The White House's color-coded terrorism alert system, which has been harshly criticized by counterterrorism specialists and much of the public, is being revamped to make it far more difficult for the government to justify raising the threat level, according to senior administration officials.
Under revisions made in recent weeks, they said, the Department of Homeland Security has set new, tougher internal guidelines for raising the threat levels.
They said the alert level -- which is now at yellow, representing an "elevated" threat and the midpoint in the five-color palette of alerts -- would be raised only if there was credible, detailed evidence of an imminent terrorist attack on American soil, a more stringent threshold than in the past.
The officials cited the new guidelines in explaining why the administration had decided not to raise the alert level this week despite a pair of events that could have easily justified a heightened alert in the past: the anniversary on Thursday of the Sept. 11 terror attacks and the broadcast of a new videotape suggesting that Osama bin Laden and his chief lieutenant were both alive and were plotting new, catastrophic attacks.
Last September, on the eve of the first anniversary of the attacks, the level was raised from yellow to orange, representing a "high risk" of terrorism, after intelligence analysts warned that al-Qaeda would use the anniversary to strike domestic targets.
The color-coded system, which was introduced by the administration in March 2002 and is known formally as the Homeland Security Advisory System, has been criticized for having unnecessarily confused and alarmed the public. It has been a popular target for the administration's Democratic critics on Capitol Hill, as well as for late-night television comedians.
A congressional report last month warned that the system was so vague in detailing terrorist threats that the public might "begin to question the authenticity" of the threats and take no action when the alert level is raised.
In a meeting with reporters on Friday, Tom Ridge, the homeland security secretary, said the new, higher threshold for raising the alerts reflected a belief that the nation was better prepared to deal with terrorist threats.
Ridge, who became responsible earlier this year for setting the alert level, defended the color-coded system, noting that it had replaced a haphazard series of public announcements after the Sept. 11 attacks in which the administration warned of possible terrorist threats but provided little guidance about their severity or how to respond to them.
The move to raise the threshold for changes in the alert level was welcomed by Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg, who has been a leading critic of the system. "Any changes DHS makes to its Crayola-colored threat system should be an improvement," he said. "The system has caused financial hardships, fear, panic and confusion among Americans."
The alert level has bounced between yellow and orange since the system was inaugurated last year. It has been raised to orange four times, most recently in May, after terrorist bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco. It has never fallen below yellow to blue ("general risk") or green ("low"), nor has it ever been raised to red ("severe"), the highest level of alert.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in