Frances Townsend
Frances Townsend
Frances M. Fragos Townsendis the former Homeland Security Advisor to United States President George W. Bush and TV personality. Townsend was appointed to this position by President Bush on May 28, 2004. Her resignation was announced November 19, 2007. She chaired the Homeland Security Council and reported to the President on homeland security policy and counterterrorism policy. She previously served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism. In 2008 she joined CNN as...
bin both coast decided difficult east focus held plots understanding west
It was bin Laden who decided that it should just focus on the East Coast, and that the West Coast should be held in abeyance ... as a follow-on attack. It's our understanding now that it was too difficult to get enough operatives for both the East and West Coast plots at the same time.
adequately turns
It turns out we were all wrong, we had not adequately anticipated,
adequately changed event failure katrina turned
It turned out we were all wrong, we had not adequately anticipated, ... The thing that changed this was not Katrina itself, the thing that was the catastrophic event was the failure of the levee.
analytic building commercial community fly intelligence judgement knew library meant tallest
We knew they were going to fly a commercial airliner into the tallest building in California. And it was an analytic judgement by the intelligence community that that meant the Library Tower.
prison
We are disappointed that they were all housed together. We are disappointed that their restrictions in prison weren't more stringent.
beginning bush coast engaged highly katrina president response storm tropical
As you know, President Bush was highly engaged in the preparation and response effort, beginning when Katrina was a tropical storm off the coast of Florida.
moving time
Now is not the time to really look at moving organizational boxes.
numerous reports
If it were that simple, it would have been easier. There were numerous reports about the levees. Most of them were inconsistent.
broken faster focus improve
We can improve the response. We can make it faster and more efficient, and that's the focus of the 125 recommendations, which are really broken into 17 different areas.
bush fully less outright president reject suggestion
I reject outright the suggestion that president Bush was anything less than fully involved.
needs revision
I haven't presumed that there needs to be a revision of the Stafford or Insurrection Act,
events state truly
In truly catastrophic events state and locals may be incapacitated or overwhelmed or even worse.
active duty forces guard integrated national
If you have integrated the National Guard and active duty forces this shouldn't be an issue.
came hurricane national plan response rewrite
In response to Hurricane Katrina, the National Response Plan came up short. We need to rewrite the NRP so it is workable and so it is clear.