Political manipulation of the threat level

EXCELLENT analysis by John Dean of Tom Ridge's claim in his new book, hot off the presses. Ridge claims that, in his role as Homeland Security czar, he was pressured by Ashcroft and Rumsfeld to raise the color-coded threat levels, without any intelligence justification, just before the 2004 election. Ridge says he questioned this at the time in his own mind: was this being done for political reasons? (D'oh!) All of this is plainly spoken of in his book--and has been used by the publisher and author to drum up sales for the book. BUT--when interviewed on Rachel Maddow's show, Ridge backpedaled like crazy, ending up denying what he wrote in his own book!!! Talk about rightwing duplicity/hypocrisy!! (And you have to wonder what kind of threats has Ridge been receiving since writing those words. Is he backpedaling to save his life? Just wondering...) Read the following for the complete story:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/23639