Tom Ridge Confirms Bush’s Terror Tactics
Sometimes conspiracy theories really do come true. In Tom Ridge’s upcoming book he outlines several scenarios where he felt pressure to raise the terror alert levels to artificially high levels for purely political reasons. What a big surprise. Actually, as dirty deeds from the Bush administration go, this doesn’t seem to be a very big deal. Except for the fact that in an election as close as the 2004 Presidential race, it may have made just enough of a difference to get Bush re-elected. After all, the totality of Bush’s campaign message was “vote for us or you will die”. Tom Ridge, evidently, was so disturbed by this that it cemented his resolve to leave Washington behind for good. Sure enough, and to his credit, he resigned a short time later.
In his book he describes direct pressure from the Attorney General, John Ashcroft and the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld as well as the white house itself. He also claims that he was never allowed to sit in on National Security Council meetings and that the FBI routinely held back critical information. Evidently, the Bush administration didn’t think the head of the Department of Homeland Security was important enough to actually participate in homeland security. From this and other accounts of the Bush administration, it is becoming abundantly clear that there really wasn’t anyone in charge.
The far right hate slaves will naturally call Secretary Ridge a traitor and somebody who is just trying to sell a book, but actually these revelations are not new. Shortly after his resignation he made the same charges regarding the pressure to politicize his department.
The more we learn about the criminally irresponsible group of posers who pretended to run this country while covering their own ass and lining their own pockets, the more important it is to do everything we possibly can to make sure that someone with a brain, a heart and a conscience continues to occupy the white house.
