FredCDobbs previously said:

Glimm sorry but this story is doomed and you will again be a laughing stock and have to return to your cave

cabaretewilliam previously said:

A five year old story? What is true is that Bush took the war to the terrorists, and not since 9/11 has there been an attack upon American soil. The alert level MUST remain high until every last Muslim agrees to lay down their arms, stop their attacks on women and children and agree to live peasefully with other religions.

Real solution: do an attitude test on EVERY Muslim in the West, if they fail, send them back, even if born n the west.

Why should we accept people into our countries who vow to see our way of life destroyed - whcih they despise and hate - and repalced by their superior way of life?

Send them all home! One way tickets! Take their passports!

FredCDobbs previously said:

yes buy the book and have someone read it to you

Glimmertwin previously said:

i was just wondering , if this qualifies dubya as a dictator too!!! If not, let me know and I'll continue to pull things from the magic hat and post them until we can agree that it kinda sorta puts him up there amongst goulet's and Willie's favorites !!
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Was Ridge Pressed to Raise Threat Level?By DEB RIECHMANN and EILEEN SULLIVAN, AP
WASHINGTON (Aug. 21) -- Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge says pressure from fellow Cabinet members to raise the nation's terror alert level just before the 2004 presidential election helped convince him it was time to quit working for President George W. Bush.
In a new book, Ridge says that despite the urgings of former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft he objected to raising the security level, according to a publicity release from the book's publisher.


Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge wrote that just before the 2004 presidential election, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft urged him to raise the terrorism alert level. The level wasn't raised.

In the end the alert level was not changed.
Bush's former homeland security adviser, Frances Townsend, said Thursday that politics never played a role in determining alert levels.
Two tapes were released by al-Qaida in the weeks leading up to the election — one by terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and the other by a man calling himself "Azzam the American." Terrorism experts suspected that "Azzam the American" was Adam Gadahn, a 26-year-old Californian whom the FBI had been urgently seeking.
Townsend said the videotapes contained "very graphic" and "threatening" messages.
Townsend said that anytime there was a discussion of changing the alert level, she first spoke with Ridge and then, if necessary, called a meeting of the homeland security council comprising the secretaries of defense and homeland security, the attorney general and CIA and FBI directors. The group then made a recommendation to the president about whether the color-coded threat level should be raised.
"Never were politics ever discussed in this context in my presence," she said.
Asked if there was any reason for Ridge to have felt pressured, Townsend said: "He was certainly not pressured. And, by the way, he didn't object when it was raised and he certainly didn't object when it wasn't raised."
Ridge's publicist, Joe Rinaldi, said Ridge was out of town and was not doing interviews until his book, "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege ... and How We Can Be Safe Again," is released on Sept. 1.
In 2004, Ridge explained why he didn't feel the alert should be raised. "We don't have to go to (code level) orange to take action in response either to these tapes or just general action to improve security around the country," he said then.
In 2005, months after he resigned, Ridge said his agency has been the most reluctant to raise the alert level. "There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?'" he said during a panel discussion in May 2005. But his book appears to be the first time he publicly attributes some of the pressure to politics.
The Homeland Security Department, which Ridge was the first person to lead, faced criticism in 2004 from Democrats who alleged that raising the alert level was designed to boost support for the Bush administration during an election year.
Ridge, who resigned on Nov. 30, 2004, said the episode convinced him to follow through with his plans to leave the Bush administration.
A former Republican congressman and governor of Pennsylvania, Ridge was widely named as a potential running mate to John McCain in 2008 before the GOP candidate chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

bienamor previously said:

You have answered your own question. If the threat level was not raised, then Bush did not have enough power to make Ridge comply! As a dictator he would have had unlimited power to do this!