What is the reason for Tom Ridge to cite pressure before 2004 election?
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.” “I’m a little mystified,” former homeland security adviser Fran Townsend added in an interview. “Never in my experience did I see any political influence exerted on the cabinet secretary.” According to promotional materials for Ridge’s coming book, “The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege…And How We Can Be Safe Again,” the ex-homeland security secretary and governor of Pennsylvania accuses the Bush White House of pushing him to “raise the national security alert just before the 2004 Ele
Bush aide alleges pressure to raise threat level before 2004 polls Washington : There is more embarrassment for former US president George W. Bush as his first homeland security secretary Tom Ridge says he was pressured to raise security threat levels before the 2004 election to influence voting. When Bush sought re-election in 2004, he and his Democratic rival John Kerry were neck and neck in the race to the White House. But just four days before the polls, Osama bin Laden had issued a tape warning Americans against voting for Bush. It has been speculated that the tape helped Bush win the second term in the White House. Now in his memoir, “The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege…and How We Can Be Safe Again”, Ridge says he was pressured by then defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and attorney general John Ashcroft to raise security levels after the bin Laden tape. But he refused to budge, says Ridge in the book, thinking it was “politically motivated”. America’s first-ever home sec
Former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, the first director of the Department of Homeland Security, says that he was pressured by other agency heads to raise … Sources: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct2=us%2F0_0_s_1_0_t&usg=AFQjCNEcl3y1b5oLlNIFeolLANSeMaovJA&cid=1299619334&ei=Y5COStnlGqLI9QSe07DIAw&rt=SEARCH&vm=STANDARD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Fcontent%2Farticle%2F2009%2F08%2F20%2FAR2009082003993.
