Tom Ridge admits DHS raises levels based on flimsy evidence

Ridge reveals clashes on alerts
Posted 5/10/2005 11:21 PM
By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.
Ridge, who resigned Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or "high" risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled.

His comments at a Washington forum describe spirited debates over terrorist intelligence and provide rare insight into the inner workings of the nation's homeland security apparatus.

Ridge said he wanted to "debunk the myth" that his agency was responsible for repeatedly raising the alert under a color-coded system he unveiled in 2002.



"More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it," Ridge told reporters. "Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on (alert). ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?' "

Revising or scrapping the color-coded alert system is under review by new Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff. Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said "improvements and adjustments" may be announced within the next few months.

The threat level was last raised on a nationwide scale in December 2003, to orange from yellow — or "elevated" risk — where the alert level is now. In most cases, Ridge said Homeland Security officials didn't want to raise the level because they knew local governments and businesses would have to spend money putting temporary security upgrades in place.

"You have to use that tool of communication very sparingly," Ridge said at the forum, which was attended by seven other former department leaders.

The level is raised if a majority on the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council favors it and President Bush concurs. Among those on the council with Ridge were Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI chief Robert Mueller, CIA director George Tenet, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Ridge and Ashcroft publicly clashed over how to communicate threat information to the public. But Ridge has never before discussed internal dissention over the threat level.

The color-coded system was controversial from the start. Polls showed the public found it confusing.

And John Asscrack! How ya' been boys ? How are those offshore bank accounts doing ?

Fuckwits.

It's been a while and two in politics seems like a lifetime ago.

This latest heightened alert is a sign of things to come for this election cycle. Note that Pataki, Romney and Arnold had the Nat Guard scrambled yesterday. Not that there are elections for any of thise seats anytime soon.

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Funny,we haven't had a good old ass-kickin Terra alert since uh,well....the ELECTIONS in 04. What the HELL do you know,less than 90 days away from a Repuke ass kicking in November and here come the terrorists right on FUCKING schedule. What a joke....

Remember the "fake bottoms"?

MATTHEWS: When—I travel quite a bit by airplane, like a lot of people do in this business, and I have been told, as I‘m going through metal detectors, to take a sip out of a drink I‘m carrying, Starbucks or whatever. How does that help us if there‘s these invisible bottoms in these containers?

CHERTOFF: Well, I don‘t think that the issue was an invisible bottle

or an invisible bottom because the volume of liquid you would need to make a bomb is pretty substantial. It‘s not going to be concealed in a bottom. Obviously, if you sipped something that was an explosive substance, you are not likely to survive that encounter, so ...

MATTHEWS: So that was the precaution we were using?

CHERTOFF: Well, we have used that technique and we could use that again. But, again, without giving recipes out to terrorists which I have no intention of doing here, they were thinking of ways to get around that problem. And I think that‘s why we have to always be careful to match their advances in the tradecraft with our own


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14303122/

Why?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2775206

TC

No Kidding.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0302140308feb14,0,6113119.story?coll=chi-news-hed

WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, responding to days of debate over duct tape and plastic sheeting, on Thursday defended his new department's recommendations on how Americans can best protect themselves during terrorist attacks and promised even greater guidance in the near future.

Responding to critics who belittled some of the suggestions, Ridge said his department had worked for the last eight months, even using focus groups, to find the best ways to prepare the public in the event of terrorist attacks.

It's really that simple.