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After Comments, U.S. Terror Chief Resigns Citing Health Reasons
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Three days after Americans saw the Bush administration's counterterrorism chief say the Iraq war has likely not made the United States safer from terrorism, the official announced his resignation, citing health reasons.
In an e-mail sent to his staff Wednesday afternoon, Adm. Scott Redd, head of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), said he was stepping down to "take care of some long-delayed surgery that I can no longer neglect."
The center serves as an all-source intelligence operation, synthesizing information from the CIA, the Pentagon, the FBI and elsewhere and analyzing the threat of terrorism to the United States.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
A spokesman said that Redd, 63, needed to have both of his knees replaced, which would require a long period of rehabilitation during which he could not work.
On Monday, NBC News broadcast an interview with Redd in which he said that the U.S. was "probably" not safer from terrorism today than it was before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In the longer term, he said, "We'll wait and see."
Redd's comment apparently contradicted an assertion made by President Bush's top counterterrorism adviser, Fran Townsend, that the terrorist threat "would have been worse" if the United States had not invaded Iraq.
NCTC spokesman Carl Kropf said Redd's decision to leave was "absolutely not" related to his comments, and that he had not been pressured in any way to step down.
No replacement has been named. When Redd leaves on Nov. 10, he will be temporarily replaced by his deputy until a new director is confirmed, Kropf said.
In a statement released this afternoon, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell thanked Redd for his service. "I know his decision to step down was difficult," McConnell said. A spokesman for his office said there was "no pressure whatsoever" on Redd to resign.
This post has been updated.
Do you have a tip for Brian Ross and the Investigative Team?
October 17, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (86)
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Capped at the knees for being right on the mark.
Posted by: Michael Keenan | Oct 17, 2007 4:39:04 PM
How long before he finds the courage to tell the truth, that he was forced to resign, that he had concerns all along, blah, blah, blah...
Posted by: unpoetaloco | Oct 17, 2007 4:41:18 PM
why does the BUsh admin care so much when someone like him says the obvious. We already know!! honestly, guys, We already know that invading Iraq did nothing for us. What makes you think we haven't figured all that out already???? and for the good of our future and all our other would-be-frivolous wars, isn't it just better we all learn from this fiasco to NEVER invade unless it is REALLY For our own good???? why deprive us of at least getting a learning experience out of this if nothing else at all.
Posted by: Dennis Manning | Oct 17, 2007 4:48:25 PM
Looks like another one bites the dust. Good for him for telling the truth. No one
believes our corrupt President.
Posted by: Steve | Oct 17, 2007 5:07:43 PM
I just passed through customs in Brazil to Miami. What a laugh. I set off the machines, again, with my artificial hip, requiring seven minutes of straight-faced public bodily pat-down (again). I am a Brit background American Grandmother of almost 70 with my other hip needing replacement so I am limping. Do you think at least you could crack a smile and have a few manners while putting us old folks through this? Do folks in the states realize how mean and nasty we look to people from other countries as we go through this charade? Doing your job does NOT mean you can't be pleasant and welcoming to people who get caught in this trap! Before this is done, we won't have a friend left in the world and deservedly so. Does it matter if we end up being safe from the jihadists if we are looked on as piranas by our friends and neighbors?
Posted by: Barbara | Oct 17, 2007 5:08:19 PM
The spokesman who said Redd's resignation was not related to his comments gets today's "Combustible Trousers Award." So much for all those people who think Dana Perino has that award permanently locked up.
Posted by: Jason Shapiro | Oct 17, 2007 5:40:18 PM
I bet he's thinking "witness protection plan" more than "needed surgery". I do agree with him...so now I guess I'll have to resign.
Posted by: Doug | Oct 17, 2007 5:51:46 PM
With no "Terror Chief" maybe we won't be terrorized by Washington DC anymore. Thank Heaven "Christian" Cheney and Bush didn't win their torture arguments. By now they'd be torturing Americans who speak against them, their insane, wars, besides seizing our property for theirs and friends bank accounts.
Interesting thing is, what mess will they create next, to terrorize us with?
Posted by: anonymous99 | Oct 17, 2007 5:52:35 PM
You guys posting are very funny
and truthful I love it! You guys
have covered the whole scope.
This bush crime family is beyond
the pale. How in the world could
this animal/monster last two terms,
knowing that the electronic voting
machines are owned by the Private
Sector without oversight from the
GAO.
Are you okay with a Fascist run
Gov't? I say you are if youre not
screaming for IMPEACHMENT and
conviction! We have the evidence!!!
Posted by: Reggie , Anaheim, Ca. | Oct 17, 2007 5:56:58 PM
Of course he's being punished for his candor. He can add his name to the long list-Bush doesn't let anyone tell the truth and get away with it- not on his watch.
How do I know this? I'm a military family member who spoke out against Bushco-repeatedly. Since that time, I have been audited by the IRS (for a W-2 and mortgage deduction) got tax bills from cities I never lived in, had my drivers license canceled by a state I've never been to, etc.
Posted by: Captain Crunch | Oct 17, 2007 6:02:05 PM
Another Bushie bites the dust, this one for telling the truth.
Posted by: anonymouse | Oct 17, 2007 6:15:35 PM
Guess we should be lucky they didn't go with their first option. Duck hunting with Cheney.
Posted by: smass | Oct 17, 2007 6:25:21 PM
Be well, sir. Thank you for speaking truth to power. It takes nerve in these days of fascism, but it's important if we are to save what's left of our Constitution.
Posted by: Kathleen | Oct 17, 2007 7:28:51 PM
Geeez....and you neo-cons said you felt safer under Bush.????
Posted by: kenny | Oct 17, 2007 7:50:33 PM
Knee surgery, huh?
Fran Townsend - the only thing she could possibly know about terrorism is how to spell it. Yes, let's hire the bimbo and allow her statement to override the Admiral's. What could he possibly know?
He was fired, plain and simple. They all are when they speak the truth in public.
Posted by: pc | Oct 17, 2007 8:03:22 PM
"TRUTH IS THE ENEMY": The guiding principles of the Bush Jr administration. George Orwell was dead-on right.
Posted by: wilder5121 | Oct 17, 2007 10:10:16 PM
Not to play the cynic here, but how do we know he wasn't planning on retiring, and made this announcement because he was already on his way out? That makes this move a little less courageous.
I'm perfectly willing to see if he got booted, but we seem awfully quick to give a guy the benefit of the doubt without knowing the true back story; this is a man who worked in an administration overrun with cronyism, corruption and deeply warped pathology.
Posted by: jvill | Oct 17, 2007 10:43:38 PM
Gee I guess you could say they cut him off at the knees....so to speak!
Posted by: stephen | Oct 17, 2007 10:55:15 PM
Something doesn't ring quite right.
He has a medical problem requiring surgery that he said he can no longer neglect....yet he's not retiring FOR A MONTH?
Well, at least he's original...he didn't say he was leaving to spend more time with his family!
Posted by: Pat | Oct 18, 2007 12:44:25 AM
The point of this BS story is that you are "not safer from terrorism today".
That's all folks.
He isn't saying anything we don't know. He is going by the script. Don't you get it yet? There is no war on "terror".
This is a war OF terror being conducted by the US media and Pentagon Productions, Inc.
Posted by: tim osman | Oct 18, 2007 6:39:13 AM
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