(PHOTO: Former Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge flashes the ubiquitous 'devil's hand' signal. And no, it's not 'hook em horns' again)

As most intelligent Americans have already suspected, the so-called "terror alerts" announced by the Department of Homeland Security during the past several years were completely bogus and were used by the Bush-Cheney Regime as a propaganda ploy to promote the equally bogus "War on Terrorism."

Former Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said that Bush Regime officials forced him to elevate the "threat level" on what he calls "flimsy evidence," reports USA Today.

Ridge, who introduced the goofy color-coded "terror alert" system in 2002, attempted to rationalize his behavior during a Washington press conference.

Current US Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff (whose last name means "of the devil" in Russian) is allegedly deciding how quickly to scrap the color code alert system.

The color alert system has not been changed since December 2003 when it was moved from yellow to orange.