White House to Increase Ridge's Exposure

Homeland Security Chief to Brief 3 Times Weekly in Move to Reduce Confusion

Homeland security chief Tom Ridge frequently will be accompanied by other Cabinet members in briefings. (Stephen J. Boitano - AP)

White House officials, facing daily choices between reassuring the nation and disclosing disturbing findings about terrorism, plan to begin releasing more information this week after initially playing down dangers facing the country.

Officials plan to announce Monday that Tom Ridge, Bush's new director of homeland security, will give briefings three times a week about terrorism response and prevention. Although other Cabinet members will frequently appear with him, the new schedule follows criticism from Capitol Hill and elsewhere that too many voices have been speaking for the administration about the anthrax attacks.

"We want to brand Tom Ridge," a White House official said. "When people see him, we want them to think, 'My babies are safe.' "

Administration officials acknowledge that they have yet to find a sure footing in deciding what information to release, and how. Senior West Wing officials were taken aback by the media frenzy stirred up by the FBI's vague Oct. 11 "warning of possible future terrorist attacks," and several administration officials said they do not believe President Bush would authorize such a release again if officials had no specifics.

On the other hand, congressional officials of both parties say the White House should have been more candid from the beginning about what was known about the grade of anthrax contained in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.). Bush officials portrayed that sample as similar to the spores that had been received in New York and Florida and had not hurt postal workers. In fact, the Daschle spores were more lethal.

The White House announced that Thursday, three days after two postal workers died. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said informed sources elsewhere in government are more free to offer conjecture that may turn out to be right. "The White House has a higher burden to say it once and say it right," Fleischer said.

Bush will long be haunted by second-guessing about the executive branch response to Daschle's receipt on Oct. 15 of an anthrax-laced letter. That was a Monday. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives closed. On Friday, congressional leaders were briefed about the anthrax investigation in a conference call with officials from the Defense Department, Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI and other agencies.

Participants said they came away with the clear indication that the anthrax in the Daschle letter was in a highly lethal form. The information was not made public. Two postal workers, who apparently inhaled anthrax at a sorting center that had handled the Daschle letter but were not tested or treated, died three days after the conference call.

A Democratic congressional aide quoted a Defense Department official as saying during the conference call, "There is an effort to downplay and not promote the abilities of the people doing this."

On the same day, Ridge said during a televised White House briefing that in comparing the anthrax received by Daschle and anthrax received earlier in New York and Florida, where no postal workers reported exposure, "The tests to date have concluded that the strains are indistinguishable."

Congressional leaders were giving a very different impression with their public statements. After breakfast with Bush on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), said, "This is weapons-grade material. It is serious material, and we've got to err on the side of caution."

The White House finally confirmed on Thursday that the anthrax received by Daschle was more dangerous than the earlier batches. Ridge said additional tests showed it was more highly concentrated and more pure, with smaller spores. "Therefore, they're more dangerous because they can be more easily absorbed in a person's respiratory system," Ridge said.

During a briefing on Thursday, Fleischer offered a syntactic defense of Ridge's earlier position, saying there was "a matter of interpretation" about the meaning of indistinguishable. "I don't know that everybody understands that when that word is used in the science of anthrax, 'indistinguishable' applies to the DNA characteristics," Fleischer said. "What he said is accurate."

Jennifer D. Floto, a specialist in crisis communications who teaches at the University of Southern California, said White House statements about anthrax appear to have been late, confusing and contradictory. "In the case of anthrax, it's a little late for them to recover their credibility," Floto said.

Joe Lockhart, a White House press secretary under President Bill Clinton, said it ultimately is Bush -- not Ridge -- who must lead the country. "Bush is very strong on why we're fighting the war and the military involvement, but when it comes to the domestic issues, he's been absent," Lockhart said. "It's almost like they don't want to associate him with something that's murkier and not as clear."

The criticism from Capitol Hill has been mostly behind the scenes, because the president remains popular in polls, and congressional aides say they are anxious to preserve the bipartisan spirit engendered by the Sept. 11 attacks. But congressional officials asserted that the White House has hurt itself by not being franker early in the anthrax crisis. "It is eerie the lack of communication between the White House and Capitol Hill," said an aide in an office that has worked closely with Bush.

An aide to a top Republican lawmaker noted that Bush was in China over the weekend. "The timing was just terrible. It was no one's fault," the official said. "Ridge is new, feeling his way around. Some direction from the top would be helpful, but this is a learning experience."

Administration officials say they will continue to be judicious with their releases of facts. "The policy of this administration is that we will only discuss factual, confirmed information by scientists and experts," an official said. "Just because cable television stations throw their version of breaking news on the screen doesn't mean that their facts are accurate."

A senior administration official said the White House believes accurate information is reassurance, and sees no need to choose. "The administration wants the public to be well-informed," the official said. "There hasn't been a change in philosophy, only a change in our level of knowledge.

White House officials continue to say they will not answer some questions, including those involving security measures. That reason has been cited in refusals to answer whether White House staff members have been vaccinated against potential biological attacks, or are taking antibiotics.

On Thursday, Fleischer was asked whether Bush, who said Tuesday that he does not have anthrax, has been tested or vaccinated. "I'm not going to answer the question because, where do I go after that?" Fleischer said. "Once I answer for one illness, you're going to go to the second illness."