In a new book, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge reveals new details on politicization under President Bush. Among other things, Ridge admits that he was pressured to raise the terror alert to help Bush win re-election in 2004.
UPDATE: Former Bush administration officials are vehemently denying Ridge's statements.
"We went over backwards repeatedly and with great discipline to make sure politics did not influence any national security and homeland security decisions," former White House chief of staff Andy Card told Politico. "The clear instructions were to make sure politics never influenced anything."
"Under no circumstance was Tom Ridge or anyone else directed to change the threat level," former homeland security adviser Frances Townsend said. "It didn't work that way, and it certainly didn't work that way in 2004. It was always an apolitical process."
