that hasn't happened. >> fran townsend, take us through files.were in the bush files, did saif al-adel come to your attention? >> absolutely. saif al-adel is a certified ally. he's indicted in the united states, here in the southern district of snooi for his planning role in the east africa embassy bombings in 1998. this is a guy who sits on the military, is rumors to have sat on the military council. the ruling council of al qaeda. after the u.s. began bombing afghanistan, he flood with bin laden and at least two of his sons. this guy has real credibility within the ranks. he set up training camps in somalia and afghanistan. he was also the one who authorized and advocated for the beginning of terrorist activities inside saudi arabia in 2003. in 2004 the saudis got his diary there, and it revealed he had been one of the few senior guys in al qaeda briefed on the use of planes for the 9/11 attack. he has a different philosophy than bin laden did. he looks at regional conflicts. he's out of egypt. he's a member of the islamic jihad, responsible fo

senior national security contributor fran townsend joins us from our d.c. studios. do you make of this? >> look. i think the u.s. government having decided not to release the sort of gruesome death photos of bin laden were looking for a way to convince the world and others that he was really dead and that the u.s. government is now in control of the bin laden message. so they picked these videos, it would appear, to be pretty deliberately. this is a man as time went on it would appear in his video statements as a statesman with the silk gold robe on speaking from a podium, and the u.s. government decided they would show him one in this compound in pakistan which though it had been described as a mansion is clearly sort of this desperate little huvl. it's dirty. the tv's old, there are wires from the wall. he's wrapped in a blanket. he looked like a prisoner. he looks frail. his beard is gray. not a flattering light. there's another one of him where he's taping a video statement and he's flubbed it. we've all been through it, right? you miss the cue on the prompter,

with us now from washington, cnn national security contributor, fran townsend. t bush and is now on the cia's external advisory board. fran, several of the bush holdovers, defense secretary gates and admiral mike mullen, the military's top officer, they will be leaving. now, general petraeus, of course, goes back to the bush administration. general odierno, these other generals have served through democrats and republicans. can you see any particular change in strategy that might come from the change in the team? >> you know, it's interesting, john, because i had the privilege of working both with marty dempsey, the nominee for chairman, and ray odierno, who will be the new army chief. and i will tell you, these are men who have served throughout the war, who understand how we are, where we are, and they also have a familiarity with the leaders and the battle conditions. so, i actually think in many respects that what president obama is doing here is seeking the advice of men who have been out in the field, who can help him execute the strategy he has already art

and in new york cnn national security contributor fran townsend. she's also a member of the department of homeland security and cia advisory committees. also retired cia officer and 9/11 commissioner member michael hurley, who spent years tracking osama bin laden. fran, it may be a day later and a dollar short, but is the return of the helicopter significant? >> well, it is. it is, anderson, in a sense. but let's compare it to what we know already. we got access to the bin laden wives, but the isi was there, of course, and we didn't -- they were all together in a group, which was not the way we would have done it. we've got this tail. and it is important. what you'll find is american officials will take the tail back, compare it to the photographs that we've often shown of the tail section, and try to make sure that we're not missing any pieces, that there was nothing left behind that the pakistanis could reverse engineer or that they could still share with the chinese. >> stan, do we know -- i mean, it's possible, stan, the pakistanis have, as fran

tom fuentes, formerly with the fbi and our national security krinter, fran townsend.t me begin with you, do you think, if the stated goal was like this would be the replacement of the death photo, that this will suffice, that this will get to the target point of, look, osama bin laden is dead, and here is the proof? >> i think possibly, drew. obviously, if the u.s. government has these videos, the navy s.e.a.l.s weren't invited to tea by bin laden so how else did we get it. on the other hand, as far as the skeptics, if they're not gig to believe the president of the united states, if they're not going to believe the senior leadership of al qaeda that remains, if they're not going to believe the taliban officials who have cooperated it, if they're not going to believe osama bin laden's own family who were witnesses to the killing, then what is the point and what does it take? >> i'm wondering, is there a longer time strategy to this by releasing these five videos g e given that the government had since last august to plan the raid? is it inconseaverable they wouldn't h

and terrorist analyst paul c krupshank is with us, and fran townsend, as well.aign in afghanistan? >> well, americans have fought the war in afghanistan according to polls including democrats, this will increase political pressure on president obama to, you know, to try and make the campaign in afghanistan. but i think president obama has made a significant decision, his decision that has been not really completely processed as it's probably the most important decision of his presidency on the foreign policy front, other than the intervention in libya which is extending the american military presence in afghanistan until december, 2014, in a large scale. you may recall that there was going to be a drawdown in july of this year. that drawdown is going to be token, according to u.s. and afghan officials i've spoken. to so, you know, bin laden's death i don't think will affect the fact that president obama has committed to a large-scale military presence in afghanistan for another four years. >> and paul, i was wondering -- i know the president and other officials

. >>> we want to bring in national security contributor, fran townsend, who has been doing reportinglibyan defections. as a member of the external advisory committee, last may he visited high-ranking officials from the libyan government. all kinds of things come to mind. first of all, the defections. important? >> very important and very timely. look, we've seen multiple nights of bombing, right around gadhafi and his compound. the generals are clearly feeling the heat. there had been an effort to encourage and foreign minister and before that he was head of the intelligence. the head of the nato countries have been working on defections to get eight generals who brought out more than 100 of their soldiers across the tu neesh shan border and defected to the italians is a tremendous blow to morale and a huge cash of intelligence that nato would be able to gather from them gadhafi's movements and morale who is around them and who should they target next. >> how many more generals are there? can you give us a sense of how much of the force is 100 soldiers? how many soldiers is eight gen

more details from fran townsend, a member of the homeland security and cia external advisory committees. and in washington, chris lawrence, who has new details on the raid that killed osama bin laden. fran, let's start with you. this guy appointed interim leader of al qaeda. what do we know about him? >> he's a well established senior person within the ranks of al qaeda. he goes back to pre9/11 being with bin laden in afghanistan. he was a trainer in training camps in afghanistan and somalia. he's indieted here in new york for the embassy bombings in africa in 1998. and he probably had knowledge of the "cole" bombing in 2000 in yemen. he goes back to the egyptian islamic jihad, responsible for the assassination of sadat. >> did he end up in prison with al zawahri? >> i don't know if they were in jail together. they were part of the same organization. it's likely they served in jail together. but i don't know for certain, anderson. so this is a guy who has spent a good deal of time, after americans started bombing in afghanistan, he fled to iran, with two of bin laden's sons. he was ther

. >>> let's dig deeper with the national security contributor fran townsend. to president bush. she is a member of the external advisory board to promote the department of homeland security. as well as the cia. it is ironic, fran, that the -- these terrorists go after pakistani soldiers, young recruits, if you will, pakistanis didn't know anything about this u.s. navy s.e.a.l. mission on the bin laden compound. >> that's right. you know, it is -- this is not a new target for the pakistani taliban. they targeted intelligence offices and targeted military office -- stations. so it is not a new target. it is just a new excuse for them. it really is -- extraordinary to me that at this time given this sort of pressure internal to pakistan they actually did give access to bin laden's three wives. that's a very controversial -- to the u.s. that's a very controversial thing. >> they didn't do at this time way the u.s. would have liked. they made them sit there together instead of individual interviews and -- it was sort of seen as a waste. they were hostile in this fir

championship national security analyst fran townsend and peter bergen here, as well. hor of "oral history, the osama bin laden i know." and fran is a member of the cia external advisory panel. reza, i want to start with you. quite telling, this resolution condemns the united states, says the united states had no business conducting this raid. says nothing about pakistan's failures. where do you expect this to head in terms of relations between the country, is this just political pushback or a serious breach? >> reporter: yeah, i think this is nothing more than pakistani politicians giving themselves an opportunity to get behind the microphone and again talk tough against the u.s. it really shows that despite the crisis this government is facing, it doesn't want to plan on changing its approach when it comes to its partnership with washington. it's the same old finger pointing and the accusations. it's domestic damage control. this is a government that's obviously been embarrassed by this episode. it's under tremendous pressure and it wants to push back and create the i

security analyst former adviser to the bush administration, fran townsend, says al-qaeda is still dangerous, but a terrorism combined with lack of resources has rendered the group ineffective. >> we've seen groups attempt things, but usually it's not a large-scale attack, and they haven't been successful. >> since 9/11, al-qaeda and its affiliates have failed to pull off a single attack on american soil. december 2009. fbi agents arrest the man who plotted to bomb the subway system. 2009, the underwear bomb fizzles out as they subdue him in a plane headed for detroit, michigan. and another bomb fails to detonate in new york times square. so al-qaeda has failed to kill a single american on u.s. soil since 9/11. there has been over 320,000 u.s. deaths in car accidents and over 125,000 homicides, yet fear of al-qaeda continues to linger in america's psyche. outside the u.s., al-qaeda has carried out successful attacks. in madrid in 2004, in 2007. >> so it has been now about 24 hours since the world has been able to absorb the images from those videos that were confiscated from bin laden's comp

i want to bring in our cnn national security contributor fran townsend, former security adviser for the bush administration, and her firm owns u.s. military production company. and fran, thanks for joining us. first of all, you see these attacks being launched in pakistan, the taliban claiming responsibility. they say it's a retaliation for killing bin laden. is this our new reality, the war on terror now turning into a war of revenge? >> well, suzanne, let's remember, these sort of attacks against police recruits and miss recruiting stations were going on long before the american success in killing bin laden. and so this is not really anything new. they've just now taken to using this as the latest excuse to target these innocent recruits who are trying to protect the country of afghanistan and the afghani people. >> do you think that we are going to start to see americans targeted, whether or not it's in pakistan, afghanistan or even potentially on u.s. soil? >> you know what? i agree with what cia director leon panetta said, and that is, look, we ought to expect that. we ought to pla

lee, founder of the group "america's mighty warriors," and cnn's national security contributor, fran townsend. first, let's take you back to the night of may 1st when we first heard president obama report the news of the death of osama bin laden. then we'll talk. >> today, at my direction, the united states launched a targeted operation against that compound in abbottabad, pakistan. a small team of americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. no americans were harmed. they took care to avoid civilian casualties. after a firefight, they killed osama bin laden and took custody of his body. >> okay. so that night was the first time that we heard some limited details about the mission. howard, let me start with you. should the buck have stopped there? >> well, maybe. but 15 minutes after the president spoke, i was on a conference call with white house officials who were giving out a fair number of details about this mission and the next day, john brennan, the counterterrorism chief, was brought before the cameras and talk more about it. seems to me that bob gates

fran townsend is our national security contributor, the former homeland security advisor to presidenth. even earlier the u.s. officials were saying that there could be 200 al qaeda operatives there. not with the pressure no doubt that will mount on the president to start withdrawing even more rapidly than he may have anticipated. >> yeah. i think that's right, wolf, as a political matter. but let's just be clear i bin the fact that bin laden is dead does not mean that the war on terrorism is over they are nowhere near as dangerous. bin laden was responsible for financing and weapons and all of those things. by no means did these other cells as nearly as dangerous as he is but we'll continue to have to fight in chaotic places where we know that bin laden and al qaeda had been attracted, whether that's yemen or somalia who saw this recent bombing in morocco. the war on terror is not over. it's a significant victory, though, wolf. dare i say many americans for at least almost ten years, peter, we're only beginning to digest what this will mean for the u.s. military operation in afghanist

of these new revelations with michael shoier, and with our national homeland security adviser, fran townsend. michael, let me start, i guess it's no surprise that the leader of al qaeda would want the president of the united states dead. but it's startling and jolting a bit to hear what written communications, plural, in which bin laden discusses his desire to have the president of the united states assassinated? >> i don't think it's surprising. and i think it's probably even worse now. they'll be looking to exact an eye for an eye. i suspect the secret service is very much en garde, because obama put himself in the bull's-eye. >> is assassination in the playbook? >> bin laden was very much involved in the early '90s in yemen in arranging the assassination of socialists and marxist yemeni politician. so it's not outside the playbook. >> remember the pashtun leader up in the north who was assassinated on september 10th. this was clearly an al qaeda -- he was an enemy of bin laden's, so they'll use it when it's convenient for them and it achieves their goals. >> when you were in the bush whit

we're going to have experts on, people close to you, like fran townsend, people like lee hamilton and will talk in the overall policy sense about what the death of bin laden means, how we believe al qaeda is, i believe wants to make an attack on the u.s. if i -- right now my best estimate is that the attack will come from forces that are already within the u.s. and whether it's a lone wolf or operative here, i don't believe al qaeda is capable of carrying out an attack from overseas. i can tell you we're not going to give away any intelligence, a projected attack. i'm not aware of any particular information that we've gotten about an attack or scheduled to be plan. if i get any details at all, they are not going to be brought out. i can tell you that. >> what did he repeatedly made at their news conference, that there is no evidence of "high level pakistani knowledge that bin laden was in that compound." they stress high level. maybe lower level pakistanis may have known that bin laden was hiding out there. what is your assessment? >> wolf, i believe someone had to know. there is no e

let's bring in fran townsend. she's the former homeland security advisor to president bush. she serves on the homeland security and ci achlt external advisory boards. fran, thanks very much how alarmed should we be that he was in contact with al qaeda and the arabian peninsula in yemen? >> well, wolf, we've heard testimony from the director of the national counterterrorism center and homeland security all saying that al qaeda in the arabian peninsula posed the immediate tactical threat to the u.s. homeland and to americans around the world. and so the fact that bin laden had this communication channel with them, the fact that now we are linking them to this threat in europe last summer really indicates bin laden was determined to attack americans even if it was not inside the u.s. homeland. obviously trying to get access to americans in europe during the summer months is a lot easier than trying to infiltrate into the u.s. it seems to me, based on the reporting that we're getting out of what they seized, bin laden played a much more important role in terms of continuing to ta