August 20, 2009 / by emptywheel

 

Red Alert! Bush Was Going to Lose!

Tom Ridge will apparently confirm everything we suspected: he was ordered (by whom?!) to raise the terror alert going into the 2004 election so Bush could fear-monger his way to a second term. But it’s the (yet more) evidence of Bush’s sheer incompetence sounds more interesting.

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.

In particular, I look forward to knowing precisely what kind of warning Ridge gave against hiring Heckova Job Brownie. And I’m sure those in New Orleans are sort of curious, too.

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Originally Posted @ https://www.emptywheel.net/2009/08/20/red-alert-bush-was-going-to-lose/