Former Homeland Security team resisted raising alert levels

[The Straight Story]

Former Homeland Security team resisted raising alert levels

By Chris Strohm
[e-mail]
Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Tuesday that his leadership team was opposed "more often than not" to raising the level of the color-coded threat advisory system because of the impact it had across the country, but he stopped short of saying the system should be scrapped.

Ridge said his leadership team and the White House's Homeland Security Advisory Council often held "vigorous discussions" on whether to raise alert levels. The fiv-color alert system has been criticized for being vague, confusing, costly and, at times, politically motivated. It was last raised for key financial sites in New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., last August.

"You'll never know the number of discussions we had internally when some people wanted to raise it and others didn't want to raise it," Ridge said. "There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it."

He added: "There's a general impression that Homeland Security just wants to raise the threat level. I just wanted to debunk that myth publicly right now."

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0505/051005c1.htm

[Bluebear]

1. He sounds sincere, I tend to believe him.

:rofl:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Tom, you dolt...

Don't take us to be as stupid as you are. We know what was in play.