Among the names being floated is that of "counter-terrorism czar" Frances Fragos Townsend. Now, I won't take cheap shots and argue that her job seems to consist of spending your mornings on TV. Or point out that a half-dozen people have quit the same gig since 9/11. That would be mean and unfair.
But I would hope that the coming director of the Dept. of Homeland Security would have a good understanding of the kind of threat represented by al-Qaida, including an understanding of what exactly AQ is--and wouldn't be a White House hack when describing it.
No such luck with Townsend.
According to a lengthy WP assessment of the White House's counter-terrorism efforts, she sees al-Qaida as a distinct entity that can be brought down, as she put it, by "decapitating the beast." Townsend was once a prosecutor and went after the Gambino family. When she took her latest job at the White House this summer, she said, fighting al-Qaida "actually turns out not to
be that big a leap" from her previous work. "Really in many ways you're talking
about a group with a command-and-control structure."
Talk to just about any independent analyst, and they'll tell you that view is wrong and likely to lead to mistakes.
