Terror alerts misused, Sen. John Kerry says

[kskiska]

Source: Boston Herald

Sorry for the r/w link, but this article doesn't appear elsewhere, and Kerry's got a point.

Sen. John Kerry yesterday strongly suggested that President George W. Bush used the terror alert system created after the 2001 terrorist attacks to boost his political campaign during the 2004 election.

Kerry said in an interview with the Herald: “We had red alerts and orange alerts and all these alerts. We haven’t had an alert since the election.”

Republicans immediately attacked the statement, saying Kerry has a misguided viewpoint on the war in Iraq.

(snip)

Kerry made the comments while discussing the difference between the political climate now and during the 2004 election, when he challenged President Bush.

Read more: http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/politics/view/2008_07_15_Terror_alerts_misused__Sen__John_Kerry_says/srvc=home&position=also

[Tempest]

1. Of course he's right

Keith Olbermann did a series called "The Nexus of Politics and Terror" which showed how the terror alerts were used to hide bad news from the administration and to bolster Bush's standing.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/23/olbermann-timeline-how-t_n_88110.html

[Mira]

2. My most major complaint about Senator Kerry is he is always late

[karynnj]

15. He's said this since 2004 - even before the election!

He also had surrogates making that case. I remember that it was Dean who spoke out when they had a terror level rise the morning after the Democratic convention. It later turned out it was based on discredited 3 year old data. That it was false at the time it was issued was that Laura and Jenna Bush went to a fundraiser the nect day at the NYC building that was suppose to be the target.

Now, this was the first week in August - in Manhattan. It would be VERY easy to change the venue - especially as the First Lady and daughter were involved.

[Doctor_J]

3. Thank you, Capt. Obvious. Didn't Ashcroft already admit this?

:eyes:

[MaineYooper]

5. I think it was Tom Ridge who admitted it.

Either way, it was all just confirmation of the obvious.

[Kolesar]

11. Yes, I recall Tom Ridge saying many alerts were unnecessary

but the order came from above him, obviously.

[O.M.B.inOhio]

4. Well, Duh!

After Kerry gave that amazing speech at the Dem convention, sweat dripping off his nose and looking like a passionate fighter for the American people, he got momentum., Then the New York area got another orange alert, and all eyes were on the Protector Bush. That Orange Alert was based on intelligence that was three years old.
So now somebody's talking about it? And the GOP rebuttal to this latest statement is that Kerry's Iraq viewpoint is skewed? It's a statement about misusing Homeland Security as a tool of your political campaign! (And by the way, how much money did NY, NJ, and CT spend responding to this DHS/Bush campaign stunt?)

[karynnj]

16. Laura and Jenna Bush came to NYC the next day

Their event was even in the "targeted" building -yet they did not change the venue - even to another building!

NYC had to have spent a HUGE amount of money. Entering NJ from Penn Station from a NJ train, there was as much military presence as I remember from Israel. The Port Authority of NY/NJ had to spend a huge amount monitoring the traffic into the tunnels and bridges.

In addition to the cost, those fake warning were, by definition an act of terrorism. I know people who were under stress every time they entered the city under those warnings. Many New Yorkers took it more in stride, but not all of them. This was what Bush et all did rather than trying to heal or soothe the nation.

[Pharaoh]

6. Dooouuh!

most of us with brains were seeing that in real time John!Not 6 years after the fact........

[Ian David]

7. "Furthermore, I have just learned that there were irregularites in Florida and Ohio." n/t

[karynnj]

17. He has been the one speaking of problems since 2004

The longest statement in the Senate record was before the vote on the Rosa Parks extention of the voting rights bill. His MLK day speech in 2005 was well covered and blasted by the Republicans and some Democrats for using MLK Day to speak about voter suppression - even though MLK, if he were there in spirit, would likely have been disgusted if he didn't.

Kerry was the victim of both the misuse of DHS and voting shenanigans. He also was the victim of an unprecedented media condoned and abetted character assassination. Given all this the surprising thing is that he came so close. Not to mention, since then he has been subject to this type of ridicule. He's your Senator - do you really think this is the first time he's spoken of this? Would he ever have won either upset win getting the LT GOV or Senate (1984) nomination if he weren't a lot sharper than that?

[kestrel91316]

8. No. Really?? He can't be serious.

:eyes:

[Proud Liberal Dem]

9. Apparently the GOP has no idea what Kerry is talking about

His statements had NOTHING whatsoever to do with Iraq and everything to do with Bush's DHS' seemingly obvious misuse of the terror alert system during the run up to the 2004 election which, as Kerry correctly noted (albeit a bit late), hasn't changed AFAIK since the 2004 election and IMHO were totally useless to begin with since they didn't really do anything meaningful in terms of giving the rest of us any idea of what to do to prepare/respond to terrorist plots that never ended up materializing and some of which were based on old and/or misleading data.

[karynnj]

18. Kerry has been out there speaking of that since 2004

Why now - the reporter asked. It would be a lot better to make the case that this has been what the Republicans do. It will help Obama if people EXPECT these games - so they might see them for what they are.

Don't you think that Kerry, one of VERY VERY few Senators concerned that non-state terrorists COULD strike in the US before it happened knew the terror codes were ridiculous. Kerry spoke of the possibility of a terrorist strike that could change everything in an instance in his book New War. He couldn't get his international money laundering legislation passed as it was blocked by other Senators. Kerry was the one who helped in closing OBL's bank.

[politicasista]

22. **crickets** n/t

[dkofos]

10. Gee, if only he had known that sooner.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BearSquirrel2]

13. Way to re-awaken a Zombie thread ...

Oops, no this is just more of John Kerry's spectacularly bad timing.

Move along.

[karynnj]

20. He was asked a question by a reporter

This is not the first time he has spoken of these things. It actually is NOT bad timing. It is easier to see now what happened then - and it's important unless you think the Republicans have turned over a new leave.

[Kelvin Mace]

14. And?

Tell us something we haven't known about for five years or more.

What do you plan on DOING about it?

Nothing.

[karynnj]

21. He and Lautenberg wrote legislation on using

the government agencies to produce Republican propaganda. Not exactly the same - but related. They were trying to specificly make illegal things anyone know are wrong.

Here, what do you expect him to do? Sue Tom Ridge? That's not possible. What do you want Obama to do to prevent it? Or is it only Kerry who has all the responsibility.

[Kelvin Mace]

30. Who said Obama was going to do anything about it?

Not me.

The point is, other than grandstand, Dems do NOTHING to prosecute these people, or to thwart them. In fact, as the recent FISA vote proves, they accommodate these people, and retroactively make their crimes legal.

[karynnj]

31. Kerry voted against FISA and filibustered it in Dec, Feb, and July

He also was one of three (yes, 3) Senators who when the FISA story first came out joined Feingold in a resolution to censure Bush. They were Boxer, Harkin and Kerry.

This was an action that the Senate could take - but that is the complete list of Senators that Feingold got. In addition, look at the WMD, phase 2 story. (Phase 2 was to look at whether the Bush administration manipulated the data).

- In 2004, this part of the report was promised after the election - so as not to influence it (!!!!! shouldn't that be known before voting!)
- By late spring 2005, it was not released and the Downing Street Memo was leaked that supported the case that the intelligence was "fixed"
- Kerry wrote a letter to the Intelligence committee, headed by Roberts demanding they complete this and include review of the DSM. He got just TEN Seantors to sign it - even with people here calling their senators.
- Roberts reply was that it wasn't necessary that Phase 1 answered all the questions - which it didn't
- Later (not sure if late 2005 or early 2006), Reid demanded the same thing and took the Senate behind closed doors. Roberts then said that the Democrats were dishonest and the report was due to be released "soon". Kerry put his and Roberts' letters up on his web site. Nothing came out until this year!
- Earlier this year in the height of primary season, the report came out and confirmed that they intentionally distorted the intelligence. People here always assumed that, but this was the first official report that said not just the the intelligence given to everyone was wrong - but that they knew it was wrong. The significance was that this could be the basis for what you are asking. The problem is that Bush will be out of office before impeachment could occur had it started right then. (Not to mention no one wanted this right before the election.)

Look at those numbers - Kerry in 2005 could only get 10 Senators to demand a promised report to get the truth out. In 2006, when the truth of FISA came out, Feingold could only get the support of 3 other Senators. Look at the cloture vote on the Dodd amendment (the amendment to strip out immunity to the telcos). It got only 32 Senators, all Democrats - when it needed 60. (This is clearly to protect Bush, not the telcos)

Here are those Senators:
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Casey (D-PA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murray (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

Notice that DU favorite Webb was among the nos. (Yet he gets praised to high heavens here, while you complain about Kerry. Kerry has spoken out and has done what could be done with the other 99 Senators. If you want to bash people start with Webb and the others voting wrong.

The reason I asked about Obama - is because he, not Kerry, is the leader of the party. My point is that you seem to still assign Kerry a special responsibility on this - yet as soon as he lost, one wing of the party pretty much claimed he had no right to think he was a party leader - though of course he did. At any rate, at this point the leader is Obama.

[Kelvin Mace]

36. I am no fan of Webb either

I have attacked Webb for his votes on FISA and on continuing to fund Iraq.

I hold Kerry no more, or less, responsible for what has happened. He has acquitted himself well of late, but the Democrats as a whole have failed us. Like Gore, Kerry seems to have found out the right way to go after losing.

The Democratic Party is now as guilty as the GOP in the destruction of the Constitution and the commission of war crimes. The Iraq war belongs to them as much as Bush because on every instance when they had the power to say no, they caved and said yes.

I only know of a single Democrat standing up for the rule of law, and that is Kucinich. He's the only person actively trying to impeach BushCo.

[politicasista]

23. thanks n/t

[Mass]

24. This thread is a perfect example of why we lose. Not because of Kerry but because of half the

posters here who post without thinking (whether they have the ability to think or not is another question).

I do not know why the Herald published that -- That is the Herald, so they think their readers are stupid --, but this is nothing new. Kerry has said it again and again and if you were sleeping then, this is only your fault.

[karynnj]

25. Yay, MASS!!!!

[politicasista]

26. Thank you

And yes, they are doing the same with Obama.

[BlueIris]

27. What's this? Political news of a SANE and productive variety?

Yes, yes it is. Thank the sweet Lord. And John Kerry.

[JerseygirlCT]

28. Well, yeah.

I'm always surprised that anyone could think this wasn't the case!

[karynnj]

29. THis might be the first time a paper as RW as the Boston Herald printed this.

Tom Ridge even spoke of this when he quit. It's not whether it's true, it is that this may be the first exposure that some people ever had to what really is a very shameful act.

I Know that the terror alerts caused some fear to people in our area - even as we saw through them. I never will forget getting off the train in Penn Station and seeing tons of soldiers with guns. I had seen that in Israel and Eqypt - but not NYC.

[redqueen]

32. Of course the GOP issued fake terror alerts for political reasons.

I thought this was old news.

Didn't the "liberal media" go on and on and on for weeks about how the GOP-controlled WH was behind the phony alerts?

[karynnj]

34. Of course they did - read the article though - it is the Boston Herald that thought this was news

Kerry simply included it in a list of things they were fighting against in 2004. Would you have preferred he NOT mention it. It also is a very strong accusation - Bush terrorized the American people for political purposes. I thought you wanted people to hold Bush accountable.

That actually was a big factor in the election. Through those alerts and other means (including Cheney basically say that America will be attacked again if Kerry is elected) to terrorize people, Bush made people very scared and scared people are reluctant to take a chance with changes. It also cost the cities a huge amount of money and it really did set nerves on edge, even for those who became skeptical. I know I thought of it each time I entered the Lincoln Tunnel.

Note that the OP correctly put this in GD-P, not LBN. It is not new to us or to Kerry.

[redqueen]

35. What the hell are you talking about?

Where did you get the idea that I didn't want to hold bush accountable?

:wtf:

And... this was moved from GDP to LBN? Really?

[karynnj]

37. You're right on the forum

The point I was making is that it is important for Kerry and other leaders to state clearly and unequivocally things like this that happened. The reason is that otherwise, many people will not know that this happened. Not many of the Herald's readers were on DU. The comment was that those of us, and I include you, me and I assume everyone here, want accountability. (I did not say you didn't)

The first step has to be to make more people aware of the transgressions. The fact is that very few people have spoken of this in the MSM - even when Ridge pretty much admitted it.

[redqueen]

39. I'd avoid using terms like "you" in personal responses.

"I thought you wanted people to hold Bush accountable."

Still don't get why you responded to my post the way you did.

[karynnj]

41. I'm sorry that it hurt or offended you - it clearly was not my intent

It seemed you had a problem with Kerry speaking of the terror level changes - which seemed inconsistent.

[redqueen]

42. Gosh no!

I'm glad he's bringing it up again. :)

I just wish the "liberal" media would hammer on it like they do the meaningless BS! :banghead:

[daggahead]

33. His timing is impeccible. n/t

[rocktivity]

38. Candidate for this year's "You Call This NEWS?" Award

It turns out that Bush has been "misuing" us since even before 9/11.

:headbang:
rocknation

[bdamomma]

40. hey Senator Kerry, you have been played just like us.