Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge contends in a new book that he was pressured to raise the terrorism alert level just before the 2004 presidential election.
Ridge says he objected to raising the security level despite the urgings of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft, according to a release from Ridge’s publisher. He said the episode persuaded him to follow through with plans to leave the administration; he resigned Nov. 30, 2004. In the end, the alert level was not raised.
Former President George W. Bush’s former homeland- security adviser, Frances Town send, said Thursday that politics never played a role in determining alert levels.
