From NewsMax:

President Bush’s homeland security adviser Frances Townsend’s comment that Osama bin Laden was “virtually impotent” sparked speculation that the Bush administration was behind the remark.

Word is, that’s not the case.

Townsend appeared on two TV talk shows on Sept. 9, after the release of a new videotape from the al-Qaida leader. “This is a man on the run in a cave who is virtually impotent other than his ability to get these messages out,” she said on CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer.”

Michael Scheuer, the former head of the CIA unit responsible for hunting down bin Laden, said in a NewsMax interview that he was shocked by the remark, noting that the terror leader still poses a “very overt threat” to the U.S.

He said calling bin Laden virtually impotent would in the Muslim world be interpreted as “saying that he’s not a man. It comes across as nothing so much as a challenge.” And he characterized Townsend as “ignorant” and “malevolent” for her comments.

NewsMax correspondent Kenneth R. Timmerman wondered if there was more to her remarks than met the eye.

“I spoke to a senior White House adviser and asked him point-blank, was Frances Townsend part of a carefully orchestrated CIA psychological op to destabilize Osama bin Laden by calling him ‘impotent,’ or was she speaking off the cuff,” Timmerman said.

“Off the cuff was the reply. My source said: ‘She is an artful New Yorker.’”