Administration/Homeland Security often disagreed on Threat Level...
 

Call me cynical, but this doesn't surprise me at all.

"Ridge Reveals Clashes on Alerts
Former Homeland Security Chief Debunks "Myth"

By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY

"The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says."

This stuff smelled like politics to me when it happened, and the stench hasn't faded.

If that is true, I think it's criminal.

Paraphrasing the words of the immortal Ralph Kramden (the mere mortal Jackie Gleason):

"One of dese days, Mr. President, one of dese days... POW! Caught with our pants around our ankles!"

Too much crying wolf is gonna make people complacent... when Washington or New York or some other major city in the US gets an al-Qaeda dirty bomb present from Osama-yo-mama, it's gonna be the blame game all over again.