Days After Claiming U.S. Less Safe Due To Iraq War, Counterterrorism Chief Suddenly Resigns
Days After Claiming U.S. Less Safe Due To Iraq War, Counterterrorism Chief Suddenly Resigns
Retired Vice Admiral Scott Redd, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told NBC News this weekend that the U.S. is not “tactically” safer as a result of the Iraq war. That message defied the official line from White House counterterrorism adviser Fran Townsend, who said the “threat level would have been worse” had we not attacked Iraq.
Redd also acknowledged that, over the short term, the Iraq war has created a “giant recruiting tool” for terrorists. Watch it:
Today, Redd announced his sudden resignation from the NTC. The AP reports:
Retired Vice Adm. John Scott Redd said he is stepping down next month to have a long-delayed surgery and spend more time with his five grandchildren and the rest of his family. His spokesman, Carl Kropf, said Redd needs to have both knees replaced. The surgery will require follow-up rehabilitation and would have meant a prolonged absence from the center.
In a note to employees, Redd “provided an upbeat assessment of the administration’s fight against terrorism,” which appeared to contradict his statements made to NBC just a few days earlier. “I believe that as a country we are better prepared today than at any time in our history to wage this war,” he said in his note, neglecting to mention his view that America is actually less safe today because of the Iraq war.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
See ya’.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:02 pmMy grandmother had both knees replaced, and was up and walking same day of the surgery, and back to doing her thing within a month. Not really a “prolonged” recovery.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:03 pmCheney’s thugs are holding his grandchildren hostage, no doubt.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:05 pmPurged….
Since we don’t yet have Bush Re-Education Camps these people are just put out to pasture.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:06 pmWow, it doesn’t take them long does it. I wonder what they have done to this guy to ensure his cooperation. If the world knew about all the crimes this administration had committed (including blackmail), they would immediately declare our country a terrorist state.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:06 pmThe surgery will be required after Cheney shoots him in the face.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:07 pm“Yes, Mr. Righthand. I am sure that we are all in agreement on the current state of affairs… Mr. Lefthand is talking about it to the press as we speak.”
Incompetent morons can’t even keep their own BS straight.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:07 pmDo you suppose the knees had to be replaced before or after Bush had Blackwater pay him a visit ?
October 17th, 2007 at 3:08 pmLooks like Deadeye Dick and his illegally obtained intel strikes again!
October 17th, 2007 at 3:08 pmRedd needs to have both knees replaced
Jeebus, they hired Tanya Harding to do him>?
October 17th, 2007 at 3:09 pm…and let this be a lesson to anyone in my administration who won’t drink the Kool-aid…
October 17th, 2007 at 3:09 pmHmmm…we went over and liberated Iraq from a tyrannical dictator who tolerated no dissension and even ordered his own people tortured.
So who’s going to come liberate us? And when?
October 17th, 2007 at 3:13 pmSounds like Cheney had him kneecapped. Anybody seen Tonya Harding lately?
October 17th, 2007 at 3:13 pmI wonder if anyone’s keeping count of how many people have been ‘retired’ after speaking out against the Bush Administration.
Hmmm… wonder if the mainstream media will do an expose’ on that?
October 17th, 2007 at 3:13 pmwho’s relevant now!!!
October 17th, 2007 at 3:14 pmthe big dick made Redd irrelevant
October 17th, 2007 at 3:14 pmIt was probably either this, or have an “accident”.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:14 pmwho’s relevant now!!!
Comment by cha cha cha — October 17, 2007 @ 3:14 pm
cha cha cha,
October 17th, 2007 at 3:15 pmyou beat me by this much ||
RUCerious: Damn. You got there first. Great minds…
October 17th, 2007 at 3:15 pmThe Decider just made retired Vice Adm. John Scott Redd much more relevant than he was yesterday.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:16 pmMarcus, that’s OK, you spelled her name correctly…!
October 17th, 2007 at 3:21 pmA “long delayed surgery” eh? How convenient.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:23 pmHmmm…we went over and liberated Iraq from a tyrannical dictator who tolerated no dissension and even ordered his own people tortured.
So who’s going to come liberate us? And when?
Comment by missmolly — October 17, 2007 @ 3:13 pm
We are if we can find it in ourselves to stand up for this country and our constitution.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:23 pmMr. Redd will now undergo a series of transformations at the end of which will be a 25lb. tub of soylent green.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:26 pm“… he is stepping down next month to have a long-delayed surgery…”
His doctor reports the surgery will be to repair the damage done by Cheney’s foot when he was booted out the door. It could have been worse—The Dick could have used his shotgun.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:28 pmThat gives him about a year and a half to rest up.
The next administration will need some talented No men.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:30 pmThis is an example of how Bush listens to his betters just before he fires them. The idea of someone so completely incompetent as George W. Bush firing anyone is grim testimony to the devolution of Republican standards. There is nothing Republicans can do to recover from this disgraceful man’s failures of competence and character. They will be voted into irrelevancy in 2008 and the Democrats will have a full control of the House, Senate and White House. Where are the Bush Republicans going to hide then? Talk about impotence! The Dems will file charges only after Bush can no longer pardon anyone.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:33 pmhow many here guessed correctly, when we heard
this guy’s remarks the other day?
i know it was my first thought… this guy will “retire” soon…
October 17th, 2007 at 3:33 pmthe timing’s about right too…
.
Didn’t this dumbass realize he needed knee pad’s to complete his daily duty to bush and cheney day after day, guess not……Some job’s give you the equipment you need to do your job……LOL…..Not the reich, now he need’s surgery…..Blessings
October 17th, 2007 at 3:35 pmI have eight Grand-kids and four Great-grand-kids and recently had a major operation. The last thing in the world I wanted was the hellions around lovin’ on poor sick Gramps.
Obviously he is covered by SCHIPS. How else can he afford to quit his job, give up his insurance, and still have the operation? His Momma and Daddy are in for a hard time now from the Reich-wing nuts.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:36 pmUmmm, the long-delayed surgery will also include a lobotomy, at no extra charge. Courtesy of BushCo.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:39 pmAfter they broke his kneecaps they were going to break his thumbs. Mr. Bush doesn’t like folks disagreein’ wit’ him.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:39 pmI hope the admiral has his knees relaced at Walter Reed, and gets to rehab with those who lost limbs in Iraq. That would be sufficient pennance.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:43 pmI knew he would soon be
fired“retired” when he stated U.S. is not “tactically†safer as a result of the Iraq war this weekend.Chimpy can’t have his subordinates disagree with the party line, now can he?
October 17th, 2007 at 3:49 pmEveryone is supposed to be a “yes man”, with brown stains on their noses, in Chimpy’s White House, don’t ya know?
So who’s going to come liberate us? And when?
Comment by missmolly — October 17, 2007 @ 3:13 pm
Pelosi isn’t, for sure.
We need a “replace the incumbent” vote.
Check your Representative’s records and if they are sucking on Chimpy’s tailside, vote against them. For the Democrat Lapdogs, replace them in the primaries, Repukes voe against in the finals.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:57 pmMake your vote count for change.
bah voe should have been vote, for those that don’t read typo =)
October 17th, 2007 at 3:58 pmwe’re going to have to start calling this the SMTW (”spend more time with…”) excuse
October 17th, 2007 at 4:01 pmReally, even the out of touch worshipers of the bush monarchy have to think the timimg of this is highly unusual. A guy decides within 1 week of disagreeing with Bush he has to have surgery (and spend time with his kids, how quaint)? That can’t make too much sense even to the kool-aid crowd.
October 17th, 2007 at 4:03 pmTell the truth…get fired.
October 17th, 2007 at 4:04 pmjust imagine all the tell-all books that will be coming out after dumbass leaves office. I lost count of how many have jumped the chimpy-cheney ship over the years, but you can be sure a good number of them are just dying to speak the truth (figuratively speaking). That’s something they can’t do while the cheney cartel is still in operation.
can’t wait!
October 17th, 2007 at 4:20 pmCheck your Representative’s records and if they are sucking on Chimpy’s tailside, vote against them. For the Democrat Lapdogs, replace them in the primaries, Repukes voe against in the finals.
Make your vote count for change.
Comment by Wayne — October 17, 2007 @ 3:57 pm
Just checked a few key votes by my Congressman — he voted for withdrawing the troops from Iraq (the one Bush vetoed) and he voted against the “Protect America Act”.
Now if we could only get him on the impeachment bandwagon…
October 17th, 2007 at 4:23 pmAny Chance he was forced out?
October 17th, 2007 at 4:26 pmLooks like the admiral should have watched the PBS Frontline special Cheney’s law before he spoke up.
The odds are that he got the boot from Cheney and or Addington.
Any future appointees out there take heed, if you haven’t figured it out yet, IT’S THEIR WAY OR THE HIGHWAY! No if ands or buts!
October 17th, 2007 at 4:32 pmHow many more of the bj’s for bush/ cheney crowd are going to leave before 2009, it’s getting interesting..Blessings
October 17th, 2007 at 4:33 pmAnd this is becoming the usual excuse from WH employees to bail out from the sinking USS Bush ship: Spend time with the family. Who else is next?
October 17th, 2007 at 6:09 pmWaxman’
Subpoena this guy. Lord knows, he’s got a story to tell.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:03 pmGet him while the iron’s hot.
What happened here?
October 17th, 2007 at 8:04 pm#44 . . probably butts. Your ass.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:07 pmDoesn’t this sound a little bit too much like the former Soviet Union where those who spoke out against the Government suddenly disappeared in the middle of night never to be seen again.
October 18th, 2007 at 1:05 amtrolls comments? why is it you guys never have the b@lls to even discuss threads like this about you guys turning on each other? certainly none of you are always on, but why is it you NEVER seem to get on threads like these and discuss?
October 18th, 2007 at 3:25 amBigfoot? Daryll?
October 18th, 2007 at 3:26 amanother patriot pays the price. Unbelievable.
October 18th, 2007 at 1:15 pmThe uninformed comments on thinkprogress.org are so vile and hatefull, and are completely indicitive of the fascist leftwing extreamist mindset. This place is a sewer and you people are sewer rats.
October 18th, 2007 at 1:50 pmThere you go Chocolate Jesus! A wholly informed and relevant comment by ClintonWasImpeachedAndDisbarred.
Uh – fascists are NOT leftwing. “Extreamist” is spelled “extremist,” something is either indicative or not, but it’s not “completely indicative,” and I think “sewer rats” is kind of a “vile and hateful” thing to write.
Fascism has been defined as the merging of corporations and government. Sound familiar?
October 18th, 2007 at 2:25 pmLeeAnnG,
Thanks for correcting my spelling. As for your other editorial comments, they came off sophomoric. Yes, liberals are indeed showing their fascist nature in that they have absolutely no tolerance for those who disagree with the liberal authoritarian ideology. Just look how conservatives are treated here at thinkprogress. But anyway, perhaps your keen editorial skills make you well suited for a challenging career as a public school teacher where you can correct spelling and attempt to indoctrinate all day long. Liberals so enjoy those unionized public teaching jobs where they can argue their political points with captive children, so you might do well to look into it.
As for the subject, my point is that *extremist* liberals who squat around leftwing websites and post hate-bush/hate-military rants all day are typical of the anti-war “movement” as a whole, in that all you seem to be able to do is spew venom without effecting any change. I realize that it must be frustrating for folks like you being so marginalized and ignored, even by your own party’s representatives, but honestly the amount of hate and uninformed misinformation that the leftwing sites generate and regurgitate is counterproductive to your cause. The middle-road independent people see how cowardly and mean-spirited and un-American your attitudes are and are simply turned off. Just look at this page for examples of liberal mean-spiritedness. One mental-midget who goes by the name “RemoveBush” calls for a firing squad to deal with our Administration. Another hysterical genius “missmolly” thinks Bush/Cheney is morally equivalent to Saddam. Other liberal posts compares our government to that of the former Soviet Union and the third reich. All of those comments are preposterous, but not surprising in the least to come out of a leftwing hate site. Most of you likely don’t even want your country to be victorious in Iraq. Now that the news in Iraq is turning more positive, and now that even the liberal biased media is reporting that al queda has essentially been dealt a death blow as a result of the troop surge, I think that voters are going to continue to soundly reject the hateful, intolerant and unpatriotic speech which has oozed from the left ever since the liberals crawled out from under their rocks after the dust and smoke of 911 cleared. You people, along with Scott Redd, are simply wrong about the state of the war, and you’ll soon have nowhere left to turn for support of your *extremist* positions.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:41 pm