Why Is Terror Alert Threat Level Still Yellow
This week’s “most asked ” question in our email… The answer: DHS didn’t change the threat level before and after agents nabbed Najibullah Zazi because advisories to local police were deemed sufficient. Actually there’s a little more to it than that. James Carafano, a homeland-security expert at the Heritage Foundation in Washington and writer of one of my favorite and perhaps “largest” books on my bookshelf , responds in this article.
The investigation into a potential Al Qaeda plot in the US has triggered a raft of warnings from federal authorities about suspicious activity around stadiums, hotels, and train stations, among other places. But it hasn’t moved the color-coded terror alert system.
The Department of Homeland Security’s national threat level was yellow – or elevated – before and after counterterrorism agents nabbed Najibullah Zazi. He’s the Denver airport shuttle driver at the center the investigation into an alleged plot that authorities say involves plans to build peroxide-based bombs.
In fact, the alert system has been static since 2006, when British officials foiled a plan to blow up transatlantic flights headed to North America from London. That caused the warning to jump to red (severe) for those flights and to orange (high) for general attacks.
But there’s no reason this latest terror investigation should have raised the terror alert, says James Carafano, a homeland-security expert at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
“What is widely perceived as a system to update the American people about terrorist threats is not really designed for that,” he says. “When you raise the color-coded system, it’s a blunt instrument” that triggers specific actions by law enforcement and federal agencies.
Panel Recommends Changes To Color-coded Terror Alert
September 15, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
Whew…. After a 60-day review of the nation’s terror-alert system, a special task force is expected to recommend that the Obama administration keep color-coded alerts, but reduce the number of colors (possibly to 3 colors) or levels of risk.
Currently our NTARC “Live Alert” is featured on over 50,000 web pages. If you have the advisory on your website, you will not need to make any changes. We will design the new alert to fit within the same area on your site. We are also planning to take this opportunity and design a couple of updated alerts with additional social media features, once DHS determines the new colors and look.
There are currently five colors in the coded terrorism advisories, long derided by late night TV comics and portrayed by some Democrats as a tool for Bush administration political manipulation.
A bipartisan task force is expected to recommend reducing that to three colors, an official familiar with the review told The Associated Press. The official did not provide details of spoke on condition of anonymity because the results of the review have not publicly been released. The review period concludes Tuesday.
Under the current system, green, at the bottom, signals a low danger of attack; blue signals a general risk; yellow, a significant risk; orange, a high risk; and red, at the top, warns of a severe threat. It was put in place after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and was designed to help emergency responders get prepared. The nation has never been below the third threat level, yellow — an elevated or significant risk of terrorist attack.
From Secretary Napolitano
Secretary Napolitano believes the American people deserve an alert system that is effective and trusted. She thanks the task force for its hard work on this important issue. The Secretary looks forward to reading the report and sharing its recommendations with the White House and other Cabinet officials so that appropriate follow-up action can be taken.
To view the task force report, visit Click Here Click Here
Though some members of the task force argued for scrapping the system altogether, that move could prove complicated because many local governments have policies and procedures triggered when the federal government changes the alert level.
