Ridge: I was urged to raise terror level for re-election

The Hill ^

[God luvs America]

there was a CBS video on Yahoo which I could not capture...

the reporter talking about the quotes in the new book then showed an interview from just one year ago where he asked Ridge several times if he was pressured into elevating the alert level at any time- in this interview from 2008 Ridge categrically denies ever being pressured to raise the alert level...it was called “Ridge Changes his Tune” or something like that...I can’t find the video now...

[God luvs America]

here’s a news story with a transcript of the interview:

http://kdka.com/local/Tom.Ridge.book.2.1138980.html

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.”

Ridge went on to point out that he didn’t have authority to raise the alert level alone and that decision had to be a consensus of the president’s Homeland Security Council, including the heads of the departments of State, Defense and Justice and the FBI and CIA.

[linn37]

I never voted for Ridge. He was however a better governor then Rendell so I’ll cut him some slack for that.

[Fresh Wind]

Ridge’s name was floated as a possible primary challenger to Pat Toomey for the run against Spectre. He opted out. He knew that his poo-flinging book would be coming out, and he knew it wouldn’t help him with the voters of PA. So, he went for the money instead of the power. No surprise at all.