False Alarm

Surprising practically no one who paid one wit of attention during last years election, former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge told USA Today that some threat/terror alerts may not have been entirely legitimate. Ya think? But come on now, they wouldn't have raised the threat level for frivolous purposes would they - you know like during the Democratic National Convention in order to create fear and confusion? Naw.... of course not.

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.

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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?' "

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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.

Vyan