Never-ending orange terrorist alert comes under fire
Most air travelers are accustomed to hearing notices that the threat level remains at orange, but what exactly does that mean? And who cares?
“The alert level, which indicates a high risk of attack, stayed orange even after a botched attempt to blow up a jetliner approaching Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. In fact, the advisory system has remained at orange for air travel since 2006,” says the Detroit Free Press in an exhaustive and interesting examination of the issue.
Everything outside of air travel is covered by a different advisory level. That has remained at yellow, or elevated alert — the middle of the advisory system’s five levels and colors — since 2005, the newspaper says.
The system, created in the months after the 9-11 terrorist attacks to pass on information about potential threats against the US and offer guidance to the public and security personnel, appears to be on autopilot.
“Of bigger concern, security experts said, is that many Americans are indifferent because the system lacks credibility,” adds the newspaper.
Passengers typically say they always ignore it.
Phillip Schertzing says he could dedicate an entire class to America’s color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System. Schertzing teaches online courses in homeland security through Michigan State University.
"What real meaning does it have if it’s always at orange?" Schertzing said of the air travel advisory, noting that Americans generally see or hear references to the alert system only when they fly or visit the Department of Homeland Security’s web site.
The department said the future of the current system is under review.
"The federal government’s review process — to say it’s ponderous and glacially slow is an understatement," Schertzing said.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced last year that a task force would review the color-coded advisory system. "My goal is simple: to have the most effective system in place to inform the American people about threats to our country," she said in a news release at the time.
"The task force members agreed that, at its best, there is currently indifference to the Homeland Security Advisory System and, at worst, there is a disturbing lack of public confidence in the system," according to the report.
Among its suggestions, the task force recommended that the number of threat levels be reduced from five to three, and that it be easier to lower the threat level, which has never dropped below "elevated."
Information on threats should be more clearly spelled out, the task force added. When possible, alerts should announce the affected regions, what the government is doing to address the threat and specific steps members of the public can take.
Although critical of the system’s implementation, the task force determined that a national threat warning system for terrorist attacks "is as central now as it was when today’s system was established in 2002,” said the newspaper.
By David Wilkening
David
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