MEMORY Lane: Tom Ridge "pressured to raise the terror alert to help Bush win re-election in 2004"

[blm]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/20/tom-ridge-i-was-pressured_n_264127.html

>>>>>
In a new book, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge reveals new details on politicization under President Bush, reports US News & World Report's Paul Bedard. Among other things, Ridge admits that he was pressured to raise the terror alert to help Bush win re-election in 2004.

Ridge was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings; was "blindsided" by the FBI in morning Oval Office meetings because the agency withheld critical information from him; found his urgings to block Michael Brown from being named head of the emergency agency blamed for the Hurricane Katrina disaster ignored; and was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush's re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over.
>>>>>>

[southernyankeebelle]

1. why don't we hear this in the media.

[blm]

3. Because so many Bushies are still wielding their control in the news media.

.

[southernyankeebelle]

11. Na, I don't think that. I think because Corporations own news outlets of all types.

[blm]

14. The media corporations are swamped with Bushies.

Been that way for decades.

[southernyankeebelle]

16. Hell I dunno. Maybe so. But I would worry more about the connect the Bushies have with

the CIA.

[blm]

17. same thing, kiddo...CIA stopped relying on hookers because using newsrooms were cheaper,

easier, and more effective.

[southernyankeebelle]

21. Yep way of News Corp

[Enrique]

2. I'm so glad that era is over

remember how that shit happened on a daily basis, and it seemed like it would never end?

[ProSense]

4. And McCain

is still whining. Daily Kos diary with 2004 McCain quote:

<...>

And please, spare us the hypercritical whining about politicizing politics. Remember when Osama bin Laden released a video tape on the eve of the 2004 election? McCain hailed it as a boon to George W. Bush's reelection campaign:

U.S. Sen. John McCain, campaigning in southwestern Connecticut on Saturday, said Osama bin Laden’s video message to Americans will likely energize President Bush’s re-election campaign.

“I think it’s very helpful to President Bush,” said McCain, R-Ariz., while stumping in Stamford for U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays. “It focuses America’s attention on the war on terrorism. I’m not sure if it was intentional or not, but I think it does have an effect.”

And as you can see in the picture at the top of this post, John McCain's 2008 Republican National Convention used imagery from 9/11 to support their campaign. So, not shockingly, McCain is full of it when he whines about politicizing politics.

- more -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/01/1087838/-John-McCain-still-whining-about-politicizing-Mitt-Romney-s-opposition-to-bin-Laden-raid-strategy

[ProfessionalLeftist]

5. Well. Talk about POLITICIZING bin Laden/terror, etc.

I think this wins a top prize, along with *resident Idiot prancing around in a codpiece on a ship pretending to be tough for invading and occupying the wrong f*cking country.

[blm]

22. yep - how DARE they politicize 9-11 and 'terror alerts' to scare up votes

.

[AnneD]

6. Any not smart enough to realize they were doing that....

was not smart enough to pull the lever.

[AtomicKitten]

7. Excellent find.

[Octafish]

8. Don't forget how Ashcan got warned off commercial aviation in July 2001.

Not OT, for any pretzel eater who can connect two dots without passing out:

Ashcroft Flying High.

Funny, CBS now has the story dated 2009. Gee. Why would they go through all the trouble of back dating such things like...history?

[blm]

9. Gee...where do whiners go after you hit them with this nugget?

Hahah....nowhere to run to baby......nowhere to hide.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

10. What a coward. They took a year off my life. I was living in DC, woke

up and they had dug up a map of MY subway station they found and said it was Al Qaeda. I went on
the subway anyway, scared the whole time. An hour into work, the evacuation alarm sounded, and
we "flew" down 6 flights of stairs. I have never been that scared in my life, ever.

Later it was "quietly" revealed that the whole event was like from many years earlier.

Now, Ridge is saying it was all bullshit...(to scare people)

Fuck you Tom Ridge

[Javaman]

12. In related news: no shit sherlock. nt

[blm]

15. Yeah, yeah...but, those GOP hypocrites are just asking for this type of abuse.

.

[SunSeeker]

13. Thanks for digging that up, blm! nt

[PatSeg]

18. As I recall

there wasn't anything that the republicans wouldn't politicize in those days. Whenever there was bad news about the administration, we'd get a diversion like a "new" tape from Bin Laden or an upgrade of the terror alert. What they were doing was so obvious that a third grader could have figured it out.

[blm]

19. yep - they know it, but, also know they can get corpmedia to run with their preferred narrative

because corpmedia is notoriously addicted to kissing GOP butt.

[PatSeg]

20. And for the longest time,

there was an attitude that you were either "with us" or "with the terrorists". It shut down a lot of intelligent debate for years.