Ridge: I Was Pressured to Raise Threat Level in 2004

By: Kevin Hechtkopf
Topics: In The News

(AP)

Tom Ridge is opening up about his time as the nation's first Secretary of Homeland Security during the Bush Administration. He has a new book coming out in a few weeks, and the details are starting to come out now.

The most striking claim is that Ridge says he was pressured by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft to raise the security threat level on the eve of the 2004 election.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which received an advance copy of the book, writes more about the incident:

Osama bin Laden had released a videotape with one more ominous sounding but unspecific threat against the United States. Neither Mr. Ridge nor any of the department's security experts thought the message warranted any change in the nation's alert status.

…

"A vigorous, some might say dramatic, discussion ensured. Ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level and was supported by Rumsfeld."

Noting the correlation found between increases in the threat level and the president's approval rating, Mr. Ridge writes, "I wondered, 'Is this about security or politics?'"

The dispute remained open at the end of the call. Mr. Ridge's aides carried the word to the White House staff that the threat escalation would court accusations of politicizing national security. Mr. Ridge's view finally prevailed.

"After that episode, I knew I had to follow through with my plans to leave the federal government for the private sector," he writes, according to a press release from the publisher.

According to the publisher, Ridge and his co-writer Larry Bloom, lay out several of Ridge's frustrations during his experience working in the government in the book, which is titled "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege…And How We Can Be Safe Again."

For example, Ridge says that Department of Defense would engage in turf wars with the new department, that Rumsfeld would rarely meet with him and that he was excluded from National Security Council meetings. He also says he often blindsided in his daily morning meetings with President Bush because the FBI had not shared information with him.

Of particular interest is also what Ridge writes about FEMA and precursors to the response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Ridge says he recommended to his successor, Michael Chertoff, that he reconsider appointing Michael Brown as head of FEMA. He also said his idea to establish regional Homeland Security offices, including one in New Orleans, was rejected.

(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

In addition to the threat level episode, Ridge also describes another incident where he was pressured by the White House. He says Bush homeland security and counterterrorism adviser Fran Townsend, at left, asked him to insert text into a speech that would link homeland security to "defensive measures…away from home" -- which meant Iraq.

Reaction from Bush administration officials has already begun, starting with Townsend.

Fransend responded to the allegations to The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder, who is CBS News' chief political consultant. Townsend told him that Ridge had sent the speech in question to the White House, asking for advice.

"So I called him said, here's what I think should go in it. It wasn't an order. I didn't regularly see his speeches in advance. He made speeches all the time without running it by us," Fransend said.

Ambinder also reports that Townsend responded to the claims that electoral politics ever played a role in raising or lowering the threat level, saying Ridge is "absolutely wrong."

Here's more from Ambinder:

It was Townsend who established the process that led to the Homeland Security Council making recommendations to President Bush. The meetings, she said today, were often intense, and cabinet secretaries often disagreed with one another. (Incidentally, Karl Rove was never in any meeting to discuss the threat level, according to Townsend.)

After the debate, Townsend would bring the counsel's consensus recommendation to President Bush. "Never in almost five years at the White House was I aware of the president doing anything but accepting the recommendation of the council," she said. "Politics played no part in any discussion of the council. And I think the president was better served by virtue of the debate that took place."

Kevin Hechtkopf
Kevin Hechtkopf is CBSNews.com's politics editor.
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by actornaught August 21, 2009 12:29 PM EDT: This is one that Olbermann got correct in a big way, the Nexus of Terror and Politics.

And don't forget, this is a big part of the TYPICAL republican strategy, raw, cynical manipulation purely for votes.

Ask their favorite butt of jokes behind closed doors, the "conservative" christians....; Reply to this comment


by Oregon_State_OSU August 21, 2009 10:17 AM EDT: The Bush Administration used the Terror Alert to make people panic and think the Republicans were doing a good job. This is NO NEWS because it was reported at the time by CNN and and other sources as a panic button to keep support behind the Bush Administration.

Typical Republicans lying to the American Public again.; Reply to this comment


by mattcat25 August 21, 2009 10:08 AM EDT: The epiphany of actual information shining a beam of light presented by one of the players from the Bush Administration comes as no surprise.

The TERROR ALERTS always coincided with a major event, or at a breaking time of an (usually negative) issue in regards to the Bush Whitehouse.

The Bush Administration never communicated to the American People in a truthful manner and, today with President George W. Bush no longer active, the Republican Party is sustaining the very same misleading, outlandish, and deceptive misinformation.

We cannot trust the GOP.; Reply to this comment


by donnerwetter August 21, 2009 9:57 AM EDT: Rich is the definitian of a traiter. He went before the American people and lied over and over again. He is now aplying dirty tricks in the hope his book will be sold. This guy is a Duke graduate, a former Governor and a hang man for Bush and Cheny. America despice him don't buy his book which is just another lie.; Reply to this comment


by underdogus09 August 21, 2009 9:33 AM EDT: Ridge: I Was waterboarded to Raise Threat Level in 2004; Reply to this comment


by rgg011 August 21, 2009 9:04 AM EDT: CBS left out some important information from the excerpt that tells a different story. Apparently, Ridge was pressured from the intelligence community, not just Ashcroft and Rumsfeld, and Bush, Rove, and Cheney weren't attending the conference call. When Ridge later approached the White House with his concerns, the White House sided with Ridge and the threat level was never raised.

====== Here's the excerpt posted on the Atlantic

Osama bin Laden had released a videotape with one more ominous sounding but unspecific threat against the United States. Neither Mr. Ridge nor any of the department's security experts thought the message warranted any change in the nation's alert status.

" . . . at this point there was nothing to indicate a specific threat and no reason to cause undue public alarm," he writes.

But that view met resistance in a tense conference call with members of the intelligence community and several other Cabinet officers including Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. [Translation: Bush, Cheney, and Rove weren't in on the phone call?]

"A vigorous, some might say dramatic, discussion ensured. Ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level and was supported by Rumsfeld."

Noting the correlation found between increases in the threat level and the president's approval rating, Mr. Ridge writes, "I wondered, 'Is this about security or politics?' "

The dispute remained open at the end of the call. Mr. Ridge's aides carried the word to the White House staff that the threat escalation would court accusations of politicizing national security. Mr. Ridge's view finally prevailed. [ Translation: the White House sided with Ridge.]; Reply to this comment


by babooph August 21, 2009 8:16 AM EDT: Ridge & Powell left the House,Buckley & Ikes grand daughter left the party-only the deluded & phoney liars are going to be screaming their innocence soon.; Reply to this comment


by bruce691 August 21, 2009 8:08 AM EDT: For any of you that think this charge is new by Ridge, I believe I heard this before from Ridge. Probably when he resigned. If anyone has a link to the original comments by Ridge you should post it here. Ridge is part of a dying breed of republican. Almost entirely wiped out by the current republicans. Ridge would never be the republican nominee for president of the current republican party. He'd have a better chance with the democrats.; Reply to this comment


by rs9x243 August 21, 2009 7:44 AM EDT: This is just another example of the "puppet master" (Cheney) pulling the strings of his puppets, using scare tactics with the American Public as his means to his end. He acted like a spoiled child to get his way, and if anyone thinks otherwise they had to have been sleeping during that entire administration. It was clear who actually was running this country for that 8 years, and it certainly was not the President.; Reply to this comment


by babooph August 21, 2009 7:43 AM EDT: Now that feudalism is re -established why worry about using govt. agencies to scare the gullible public-the nobility is beyond ALL law-torture,murder of war prisoners-the law is only for the peasants-let them eat cake.; Reply to this comment