In his new book, Tom Ridge admits to inciting fear at the request of the Bush 2004 campaign.
Ridge was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings; was “blindsided” by the FBI in morning Oval Office meetings because the agency withheld critical information from him; found his urgings to block Michael Brown from being named head of the emergency agency blamed for the Hurricane Katrina disaster ignored; and 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.
Exactly as Keith Olbermann hypothesized in his Nexus of Politics and Terror segment years ago. I think, though I’m not certain, that the “eve of President Bush’s re-election” alert is Number 10 on Olbermann’s list, which was the subway threat in New York on or around October 6, 2004.
As I wrote in my book, this is the stuff of a major class action lawsuit. Or an all-out criminal investigation. I can’t imagine a better example of shouting “Fire!” in a crowded not-on-fire movie theater.
