The Colors! The Colors! Oh my!

[on-ramp]

I found this quite entertaining. Our country is run by Bozo the Clown, so this makes perfect sense.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060812/ap_on_re_us/color_coded_confusion

Alert system spans a rainbow of colors

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent 53 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - It's yellow on America's streets, orange in New York City and red in the skies, but only for travelers on planes from Britain. When it comes to terrorism threats, the nation is painted in a confusing rainbow of colors.
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Despite criticism that the color-coded threat alert system adopted in 2002 lacks meaningful information, it remains the measure by which Americans are supposed to judge how much danger they face.

Red is the worst-case scenario, warning of a severe risk of terrorist attacks. So why are U.S.-bound planes allowed to fly from London under a red advisory?

That can be confusing for travelers, according to John Rollins, former chief of staff in the
Homeland Security Department's intelligence analysis unit.

Once anything gets to red, he said, U.S. officials should "pretty much shut down that activity."

In general, Rollins said, the color-coded system is "confusing and disconcerting for Americans that want to travel."

Red means there is indisputable, credible evidence that an attack is planned or has already occurred, Rollins said. "Why take any chances?" he said. If the threat didn't warrant red, he said, put it at orange.

The Homeland Security Department defended the red designation, saying the proper security precautions are in place and the public should feel confident about traveling.

"To stop flying or to shut down an industry would in many ways be handing the bad guys a victory," said Russ Knocke, Homeland Security spokesman.

The warning system has five colors designating increasing levels of risk of terrorist attacks: green (low), blue (guarded), yellow (elevated), orange (high) and red (severe). The nation has never been below yellow since 2001 although Hawaii put itself at blue for a year after the national system was adopted. It has since upgraded to yellow.

The system was widely panned from the outset, with critics saying the different color levels are too vague to impart enough information to be useful, to either local governments or the public.

"For the average American ... it's just a general awareness notification mechanism," said Rollins, now a terrorism expert for the Congressional Research Service and co-author of report last year that questioned the "utility and credibility of the system."

Michael Wermuth, director of homeland security at the Rand Corp., said: "When they first established it, we kept bouncing back from yellow to orange, yellow to orange, and nationwide people didn't know what that meant.

"Police and fire departments — they saw the color change but they didn't know what they were supposed to do about that."

But Wermuth said Homeland Security has been doing a better job, particularly by tailoring warnings to specific threats and certain segments of critical infrastructure.

The red alert announced Thursday applied only to U.S.-bound planes from Britain. All other air travel was put under an orange alert. Air travel aside, the nation's alert level remained at yellow except for New York City.

"If they didn't need to do more than that," Wermuth said, "that sounds pretty much right. It seems like they're settling in to a pretty good system."

Rollins agreed that the system has improved.

"What's missing, I think, is still kind of the applicability of what people, communities, local law enforcement can do to address and report on issues relevant to the current threat environment," Rollins said.

Thursday's warning marked the eighth time the terror threat advisory level has been raised to orange — and the first time it has gone to red — since the system's 2002 creation.

The last time was a monthlong alert in July 2005 after the subway bombings in London. It was targeted only to mass transit systems.

The American Public Transportation Association raised the alarm about the cost of the alert, estimating mass transit systems nationwide spent at least $900,000 on security measures each day.

In August 2004, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge raised the alert level to orange but only in the cities of Washington, New York City and Newark, N.J., because of potential threats to financial buildings there.

But Democrats were critical, as it came just as they were concluding their presidential convention and served to swing attention back to the topic of national security — the signature issue of
President Bush's re-election campaign.