Homeland Security revisits color-coded terror alert system
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Homeland Security Department will review and possibly replace the often-ridiculed multicolored terror alert system created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Since it was created in 2002, the system has been confusing and for a long while was the butt of late-night television comics. Critics have said the different colors are too vague to deliver enough information to be useful. Democrats insisted the former Bush administration used it for political manipulation.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appointed a task force Tuesday to determine in 60 days how effective the current system is.
"My goal is simple: to have the most effective system in place to inform the American people about threats to our country," Napolitano said in a statement.
The 17-member task force comprises Democrats and Republicans and will be chaired by former FBI Director William Webster and Bush's White House homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend.
The system, which goes from green, signaling a low danger of attack, to red, signaling a severe threat of attack, could get an overhaul or could be eliminated.
There have been bipartisan worries in Congress about the current system, and in 2007, the lawmakers required the department to "provide greater specificity in its threat advisories and warnings" and include countermeasures as part of the program.
Independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who chairs the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he would support the review and hoped it would achieve what Congress asked for two years ago. The top Republican on the committee, Sen. Susan Collins, explained Congress' reasoning behind the requirements added in 2007: "Rather than rely solely on a color-coded designation, we wanted to make more information available to citizens, first responders and the private sector, so that appropriate steps could be taken by local officials and the general public."
The system was widely panned from the outset. Democrats in particular criticized it in recent years, suggesting at times that the Bush administration had been using the alert codes to swing public opinion by focusing attention on national security, a signature issue then for the Republican White House.
The alert level has not been changed since 2006 when it was raised from yellow to red to orange in the aviation sector after it was discovered that terrorists planned to blow up jetliners en route to the United States from Britain.
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 raised the level to yellow.
The United States has not been attacked since 2001.