Ridge backpedals on “pressure” claims »
Posted By pc25 4 months ago in News
Less than two weeks ago, Tom Ridge launched his memoirs with the explosive allegation that Bush administration officials had pressured him to change terror-threat levels in order to boost George Bush’s re-election chances in the final days of the 2004 election. A day later, the New York Times pointed out that the book not only didn’t have any supporting evidence for that claim, it also had Ridge insisting that he hadn’t seen any political pressure on threat levels. Now Ridge himself has begun to backpedal from his publicity-seeking allegations:
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pc254 months ago
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http://spectator.org/blog/2009/08/21/the-politics-...
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The Politics of the Politics of Fear
The buzz is building over a new supposed tell-all by former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, "The Test of Our Times". The book, however, directly contradicts the fast moving media message that the Bush White House tried to manipulate Homeland Security threat levels for partisan gain.
In promotional materials distributed by his publisher in advance of the September debut, and in the subsequent media orgy, a narrative has developed. George Bush, the story goes, through John Ashcroft and Donald Rumsfeld pressured Tom Ridge to increase the threat level ahead of the 2004 presidential election in order to gain politically. Ridge refused and, as a result, subsequently retired. A neat little package tied in a bow, that, and a delicious second-helping of Bush-derangement syndrome for all the right people. A recipe, you might be forgiven for adding, for book sales.
A salacious story, if true. Verifying the accuracy, however, requires unraveling layers upon layers of spin. -
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pc254 months ago
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-08-30...
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WASHINGTON — Former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge, speaking for the first time about accusations made in his new book, says he did not mean to suggest that other top Bush administration officials were playing politics with the nation's security before the 2004 presidential election.
"I'm not second-guessing my colleagues," Ridge said in an interview about The Test of Our Times, which comes out Tuesday and recounts his experiences as head of the nation's homeland security efforts in the first several years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In the book, Ridge portrays his fledgling department as playing second fiddle to other Cabinet-level heavyweights. As secretary, he says he was never invited to participate in National Security Council meetings, he was left out of the information loop by the FBI and his proposal to establish Homeland Security offices in major cities such as New Orleans were rejected.
seems like he might also have an ax to grind -
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