And that it would have been the President's decision, not Negroponte's. And that this may have to do with how Goss handled a management issue concerning Foggo. And perhaps with a tie in to HIPSI.

And I hear that Fran Townsend has already been approached about taking Goss's job -- and turned it down.

What's HIPSI?