WASHINGTON (AP) - Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Friday he saw no contradiction in the government's renewed public warning of likely terrorist attack and its unwillingness to raise the official terror alert level.
The country remains on "yellow," the midlevel stage of the five-step terror alert program administered by Ridge's department, set up after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that killed some 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington.
Appearing Friday on morning network news shows, Ridge denied that the Bush administration was talking publicly of a threat - without increasing the official alert status - to insulate itself from criticism in the event an attack happens.
"I would say to those who would criticize this kind of public statement that if you ask the homeland security officials at the state and local level, they get it. They understand," he said on CBS's "The Early Show."
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