Ridge links politics to 2004 terror alerts

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge claims in a new book that he was pressured by other members of President George W. Bush’s Cabinet to raise the nation’s terror alert level just before the 2004 presidential election.

Ridge says he objected to raising the security level despite the urgings of former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and then- Attorney General John Ashcroft, according to a publicity release from Ridge’s publisher. In the end, the alert level was not changed. He said the episode persuaded him to follow through with his plans to leave the administration; he resigned Nov. 30, 2004.

Bush’s former homeland security adviser, Frances Townsend, said Thursday that politics never played a role in determining alert levels.

Two tapes were released by al-Qaida in the weeks leading up to the election — one by terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and the other by a man calling himself “Azzam the American.” Terrorism experts suspected that “Azzam the American” was Adam Gadahn, a 26-year-old Californian whom the FBI had urgently been seeking.