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Thu 20 Aug, 2009 06:24 pm
Tom Ridge: I Was Pressured To Raise Terror Alert To Help Bush Win
The Huffington Post | Rachel Weiner
In a new book, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge reveals new details on politicization under President Bush, reports US News & World Report's Paul Bedard. Among other things, Ridge admits that he was pressured to raise the terror alert to help Bush win re-election in 2004.
Ridge was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings; was "blindsided" by the FBI in morning Oval Office meetings because the agency withheld critical information from him; found his urgings to block Michael Brown from being named head of the emergency agency blamed for the Hurricane Katrina disaster ignored; and was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush's re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over.
Dave Weigel, writing for the Washington Independent, notes that in the past, Ridge has denied manipulating security information for political reasons. In 2004, for example, he said, "We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security."
"What Tom Ridge disclosed confirms our worst suspicions," said Sen. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who criticized the color-coded system back in 2003. "Just like they did in Iraq, the Bush Administration manipulated intelligence to cause fear in the public to further its political goals."
The Bush administration was forced to admit in the days after the 2004 alert that it was based on intelligence three or four years old. Officials then claimed there was a previously unmentioned "separate stream of intelligence" that justified the warning -- but offered little tangible information to support their new story..
ThinkProgress recalls, the AP reported that "even 'some senior Republicans' privately questioned Ridge's timing of a terror alert that came just three days after the Democratic National Convention."
Ridge's book, "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege...and How We Can Be Safe Again," comes out September 1.
Oh well, blueflame, I am sure he is just another disgruntled employee trying to make a buck off of bashing Bush. Least ways that is probably what you're going to hear. Or to put it in Michelle Malkin's words, "weasel." How many disgruntled employees of the Bush administration does that now who have all lied to make a political buck?
@revel,
Quote:How many disgruntled employees of the Bush administration does that now who have all lied to make a political buck?
If nothing else it proves Bush can't even inspire loyalty even among his own minions. No surprise that his camp followers are happy to make a buck at the expense of their former leader. Personally, I'm just glad the Bush years are over and I'll let history sort of out the details.
The world became a safer place when George W. Bush went out of office.
Another Bushie abuse of power. Fearmongering designed to terrorize American citizens in the buildup to elections.
Ridge-induced flashback: Media dismissed Bush terror alert skeptics as paranoid conspiracy theorists
Quote:On Hardball, Reagan and Walsh explain how liberals were "mocked" for their allegations
Salon.com's Joan Walsh: "It's completely believable and liberals were saying it that summer and they were laughed at."
MATTHEWS: It seems to me that you must be somewhat sanguine about realizing that the other side of the ideological argument has been caught with an insider blowing the whistle as loud as I can imagine. The secretary of Homeland Security himself is saying that in the interest of politics, the people around the table the weekend before the 2004 election were playing politics to get their guy re-elected so they could keep their jobs.
WALSH: It's completely believable, and liberals were saying it that summer and they were laughed at, they were mocked. He also admits that he raised the threat level and, you know, talked about the great presidency of George Bush right after John Kerry accepted the nomination in Boston that year. So they really did orchestrate -- they used terror to scare people, they used terror to diminish Kerry. I remember John Kerry had to come out and smack Howard Dean, who was telling the truth about this -- that they were politicizing the terror warnings -- because he didn't want to be seen as some kind o fleft-wing lunatic. And this is what they did all along. Going back to October 2002, they had to have the authorization to use military force right before those midterm elections. They had to do that. They used politics all along. Tom Ridge is an honorable man. I'm glad he's finally telling the truth. [MSNBC's Hardball, 8/21/09]
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