An unsubstantiated tip that terrorists planned to attack Boston earlier this month should not have been made public, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said yesterday.
The warning -- which turned out to be bogus -- led to a public alert and increased security in Boston and prompted Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to skip President Bush's inauguration. It reflected a breakdown in the still-developing U.S. intelligence-sharing system that was put in place after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
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"This was information shared with our partners, and some of them viewed it as a need to take action on it," Ridge said in one of his final interviews with reporters as he prepares to leave office Tuesday. "And no one on the Department of Homeland Security, based on these initial reports, thought we should do anything with it but share it."
Ridge, a former Pennsylvania governor, described himself as the "biggest patron" of state and local officials' efforts to deter and combat terrorism.
In the Boston situation, however, he asked: "Could we have handled the information a little bit differently on our part? Maybe. Could they have handled the information when we shared it with them and told them everything around it? Absolutely."
Eric Fehrnstrom, communications director for Romney, agreed with Ridge, saying: "When details of the threat were leaked to the news media, it forced law enforcement and elected officials to publicly address this information, even though it was unsubstantiated and uncorroborated."
Seth Gitell, a spokesman for Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino (D), declined comment other than to say, "Mayor Menino is happy that Boston is safe."
