Sunday, August 23, 2009
"Tom Ridge Changes Tune, Now Suggests Politics Influenced Terror Alert Levels"
Politicians.
It seems they go whatever way the favorable wind blows.
Maybe he thinks it will increase his book sales...
It seems they go whatever way the favorable wind blows.
Maybe he thinks it will increase his book sales...
This is from Pittsburgh's KDKA.com website:
"Ridge claims other members of the Cabinet pressured him to raise the terror alert level shortly before the 2004 Presidential election.
He says Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pressed him to support increasing the nation's terror threat level from yellow or "elevated" to orange, meaning "high."
Just four days before the election, Osama Bin Laden had issued a videotape threatening new attacks on the United States.
But in his book, Ridge says there was "no support" within his department for boosting the threat level and he refused.
He writes: "I wondered, 'Is this about security or politics?'"
This new contention directly refutes what Ridge told KDKA-TV's Ken Rice in an interview in June of 2008.
Rice: "Was there ever pressure to raise the alert level for some reason that had nothing to do with the actual threats out there?"
Ridge: "Never."
Rice: "Never even a hint of that?"
Ridge: "Never. It's a great question though." "
