QUICK - OUT! - AT 7:53 A.M. ET:  From London's Telegraph:

Bob Quick, Britain's most senior anti-terrorist policeman, has resigned after making a major security blunder that caused an operation against a suspected al-Qaeda cell to be brought forward.

Mr Quick tendered his resignation to Boris Johnson, the London mayor and chairman of the Metropolitan police authority, after admitting that he "could have compromised a major counter terrorism operation".

The Assistant Commissioner was photographed entering Downing Street carrying a secret briefing note on which details of the undercover operation – codenamed Pathway – could be seen.

Mr Johnson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he did not pressure Mr Quick to quit, and said that the counter terrorism head decided to leave of his own volition.

COMMENT:  The comedian Steve Landesberg once did a hilarious routine on the British tradition of resigning.  It's a tradition we ought to adapt here.  You make a serious error, you go.  You don't "reflect."  You don't meet with "spiritual advisers."  You don't call for an "independent, fair-minded investigation."  And you don't declare yourself a victim of "Gestapo tactics."  You go, and do so quickly.

One thing about the Brits, and many Europeans - the best of them take internal security more seriously than we do, despite their softer image.  And yet they maintain free societies.

April 9, 2009