WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Another top U.S. Homeland Security official announced Thursday he was stepping down.
Retired Marine Gen. Frank Libutti, the undersecretary for information analysis and infrastructure protection, is the latest -- but not, insiders say, the last -- in a lengthening line of senior officials to announce their departure from the troubled department since Secretary Tom Ridge said at the beginning of the month that he was leaving.
Like Ridge, Libutti will leave Feb. 1, or as soon as a replacement is confirmed, said department spokeswoman Michelle Petrovich.
She said Libutti was leaving "to spend more time with his family."
Some observers fear the rash of departures will leave the department adrift, because no successors can be appointed until a replacement is found for Ridge.
Libutti was responsible for the complex and sorely lagging task of cataloguing the nation's potential terrorist targets and deciding which were most at risk.
