In his new book, the first Homeland Security chief, Tom Ridge, accuses top aides to President George W. Bush of pressing him to raise the terror alert level to influence the 2004 presidential election.
Ridge, a former Republican governor of Pennsylvania, says that he refused the entreaty just before the election from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft, according to a summary of the book from publisher Thomas Dunne Books.
"After that episode, I knew I had to follow through with my plans to leave the federal government for the private sector," Ridge, who resigned soon after the election where Bush defeated Democrat John F. Kerry, writes in "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege ... And How We Can Be Safe Again."
Ridge's book will only fuel Bush critics, who have long said that his White House used terror threats to distract the public from the unpopular Iraq war.
"In this probing and surefooted memoir, Ridge takes us through the challenges he and his new department faced, including Anthrax scares and reports (both real and false alarms) of new Al-Qaeda operations sprouting up in the United States," says the publisher's summary of the book, scheduled to be out on Sept. 1.
"Ridge writes with refreshing candor on both the successes and missteps of the DHS. He details the obstacles faced in his new post -- often within the administration itself -- as well as the failures of Congress to provide for critical homeland security needs, and the irresponsible use of terrorism by both parties to curry favors with voters," the summary continues.
It says that Ridge also reveals in the book how the department was "pressured to connect homeland security to the international “war on terror;” and how he had "pushed for a plan (defeated because of turf wars) to integrate DHS and FEMA disaster management in New Orleans and other areas before Hurricane Katrina."
Asked about the allegation about the election, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs noted today that current Homeland Security Janet Napolitano launched a study whether to scrap the color-coded system, which critics say is ineffective and confusing.
"Decisions regarding the terror threat should be made based on the rise and fall of that threat, not based on anything else," Gibbs told reporters.
