“In the immediate aftermath of the Democratic Convention, on August 1 [2004], Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge raised the threat level to Code Orange–high–asserting that the government had ‘new and unusually specific information about where al-Qaeda would like to attack. And as a result, today, the United States Government is raising the threat level to Code Orange for the financial services sector in New York City, Northern New Jersey and Washington, DC.’ The timing was opportune, for it distracted attention from [John] Kerry’s official nomination as the Democratic candidate and reminded voters that they saw the Republicans as strong on national security.”
– Craig Unger, The Fall of the House of Bush, Page 318