Thursday, October 18, 2007

Head of Counterterrorism Center to Resign

The chief of the nearly three-year-old National Counterterrorism Center announced his resignation yesterday, vacating an important post in the Bush administration's efforts against al-Qaeda and other extremist groups.

Retired Vice Adm. John Scott Redd said he is stepping down next month to have long-delayed surgery and to 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. "I believe that as a country we are better prepared today than at any time in our history to wage this war," he said.

During three dozen years of active duty with the Navy, Redd commanded eight defense organizations and held senior leadership jobs at the Pentagon. He retired from the military in 1998 and worked in the private sector before taking a post with the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in early 2004. He later became executive director of President Bush's commission on weapons of mass destruction.

Redd took over the counterterrorism center in August 2005.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the prospects of a vote on Armenian genocide were uncertain, after several members pulled their support amid fears it would cripple U.S. relations with Turkey.

"Whether it will come up or not, or what the action will be, remains to be seen," Pelosi said.

The House proposal, which would label as genocide the killing of Armenians a century ago by Ottoman Turks, has inflamed U.S. tensions with Turkey, which says the death toll has been inflated and was the result of civil unrest, not genocide. Support for the nonbinding resolution deteriorated after Turkey recalled its U.S. ambassador to Ankara and several lawmakers spoke out against it.

Rep. John P. Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said his party's leadership miscalculated support for the resolution. He predicted that such a vote would easily fail.

Leaders of an antiwar group delivered petitions to Congress yesterday that they said had been signed by 2,050 service members and veterans calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

The group, Appeal for Redress, did not release the names of those who signed petitions but said that 1,274 are active duty and another 488 are in the National Guard or Reserve.

Navy Petty Officer Jonathan Hutto, co-founder of the group, said that many service members fear reprisal if they are public in their opposition to the war. Hutto was the only active-duty member of the armed forces to appear at a news conference on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee and one of four House Democrats attending the news conference, called the petitions "courageous" and said they would bolster efforts to stop the war. "Your standing up will make us stand up even taller," he said.

-- From Staff Reports and News Services