Tom Ridge admits terror alerts were used for political reasons. What about the Osama video right before the '04 election?
By John Amato Thursday Aug 20, 2009 5:00pm
(click here to see Mark's very revealing video about the phony terror alerts back in the Bush years)
This is a big deal because it's coming from the horse's mouth. Tom Ridge admits in his new book what we've known for a long time and what has been reported years ago.
Former US homeland security chief Tom Ridge charges in a new book that top aides to then-president George W. Bush pressured him to raise the "terror alert" level to sway the November 2004 US election.
Then defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and attorney general John Ashcroft pushed him to elevate the color-coded threat level, but Ridge refused, according to a summary from his publisher, Thomas Dunne Books.
"After that episode, I knew I had to follow through with my plans to leave the federal government for the private sector," Ridge is quoting as writing in "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege ... And How We Can Be Safe Again."
Some of Bush's critics had repeatedly questioned whether the administration was using warnings of a possible attack to blunt the political damage from the unpopular Iraq war by shifting the debate to the broader "war on terrorism," which had wide popular appeal.
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He later publicly acknowledged that much of the information underpinning the new alert was three years old, stoking Bush critics' charges of political manipulation.Ridge also charges that he was often "blindsided" during daily morning briefings with Bush because the FBI withheld information from him, and says he was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings.
Here's what Ridge's book says:
Former Bush Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is releasing a book on September 1 titled, “The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege…and How We Can Be Safe Again.” U.S. News’ Paul Bedard reports that, in the book, Ridge reveals that he considered resigning because he was urged to issue a politically-motivated security alert on the eve of Bush’s re-election:
Among the headlines promoted by publisher Thomas Dunne Books: 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.
This was first reported way back when by the Washington Post in 2004:
The mixing of anti-terrorism policy with the 2004 presidential campaign is becoming destructive. It is creating a vicious cycle of hype, skepticism and mistrust that puts the country's security at risk.
The dangers of politicizing terrorism were clear in this month's announcement about potential attacks on financial centers in the New York area and in Washington. When Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge disclosed the threats on Aug. 1, he faced immediate skepticism about whether the intelligence was valid. Sadly, the Bush administration had helped create this climate of public suspicion by overusing its elaborate, color-coded system of terrorism warnings. After a terrorism advisory by Attorney General John Ashcroft last spring was pooh-poohed the same day by Ridge, some people wondered whether these warnings were being used for political effect.
Bush used the terror alerts to win the election against John Kerry and it's a breach of his oath of office as far as I'm concerned.
And don't forget about the release of the Osama Bin Laden tape right before the election. As we were getting closer to Nov. 4th, Kerry was picking up momentum before this happened.
On October 29, 2004, at 21:00 UTC, the Arab television network, Al Jazeera, broadcast excerpts from a videotape of Osama bin Laden addressing the people of the United States, in which he accepted responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks, condemns the Bush government's response to those attacks and presents those attacks as part of a campaign of revenge and deterrence motivated by his witnessing of the destruction in the Lebanese Civil War in 1982.
John Kerry admitted as much on MTP:
Senator John Kerry said on Sunday that the attacks of Sept. 11 were the "central deciding thing" in his contest with President Bush and that the release of an Osama bin Laden videotape the weekend before Election Day had effectively erased any hope he had of victory.
And we have USA TODAY reporting on this story as well.
The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says. Ridge, who resigned Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or "high" risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled. His comments at a Washington forum describe spirited debates over terrorist intelligence and provide rare insight into the inner workings of the nation's homeland security apparatus. Ridge said he wanted to "debunk the myth" that his agency was responsible for repeatedly raising the alert under a color-coded system he unveiled in 2002
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If that doesn't tell you that the DHS was simply concocted for propoganda purposes, what can?
it's still being used by the Dems. Imagine that. Even so far as the Stimulus cheque to build a brand spanking new building for them.
Did you win your 4th grade "I know you are but what am I?" competition? Congrats!
sure, whatever. It just sounds quite stupid to rant and rave about one political party of fraudsters, when the other one seems overly content to keep much of the same laws/bs alive and well and flowing. But hey, go ahead and rant. No problemo.
Face reality the GOP have proven themselves to be far far worse then anything the democrats have ever done. Every trick they could have done no matter how wrong they did. If history is written correctly this will be seen as the GOP dark ages when the party lost all morality and just became power hungry zombies.
Trying to equate the dems to the same level just shows how outside of reality you are. Are the Dem saints hell no, but the GOP are at a level of shit no one should ever even know about let along revel in.
I'll start naming dead people who died early and you guess what party they threatened.
Paul Wellstone, Pat Tillman, Mike Connell, D C Madam,..........
The
RSHADHS is a vital part ofthe MSM propaganda machinejobs for unemployablesfoundation of theReichAmerica.Without its daily derring do and the billions spent on toys for bored cops, we would be over run by the throat slitting hordes.
Their proud motto 'the end justifies the means'
All I can say is "So". The right wing fanitics will just think he's lying for book sales. The Left can't do anything since Bush is out of office.
Yes nice to have this so History can be written, but besides that this really doesn't help anyone. Too little too late.
who is doing the terror alert level BS now? Bush isn't in power any longer, and that fake threat still goes up and down alot.
Oh and John Kerry lost because his campaign was about as awe inspiring as watching paint dry. It's as bad as Gore blaming Nader. Nader didn't lose that one for Gore, Gore did.
Hello McFly! We don't use that terror alert anymore.
Might I suggest you go to the Department of Homeland Gestapo website? You'll see it in all it's glory, and yes, it does really change once in awhile.
The threat level in the airline sector is High or Orange
http://www.dhs.gov/files/programs/Copy_of_pre...
You heard the head of homeland security announce the change in level?
But why then, hasn't the Obama administration disgarded it? They seem to love the dept of BS as much as Bush did. Who is it that heads it again? Oh ya, the woman that claims terrorists from 911 all came in from Canada.
If they didn't want to use it, they would have got rid of it. Same as the Patriot Act. FISA., etc.
..what have you written previously on this and where is it published? All this equating of the DHS to the gestapo..site examples. Isn't homeland security important? Maybe, if the department is mismanaged, it isn't as effective as it could be but a department that monitors our security and should protect us from disasters, man-made and natural, seems to be a good idea. But I need more from you than some off-handed comparison to the gestapo because if that's all you got, you got nothing.
As I recall . . . I think. Yup, 2004. Weren't much needed after that. Just checked the internets, yellow since November 10, 2004, except for brief period in July '05 after London subway bombings.
terror drills they were holding on the same day.
Um, the last time the threat level changed was in 2006.
on the web lately - as it richly deserved...
but CC is right!
There was no official announcement of the ending of the stupidity and silliness that was:
The Color Coded Kissyerassgoobye Pie Chart.
Therefore it must still be in effect.
Stay tuned...
"Oh and John Kerry lost because his campaign was about as awe inspiring as watching paint dry. It's as bad as Gore blaming Nader. Nader didn't lose that one for Gore, Gore did."
I think Kerry lost because he was libelled by the SwiftBoat BSers and was photographed (SHOCKA!) windsurfing, which is apparently considered almost as gay as riding a tank, even though it's a challenging sport and Kerry is quite good at it.
And if Nader had done the decent thing and said "I would appreciate it if those who are supporting me in states where Gore and Bush are close would vote for Gore... I disagree with the Democratic party on a lot of issues, but Bush as President would be a disaster," Gore might well have won. But NOOOOOOO! He was too
principledegomaniacal for that kind of move.You go!
Shouldn't you point out all of those doofusses wearing the "Purple Heart" bandaids?
Or how about the way they slandered triple-amputee veteran Max Clelland?
Thanx for putting it in such simple terms and for speaking the truth.
I also seem to remember some right wing pol. saying Kerry "looks French". Whatever that means.
..and I'd like to add that, as a PRESIDENTIAL candidate, he failed to inspire. Brilliant guy but dry as day-old toast. I think Gore lacked that as well when he ran. Compare our current President to either and I think you'll see what I mean. w used fear and made his point and for that, America should be ashamed for having bought his BS.
"And if Nader had done the decent thing and said "I would appreciate it if those who are supporting me in states where Gore and Bush are close would vote for Gore... I disagree with the Democratic party on a lot of issues, but Bush as President would be a disaster," Gore might well have won. But NOOOOOOO! He was too principled egomaniacal for that kind of move."
I don't think that's the case. I believe that in anything that has to do with corperate power and control, that Ralph Nader sees no difference. Corperations always try to influence the party in power, no matter which party it is. Also, Nader worked as a founder of the center for auto safety which ment that during his time trying to get unsafe autos off the road he had to meet with representatives and senators. I strongly believe that his dealings with them during this time formed and reinforced his views.
And there were many reasons why Al Gore lost. Many of which we don't like to take a look at because it takes time and is complicated. It's easier for a short simple narritive to be believed. Blaming one person is easier than looking at the whole picture.
It's now official. Bush stole both elections. We always knew it but we needed the proof. Thanks Ridge. But, if your principles were so strong that you didn't stay in the position for Bush's second term, why didn't you quit on the spot? You're as guilty as Powell.
Really, praytell oh ye of cover thy ass modality.
ie: chuckle out loud!
. . . like a frat boy considered getting a drunk girl a cab. After the fact.
In 04, Kerry had him beat. So he had that warning level raised.
I remember when it happened. I thought, oh man, this fucker is cheating again.
But he had insurance. Ohio.
And Skull and Bones.
!
If the press had been doing their jobs from 2001 - 2004, such a release should have been nothing more than a reminder that Team Cheney were the ones on whose watch it happened, and who bear the responsibility for allowing it to happen, when even a moderately competent (or non-evil) administration could have prevented it.
Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US
so many lies, so much fraud, so much death and destruction and STILL nobody has been arrested! Imagine that.
keep looking ahead youngster. There is no room in the world for looking into what some fine Americans did to protect us in those bleak and evil times.
Look to that fine Patriot, Jimmy Jeff Gannon Guckert, who gave up his nights to service...ummm...serve his president. Now that is one fine military and president lovin man.
Oh yea, back to the subject. If Tom Ridge was an honorable public servant and not just a tool of Rove and Cheney he would have blown the whistle on this BS when it happened and not 5 or so years later. Why is it Republicans only spill the beans when the only thing it affects is their book sales?
Why does Obama keep the joke going?
the same reason Obama is sticking to the timetable in Iraq, that Bush set up. Prob the same reason Obama is in Afghanistan and Pakistan, same as Bush.......Dems helped Bush in all this crap, even to the point of being in the media supporting his every damn lie.
just asking.
Bush and his cronies did it all without Dem support. Uh huh. Oh and now that the Dems have majority of both houses AND the Whitehouse, they've squashed everything Bush did, right? Right? Hello? Is this thing on?
I don't recall hearing about the Patriot Act being axed. Or FISA. Or the Dems not doing taxcuts as part of their stimulus, just like Bush. Or Obama and the Dems following Bushies timeline for Iraqi almost withdrawal. Or Obama not bailing out the same sectors Bush did. Or....damn, betcha it's a long list!
Everyone knows Bush was, amongst other things, criminal. What did the Dems do about it? How many decades are Dem supporters waiting before they can say, "damn, all those Dem leaders did nothing to reverse Bush policies"..????
And like it or not, if Obama does end up like more and more are predicting (a one term president), he will go down in the history books as nothing more than a footnote failure.
I guess you just won;t be voting for him again in 2012, right?
@_@
shouldnt you be standing in line waiting for health care??
ConcernedCanuck hardly represents your average Canadian, regardless of whatever his handle reads.
Bush to be, a joke will not be among them.
He presided over the dissolution of Constitutional government, the USofA's "Noble experiment."
Experiment over. The Null hypothesis is safe...Bush did that.
It's like that...Everybody's gotta try to tell it best...
Where was your courage before you decided you wanted to sell a few books?
........Mr. Ridge was lying when he put out those alerts........how comforting.............there ya have it.......A liar calling the liars, liars........Don't think I would ever be willing to believe anything that anyone from that administration says.........but at least they have those book options........must be nice!!
But pretty much anyone with a brain KNEW THE BUSHEVIKS WERE MANIPULATING THE THREAT LEVEL...and acted accordingly; which is to say, unaffectedly, living their tiny, futile lives...
The big focus was on airports.
Like the dumbass terrorists were gonna take on another airplane?
Chuy!
a rant against Obama when it is clearly a story about Bush corruption. Meanwhile my compatriot Concerned Canuck is muddying the waters again. Obama is ending the war in Iraq but remains in Afghanistan for the same reason we Canadians are there, because Cowboy Bush wiped out their government and then walked away. Canada and Britain are over there working to fix the mess he made. There was an election there today, and the Taliban were threatening to cut off people's hands if they voted. Thanks to NATO and American troops the vote went on anyway.
Theres oil in them there hills, dontcha know.
More like oil and the excuses to get more.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis1...
Lessee, using fear for political gain... That's the definition of what type of person?
Um, starts with a T and ends with
errorist.
Isn't using a government office for partisan political purposes a felony crime?
and the latest scandal is the Pentagon pushing legislation it has written into Congress with no preexisting congressional support, they hope to scare a few critters into sponsoring it.
Nobody could ever have anticipated this.
That the noble, heroic War-President, bestriding the globe in his bicycling togs, would stoop to manipulating 'official' indicators of terrorist activity for the purpose of generating more positive fear for himself.
Positive fear is the fear that makes people do what you want them to do.
Negative fear is the fear that makes people do what you DO NOT wnbat them to do.
I really like the idea of actual, public pillories for these guys.
"Nobody could ever have anticipated this."
Just like Condi and Cheney and Bush said they couldn't have anticipated
people flying planes into buildings.
If we just went back and exposed 9/11 for what it really was, none of the rest of this crap would be necessary - Cheney/Bush and the neo-cons
are still living their wet dream and laughing all the way to the bank
(or wherever they go..)
No one ever said that republicans were honest, or that they had and honor, or integrity. The only thing that matters to a republican is greed.
republicanism is a mental illness!
This is one step beyond the obvious, were the FBI hoping to flush out the militia/teabagger types or were they more interested in fermenting civil war, and more excuses for restricting civil and human rights.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/08/20/right-wi...
subtitled..."how we can be safe again". LOL he coulda just made a statement something to the effect of: don't ever let cowardly, milksop administrators like me run any gov't agency. now he writes a book to tell us the truth? where were his "principles" when he had the power to speak up and make a difference. what a coward and backstabber! not to bush but to us, the americans, in whose supposed service he was sworn to serve and protect. with such grand character qualities and references (akin to A. Gonzalies) i just wonder what company in the private sector he went to. they surely must be proud eh?
He sure didn't find the moral fiber to stand up and be be honest until he figured out he could profit by it by writing a book. Typical self centered Republican moral relativism.
When Ken lay was sentenced there was also a terror alert warning. Coincidence? Not a chance. Instead of the news leading with Lay's sentencing it was all Terror Warnings. It was obvious what Bush was doing then as it is obvious now. Shame on Ridge for his behavior.
§ 2331. Definitions
As used in this chapter—
(1) the term “international terrorism” means activities that—
(B) appear to be intended—
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/2331.html
the bush-cheney conspiracy to defraud the government. Hmm...
Title 18 usc 371
worse than watergate
i hate them all
he big test right now ... is who is Obama? Is it possible for a human being to get to be president in this fully realized corporate fascist state to change anything? Can this person actually fight against the overwhelming tsunami of mind numbing greed and death and do anything at all?
Can you get to be the president of the United States is the most brutal terroristic country in the world and not be part of the gigantic lie and false consciousness? Is Osama a false leader ... the guy they have run in to take us to the final desperate collapse of any possibility of that shinning Camelot on the hill ... has it all been reduced to a sound bite and a fairy tale ... where everything can be torn apart and reconfigured as a weapon to be used against us every time we try to wake up and fight for what we know deep down is right.
You have to get that they actively planned to use our children as living beings to throw away like garbage ... to murder them in broad daylight while they claimed to be for protecting all of us ... my God ... what has happened to us .. our consciousness has been carved up bloody and force fed to us with corporate feeding tubes.
If Obama is the real thing .... then he will die on the field of battle over making sure that we the people have honest life long heath care for all of us ... is that not worth one mans career .... one mans life. Let him be real ... let one like him lead us to Camelot and slay the liars and propaganda fiends that seek to tear us apart at the very core of who we are.
for Karl Rove
to research it right now, but I am certain when Ridge resigned he was asked if the color code crap was all political. He hotly denied it and said they were always based on information. I guess that information must have been about Kerry's poll numbers. Regardless, I know he said it was never political, now to sell books, he's saying it was. As bad as Powell.
I know I've driven by our metro airport on my infrequent reason to do so during the Obama administration and seen the electronic sign saying the terrorist level is "orange." Orange means "high risk of terrorist attack" so that is what I thought everyone traveling that stretch of our local freeway was still exposed to every day. And with a permanent sign going the other way to be alert to "suspicious behavior." So I thought the paranoia was still being pumped into the American psyche.
How much more do we have to hear about the Bush administration abuses before someone is held accountable? terrorizing American citizens by changing the alert level calls for an immediate investigation , if true. There is a related post at http://iamsoannoyed.com/?page_id=588
So Tillman's coming home to campaign against the phony, BOO, war on terror.
Phone tap, triple tap and that ends that.
But it's the only combat death that GEORGE BUSH himself covers up with a states secret claim. It's always the cover-up. May the ghost of Pat Tillman haunt the bedroom of george and laura until he faces charges of Treason. If he found guilty strip him of all his worldly goods and his citizenship, then lock him up and throw away the key.
These are the very definition of high crimes and misdemeanors........
Kind of reminds you of " I dreamed I killed Joe Hill last night" (Pat) I never died said he
While it was probably true that the Bush administration used the alerts for political gain (I'm 100% positive that they did), you can't necessarily take Ridge's book as absolute proof. He was kept in the dark and left out of discussions. He's just voicing the normal suspicion, but it's not a smoking gun.
"Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play."
---- Joseph Goebbels
...in USA PATRIOT ACT:
A person engages in domestic terrorism if they do an act ""dangerous to human life"" that is a violation of the criminal laws of a state or the United States, if the act appears to be intended to: (i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.
Well...I'd say screwing with security levels to create fear is coercing the civilian population. That IS terrorism.
We're not even talking grey area here. That's black and white.
Not to mention the fact that thousands of American soldiers have DIED or have been seriously injured, and for what?
Both Ridge and Powell are trying to "cleanse" themselves from being associated with GWB/Cheney. If either of them had any real morals they would have balked at the requests made of them and quit like Elliot Richardson did.
Saw John Roberts interviewing Fran Townsend this morning on CNN. What a relief she was available to debunk everything in Ridge's book. I feel oh so much better now /snark
D.
Going to do about it?
*crickets*
*crickets*
Just wait - We know what Cheney is going to do about it - he's going to have another fit. All the other guilty parties will have a fit too! Let's all watch the guilty parties confess their guilt on MSM TV!
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