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Ridge accuses Bush White House of political use of terror alert system

disneydude said:
Poll numbers go down....terror levels go up. It was all correlated and unfortunately there was a large segment of the American population that actually bought into it.
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Damn. I thought it was odd how after Bush was reelcted all those "terror alerts" went away.

Seems the GOP have proven themselves to be much, much worse than anything we could have imagined.

If history is written correctly, this will be seen as the time when the GOP lost all credibility and never, ever regained power as a party ever again.
 
Joe1991 said:
Damn. I thought it was odd how after Bush was reelcted all those "terror alerts" went away.

Seems the GOP have proven themselves to be much, much worse than anything we could have imagined.

If history is written correctly, this will be seen as the time when the GOP lost all credibility and never, ever regained power as a party ever again.
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You mean if the CONSPIRACY is written correctly. :doh
 
Truth Detector said:
You mean if the CONSPIRACY is written correctly. :doh
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No this was just another dung brick in the huge wall of ****.

How many Bush administration guys have come out about how crooked his administration was?
 
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danarhea said:
This is good to remind us of the past, and take steps to correct it. However, Bush is no longer president. We have a new executive ass to ride now. Why? Because he damn well needs to be smacked too. So lets not worry about the past too much. The present is pretty damn important.
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Hmmm, so somehow discussing these new facts will take away our addressing the present? Give me a break.

Everybody, stop commenting on this subject matter RIGHT NOW because danarhea says so. :roll:
 
aps said:
I'm not surprised by this, as I had strong suspicions that was the case, but to be told that was, IN FACT, the case by Ridge DISGUSTS ME. What an immoral group of people. Like Powell, if he felt this way, he should have resigned. Show some friggen integrity.
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If you recall, there was a great deal of talk about al Qaeda trying to disrupt or otherwise influence the 04 election. And before the Y2K New Year celebration there was a heightened fear of a terrorist attack. Raising the terror alert level would have been appropriate before the election and had it existed during the time of Y2K it would have been appropriate.

The enemy might strike whenever the 'chatter' increases and whenever there is a time of great national significance. At those times a heightened alert level might be in order.

Without regard for political considerations.
 
bhkad said:
If you recall, there was a great deal of talk about al Qaeda trying to disrupt or otherwise influence the 04 election. And before the Y2K New Year celebration there was a heightened fear of a terrorist attack. Raising the terror alert level would have been appropriate before the election and had it existed during the time of Y2K it would have been appropriate.

The enemy might strike whenever the 'chatter' increases and whenever there is a time of great national significance. At those times a heightened alert level might be in order.

Without regard for political considerations.
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Oh, I'm sorry, were you aware of information that Tom Ridge was not? Do tell!
 
aps said:
Oh, I'm sorry, were you aware of information that Tom Ridge was not? Do tell!
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I certainly remember a lot of talk in the news about the possibility that there could be a terrorist attack to disrupt the election.

You don't remember that??

Spain was attacked right before their election and Italy stopped one just before theirs.
 
aps said:
Oh, I'm sorry, were you aware of information that Tom Ridge was not? Do tell!
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In Nov. 2003, you might recall, Gen. Tommy Franks told Cigar Aficionado magazine that a major terrorist attack (even one that occurred elsewhere in the Western world), would likely result in a suspension of the U.S. Constitution and the installation of a military form of government. "[A] terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world -- it may be in the United States of America -- [would cause] our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event," he said. [NewsMax.com]
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Will the 2004 Election Be Called Off? Why Three Out of Four Experts Predict a Terrorist Attack by November - Maureen Farrell at BuzzFlash.com

The news was common knowledge at the time.
 
windovervocalcords said:
What a serious allegation. I'm not surprised at all. I just wish Mr Ridge had blown the whistle sooner.
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These charges were made long ago against the Bush white house. Back when every one was accusing them of using fear tactics to control the US population. Nobody really really payed much attention to those making those accusations then. Maybe this is the first time somebody from the bush admin has broken ranks and actually confirmed it.


Moe
 
moe said:
These charges were made long ago against the Bush white house. Back when every one was accusing them of using fear tactics to control the US population. Nobody really really payed much attention to those making those accusations then. Maybe this is the first time somebody from the bush admin has broken ranks and actually confirmed it.


Moe
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Should we all be reminded that the Bush Administration ultimately did not raise the terror alert level?
 
bhkad said:
Should we all be reminded that the Bush Administration ultimately did not raise the terror alert level?
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They didn't have to, they instead released a months old video of Bin Laden less than a week before the election. That video is probably what killed Kerry's chances.
 
Whether what Ridge has said--or anyone else for the matter--there is no doubt that the Bush election team played the scaremongering card. Which was not any different then how they ruled anyway.
 
moe said:
These charges were made long ago against the Bush white house. Back when every one was accusing them of using fear tactics to control the US population. Nobody really really payed much attention to those making those accusations then. Maybe this is the first time somebody from the bush admin has broken ranks and actually confirmed it.


Moe
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And maybe he just wants to sell his book.

And maybe as someone said, the terrorists would have liked to have disrupted that election, so raising the threat level made perfect sense.
 
bhkad said:
Should we all be reminded that the Bush Administration ultimately did not raise the terror alert level?
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Ridge refused which is ultimately why it did not happen. But he did not refuse every time he was “pressured” into raising the alert level.

Former Bush aide says politics colored US 'terror alert' - Yahoo! News
"The reports that have led to this alert are the result of offensive intelligence and military operations overseas, as well as strong partnerships with our allies around the world, such as Pakistan," said Ridge.
"Such operations and partnerships give us insight into the enemy so we can better target our defensive measures here and away from home," he said at the time.
He later publicly acknowledged that much of the information underpinning the new alert was three years old, stoking Bush critics' charges of political manipulation.
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Joe1991 said:
No this was just another dung brick in the huge wall of ****.

How many Bush administration guys have come out about how crooked his administration was?
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ZERO; there have never been any proven allegations of crookedness or corruption which is why this belongs in the conspiracy theory category.

:2wave:
 
apdst said:
I wasn't talking to you, so don't worry about it.
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You where talking on a public board, so the public is allowed to comment.
 
It appears that either Ridge may have been lieing, or he isn't really sure of what went on.

Top officials from the George W. Bush White House are disputing claims in former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge’s coming book that they pressured him to adjust the terror threat level for political gain.


“We went over backwards repeatedly and with great discipline to make sure politics did not influence any national security and homeland security decisions,” former White House chief of staff Andy Card told POLITICO. “The clear instructions were to make sure politics never influenced anything.”


George W. Bush vets dismiss Tom Ridge claims - Andy Barr - POLITICO.com
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“There was absolutely no support for that position within our department. None,” he writes. “I wondered, ‘Is this about security or politics?’ Post-election analysis demonstrated a significant increase in the president’s approval rating in the days after the raising of the threat level.”

Mr. Ridge provides no evidence that politics motivated the discussion. Until now, he has denied politics played a role in threat levels. Asked by Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times if politics ever influenced decisions on threat warnings, he volunteered to take a lie-detector test. “Wire me up,” Mr. Ridge said, according to Mr. Lichtblau’s book, “Bush’s Law.” “Not a chance. Politics played no part.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/us/21ridge.html?_r=2&hp
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Redress said:
You where talking on a public board, so the public is allowed to comment.
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There's also a rule against harrassment, I believe. Maybe you should check it out since you're so anal about the rules?
 
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