Among the many men playing commanding roles in President Bush’s Homeland Defense effort is a woman–Frances Fragos-Townsend–a former federal prosecutor who has just been appointed chief of U.S. Coast Guard intelligence.
As the only military service with domestic law enforcement powers, the Coast Guard has been one of the lead agencies on the front lines of homeland security since the Sept. 11 attacks. Its anti-terrorist missions include protecting the nation’s ports, coastlines and infrastructure, ranging from New York bridges and buildings to Midwest nuclear power plants.
Under special legislation passed late last year, the Coast Guard intelligence branch was made part of what Washington calls the official national intelligence community, making Fragos-Townsend a working partner with the heads of the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and other top-level intelligence chiefs.
This year, the Coast Guard has resumed much of its anti-drug and anti-smuggling work, dealing with the terrorist menace on a more selective basis. But the threat from the sea has a high priority.
“You only need one lunatic to do a tremendous amount of damage,” Fragos-Townsend said.
“Our freedoms are too precious to try to guard against the one lunatic, but we’ve got to be aware of the thousand ways for a creative, bad evildoer to enter the country. For the Coast Guard, the marine area is one of them.”
Married, 40, and the mother of two, Fragos-Townsend comes to the job with 13 years’ experience with the Justice Department, having served as an assistant U.S. attorney in New York under then-federal prosecutors Louis Freeh (later FBI director) and Rudy Giuliani (later mayor of New York City).
She then moved to Washington, eventually becoming, under former Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, the Justice Department’s chief of intelligence policy and national security matters.
“She was an incredibly hard worker,” said Harry Marshall, senior legal adviser for the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.
Her transfer to the Coast Guard followed an incident in which she went to the new attorney general, John Ashcroft, to obtain permission for a wire tap on a weekend when he had left instructions that he was not to be disturbed.
Fragos-Townsend will not comment on newspaper reports that this was the cause of her move, except to say, “there was no one else available to authorize the action,” and that she is “happy to be with the Coast Guard.”
She said that, as a child, she at first thought of becoming a doctor, but then decided to pursue the law so she could help victims of crime.
“Our system too often neglects the victim,” she said. “I never wanted to work for a law firm. I wanted to work for victims. I see the prosecutor’s role as the voice of the victim.”
She nearly became a victim herself when a man broke into her room while she was a student at Washington’s American University.
“I was able to get help in time,” she said, “but it left a lasting impression.”
