Last night I went on a little rant about Colin Powell and why he waited so long to come forward with his complaints regarding Iraq. I said I felt that he had some “internal pressure” that may have prevented it and that should be an enormous alarming bell to Congress.

Now those feelings are even more solid as I read this from ABC’s Brian Ross:

The former Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security says he was pressured to tone down criticism of security failures in the months before the 2004 Presidential election.

Clark Kent Ervin says he was confronted personally by then Secretary Tom Ridge “to intimidate me, to stare me down, to force me to back off, to not look into these areas that would be controversial, not to issue critical reports.”

Ervin will appear this evening on ABC News’ Nightline in advance of the publication of his memoirs, “Open Target: Where America is Vulnerable to Attack.”

Ervin says Ridge and his top aides saw him as “a traitor and a turncoat” because of a series of reports his office delivered to Congress detailing failures by the Department of Homeland Security.

Ervin says he believes another 9/ll hijack attack could be carried out. “I am quite confident that it could be done again,” he tells ABC News.

In a post 9-11 world we need the opinions of ALL who are qualified in their areas of expertise, not just the opinions of those who will play the Bush politics game. Congress must act and they must act now. We as a country need to demand answers about what is going on in our nation’s capital.

Raw Story and Crooks and Liars has more.