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BREAKING: In autobiography, Ridge admits that terror alerts were used for political purposes

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scheming daemons Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 09:50 AM
Original message
BREAKING: In autobiography, Ridge admits that terror alerts were used for political purposes
Edited on Thu Aug-20-09 09:58 AM by scheming daemons

Tom Ridge confirms a long-held suspicion among Bush critics, writing in his new autobiography that he "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."

Weigel adds:

If Ridge really quit DHS because it became so politically rotten, good for him; his successor Michael Chertoff, however, somehow managed to hold the job for four years without issuing a conveniently timed alert. And it’s worth remembering that the idea that Ridge might do this was seen, in 2004, as political conspiracy-mongering.

An abuse so gross -- if Ridge is right -- shows, among other things, what a powerful influence on the all-important tracking polls terror alerts must have had. And it suggests that Obama's efforts to keep terror arrests out of the national news are good politics too.


http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0809/Politicizing_the_terror_alerts.html?showall



This is BIG news... and would be dominating the political discussion if it weren't for the Health Care Reform debate.


It would also be 24/7 news if a Democrat had done it.



More detailed info here:

http://washingtonindependent.com/55751/tom-ridge-i-was-pressured-to-raise-the-terror-alert-to-help-bush
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TwilightGardener Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 09:55 AM
Response to Original message
1. Sick. Manipulating the public's fears to influence the election.
We stopped being a democracy on that day, apparently, and became a banana republic.
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lunatica Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:39 AM
Response to Reply #1
28. We stopped being a Democracy when Bush was selected by the Supreme Court
We tried to become a Democracy again when Obama was elected. The jury is still out on whether we succeeded though. Not that President Obama is against Democracy, but that Corporate Power may have a different take. If they've bought and own Congress it doesn't matter what Obama does or is.
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spanone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 09:56 AM
Response to Original message
2. treasonous bastard sons of bitches
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DeadElephant_ORG Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 12:53 PM
Response to Reply #2
40. treasonous! and anti-democracy! That alert was thrown just 3 days after our Democratic Convention
Who's talkin' 'bout "Nazi" now?
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Mrs. Overall Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 09:58 AM
Response to Original message
3. So, isn't this a crime?
Republicans call Obama a nazi for wanting to provide health care to Americans, BUT the bush administration basically terrorized us intentionally for political gain and there are no repercussions?

This sort of thing really pisses me off.
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scheming daemons Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:05 AM
Response to Reply #3
8. If it happened under Clinton or Obama, you can bet your ass that the GOP would be calling for
investigations...
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DeadElephant_ORG Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 01:29 PM
Response to Reply #3
46. great question. YES. Obviously.
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Mrs. Overall Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 03:31 PM
Response to Reply #46
48. Well, haul their asses into court, already.
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SpiralHawk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 09:59 AM
Response to Original message
4. "Smirk." - xCommander AWOL (R - Occultist)
Edited on Thu Aug-20-09 09:59 AM by SpiralHawk
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SpiralHawk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:00 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. "Sneer." - xVP Dickie 'Five-Military Deferments' Cheney (R - Chickenhawk)
Edited on Thu Aug-20-09 10:01 AM by SpiralHawk
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AndyA Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:01 AM
Response to Original message
6. And people still don't believe the elections in 2000 and 2004 were stolen.
And they don't believe the events of September 11, 2001 could have been orchestrated by Bushco for political gain. Really.

Does a tree need to fall on you people? :shrug:
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scheming daemons Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:01 AM
Response to Reply #6
7. Well... manipulating people's emotions is not exactly the same as "stealing" an election...
....but it is pretty damn despicable.
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gratuitous Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:14 AM
Response to Reply #7
14. Using terror or the threat of terror for political purposes
Isn't that what terrorists do? I might start at "despicable," but I don't think I'd end up there.
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havocmom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:28 AM
Response to Reply #7
19. Manipulating emotions to get election polls close enough to make steal look legit
works fine.
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MarjorieG Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:31 AM
Response to Reply #7
25. As an elections reform advocate for many years, they were stolen by details big and small in every
state.
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global1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:28 AM
Response to Reply #6
20. So Just About Everything We've Suspected Here And Posted About When......
it happened or was happening is now turning out to be true. This country was being manipulated. We called it. The MSM didn't report it. And look where it got us.

I - like you AndyA - am skeptical about everything that happened just before, during and now after BushCo.

What else are we going to learn happened during that period?

I hate to be called a 'conspiracy theorist' - but so far - many of the theories we've had during this period have been proved to be fact.

Somebody should begin cataloging - what we suspected and what turned out to be true.
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Stephanie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:29 AM
Response to Reply #20
22. you said it
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2976208

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2149790

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3007891

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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x802468

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=341980&mesg_id=341990

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x162653

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4999765

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2141266

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2141395



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=415496#415691

http://www.thehill.com/morris/030404.aspx

Dick Morris
The Political Life
How Bush can destroy Kerry fast

<snip>

But now, Kerry is a fair and inviting target. Bush has to zero in on him and push him to the left right now. Whether Kerry ever consorted with Jane Fonda is beside the point, but Kerry’s voting record is not.

Second, while his anti-Kerry ads are running, the president himself needs to make Americans understand that the war on terror is still atop our national agenda. He needs to elevate the sense of threat so that his advantage as a war president begins to count.
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global1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 11:08 AM
Response to Reply #22
37. Thanks For The Links........
we were spot on to this scam as one can see by reviewing these links.

What other things happened during the reign of BushCo besides terror alerts - did we call - and are now just becoming known.

WMD? US Attorney's; Torture; Plame; etc

We need to catalog all of these. Actually somebody can write a book as to how our MSM let us down - when we all knew what was going on - and they failed to report it.








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AlbertCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:18 PM
Response to Reply #20
52. Whaduya know!
Just about everything Repugs posted anywhere turned out to be false!

Huh.
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dem629 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-21-09 12:21 AM
Response to Reply #6
56. Wouldn't it be easier to manipulate the ballot counts
than "orchestrate" 9/11 and hope people voted for you?

Occam's Razor may apply here. Or just good ole common sense.

I'm with Bill Maher on this: 9/11 conspiracy theorists are batshit crazy.

I think there was election fraud in '00 and '04 and I think it was done at the ballot boxes.
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gratuitous Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:08 AM
Response to Original message
9. Gee Tom, thanks
But why didn't you say something when it could have made a difference to the country, instead of now, when the only difference telling the truth to the American people makes is in the size of your bank account?

Or did I just answer my own question again? Dang, I hate when I do that!
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upi402 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:09 AM
Response to Original message
10. Air America Radio hosts were onto that early
Sam and Jenine called BS on that, as I recall. Others too.
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moondust Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:10 AM
Response to Original message
11. Somewhere Keith Olbermann is shaking his head.
I think he is the only one in the M$M who covered this at some length for what it was.
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alsame Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:13 AM
Response to Reply #11
12. Yes, he had that segment called something like "The Nexus of
Politics and Fear"...he would do a breakdown of every terror alert and show what was happening politically at the time. Every alert either served to boost Bush's poll #s or to distract from something that was hurting his #s.
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scheming daemons Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:14 AM
Response to Original message
13. Those who unrec this thread are freeper bushbots... *NO* Democrat would ever unrec this
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G_j Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:18 AM
Response to Reply #13
16. they are always with us nt
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Dinger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:20 PM
Response to Reply #13
53. I Just Gave It Rec #63, Proudly : )
:)
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G_j Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:17 AM
Response to Original message
15. another crucially important story that will be
glossed over and forgotten. Nobody will be held accountable.
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cbdo2007 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:22 AM
Response to Original message
17. Instilling fear in people to get your way politically is terrorism.
So lets throw Ridge and Cheney and the whole lot of them in Gitmo!
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cbdo2007 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:45 AM
Response to Reply #17
31. In fact...they were correct to raise the terror alert level, we were just wrong who they were...
warning us about.

Now that I thought about this more, using fear as a political motive IS terrorism, so by raising the "terror alert level" they were actually correctly raising it when there was a risk of terrorism. It just wasn't the kind of terrorism we were led to believe and watch out for, but it's kind of a real life oxy-moron situation. Using terrorism to raise the terror alert system.
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Echo In Light Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:22 AM
Response to Original message
18. Phony war
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Seen the light Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:29 AM
Response to Original message
21. Only 22 recommendations?
This seems to me one of the more clear-cut reasons for impeachment that I can think of. I know it doesn't matter now, but WOW!
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Stephanie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:30 AM
Response to Reply #21
24. there's already a front page thread in LBN
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Seen the light Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:35 AM
Response to Reply #24
27. I guess that explains it then! n/t
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marmar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:30 AM
Response to Original message
23. Which will come as a shock to noone here, but maybe it can penetrate those middle-of-the-roaders....
..... who believed the terror warnings.
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lunatica Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:34 AM
Response to Original message
26. So we were right. That means we're right about other things
Most of us who knew on an intuitive level, which is most of us, can believe that we're right about a lot of things. It shows the value of having a forum like DU.

If it smells like bullshit and looks like bullshit then it's probably bullshit.
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tjwash Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:40 AM
Response to Original message
29. fuck the country...write a book about it...PROFIT!!
Edited on Thu Aug-20-09 10:48 AM by tjwash
A looneytarians wet dream this country is.

shakes head...shuffles back to hermit cave, slams rock against the entrance...
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scheming daemons Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 12:19 PM
Response to Reply #29
38. Exactly right
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progressoid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:41 AM
Response to Original message
30. No shit?!?
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Marr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:52 AM
Response to Original message
32. Not just terror alerts, but entrapment of citizens on phony "terrorism" charges,
so they could claim to have captured terrorists... and then they'd jack up the terror alert.
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Echo In Light Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:58 AM
Response to Reply #32
36. And a phony "attack" to justify implementing all the BIG plans they had set to go
PNAC
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DU GrovelBot  Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:52 AM
Response to Original message
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trusty elf Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:56 AM
Response to Original message
34. And that futher mucker has the unmitigated gall to call his book
Edited on Thu Aug-20-09 10:58 AM by trusty elf
"America Under Siege", when the siege mentality was fostered by, among many other things, all of the bogus terror alerts.

F*ck you Peeping Tom.
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malaise Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:58 AM
Response to Original message
35. We knew
Now shout it from the mountain tops and in the valleys too.

Fugging scumbags.
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wiggs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 12:24 PM
Response to Original message
39. HE SAID THIS WHEN HE RESIGNED. Not new, I don't think. This was known
and in typical fashion no one made a big deal about this reprehensible policy.
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Overseas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 12:58 PM
Response to Reply #39
43. Yes it was covered on the token liberal TV shows and alternative news circuits.
Just wasn't made much of on the standard TV news broadcasts.

So now, the conservative dominated corporate media can ignore the story because it is old news. I forget what other major story was ruling the roost when Ridge first admitted the political use of terror alerts.

Or if they want to bring Ridge on for book interviews, they'll look for some other topic to highlight.
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Blue_Roses Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 12:54 PM
Response to Original message
41. It's good to hear him FINALLY say this, but where was he when DUCT TAPE
Edited on Thu Aug-20-09 12:55 PM by Blue_Roses
and saron wrap were the BIG items to stock up on:eyes: Dumb, dumb, dumb ...that should have been a big clue that this wasn't exactly "right".
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Contrary1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 12:56 PM
Response to Original message
42. Awwww...Give them a break.
They were just giving their fans what they wanted. Fear, all day every day.
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tuckessee Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 01:04 PM
Response to Original message
44. You're mistaken that it would big news if a Dem did it.
The terror alert system is still in existence and will be put to good political use by the current Administration. It's one the spoils they inherited from Bush.
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scheming daemons Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 01:07 PM
Response to Reply #44
45. They have not used it at all, in 7 months..... so I say to you... Wanna bet?
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paparush Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 02:11 PM
Response to Original message
47. This Just In - Sun Rises in East, Bears Poop in Woods nt
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OnyxCollie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 09:46 PM
Response to Original message
49. K&R. nt
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Rockholm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:06 PM
Response to Original message
50. Like, Duh. Why did the Bush Administration hate America?
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ShadowLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 10:15 PM
Response to Original message
51. No wonder why Ridge chose not to run for the senate then
I think the fact that Ridge is now suddenly talking about it, without anyone forcing him to do it, shows just why he chose not to run for the senate after Specter's party switch. Obviously even Ridge, a moderate pro-choice republican, has become disgusted with the radical right in the GOP and the it's direction, and didn't want to have to put up with that crap in the senate, and heck even the PA base that might have chosen that nutty Toomey over him (though honestly as a PAer I think Ridge would have won easily against Toomey).
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grahamhgreen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-20-09 11:49 PM
Response to Original message
54. Michael Moore was right about this. NOW can we have a real 9-11 investigation?
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wisteria Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-21-09 12:02 AM
Response to Original message
55. It should be huge news and people in the Bush administration should be held accountable for this
deceit.
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dem629 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-21-09 12:23 AM
Response to Original message
57. There should be prosecutions for this, and Ridge should be on the list of defendants.
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