US - Homeland Security Threat Level

Hummina, hummina, hummina. The pucker factor over here just jumped a notch (last Friday). Our Pres. Bush had our Homeland Security Threat raised to Orange (High). This is coming from http://www.fema.gov:

Quote:

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"President Bush raised the Homeland Security Advisory System threat level to High Condition (Orange) Friday afternoon. The threat level change was announced by Attorney General John Ashcroft and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.FEMA's Are You Ready? A Guide For Citizen Preparedness, updated this past October, offers specific tips on preparing for National Security Emergencies, including terrorism, chemical and biological weapons, and nuclear and radiological attack."

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FYI - The levels (ranging from highest to lowest threat) are:
Severe (raining frogs, cats & dogs living together - possible anarchy)
High
Elevated
Guarded
Low

Oh yay. Whether we needed to or not, we are now officially freaking out. "Batton down the hatches!"

Is this in response to what the US and the other nations who have prepared to launch an attack soon or something else?

Also - I just saw something on one of our US news channels last nite. I will say this - I think the world should look a bit closer at N.Korea (maybe the US?) and have Germany, France and Belgium maybe handle Iraq. Reasoning? Maybe we need fresh minds to deal with Husayn and since N.Korea is saying they have a problem with the US - then our country (in alignmnet with maybe S.Kore, China, and Russia) work the N.Korea situation.

Either way I don't think this will move us towards the 'global village' Fmr. First Lady and now Sen. Rohdam-Clinton wanted for us all.

What do they base the "threat level" on anyway?

It's based on direct and indirect threats of terrorism towards U.S. interests. (You do realize that not a day goes by that someone, somewhere threatens U.S. interests.) They kind of "listen to the hum of terrorism" around the world and try to glean just how much of it is real and how much of it is the terror organizations stroking themselves. Usually it's the terrorists just pissing in their own hand.

It's more for looks than anything else.

thanks Korp, I was just wondering how much was intel based abd how much was foreign media based, and at what points they draw the line. Also if this was and actual alert for the American public or a "Hey, we're watching you" deterent for the terrorists.

It's a little bit of intel, a little bit of what's on the breeze.....and yes, it serves twofold....to alert us "soft" Americans that there's trouble brewing AND to warn those that would do something against us that we are indeed vigil.

Being a cynic the threat level is raised to take our minds off of how the U.S. is gouging us for oil and blaming everybody else!!!!
Anybody feel less secure or act differently when the level is raised???

Who exactly is the U.S. blaming?? And for what? I'm confused by your statement.

The US is gouging us for oil? Explain yourself. Prices at the pump in the US are far far below those in most other developed countries, due to some subsidies, and low taxes on petroleum products.

Besides, the US, is not the major producer of oil in the world, though it may be one of the largest consumers......

Thus, it has to control it supplies ....
But to the point i think that the increase of threat level (defcon) is just another ploy to reinforce the fear factor in the us so that the us gov can do whatever it wants to do regardless of the internationnal laws.

ie: There almost had been constant fbi/cia/... warning about increase risk of bombings left and right everywhere for the last 1.5 year ... that it shows inconsistency.
the more often you use the alert the less efficient it become...ever heard the story of that young chinese prince that fooled with the alarm warnings ... find it in the art of war ( recomended by most strategic analyst)...

I found this link at CNN:


CIA and Threat Level

That provides more detail on the levels. Also - there is going to be another Bin Laden tape released soon.

Coincidence, psyops? You decide.

This type of thing makes me want to

:cuss:

I think we may have started to take the threat seriously ourselves......

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_749702.html

R.

Oh yay. Makes me wish I just watched cartoons all the time. Does the UK and other countries have something like this threat level?

I just got an alert the Bin Laden is asking for all Muslims to ban together to oppose a strike on Iraq. A bit behind the ball now isn't he? Coulda sworn many groups of people have been demonstrating for quite some time now.

I really wonder if Bin Laden got zapped and his group is now using some sort of 'Animatronic' robot and programming it.

I also wonder what is really going to hit once the first shot is fired.

Everyone make sure you have your flak-jacket!

Sirrahj asked about UK threat levels. Yes we do have them based on colours. Due to the threat of IRA violence we never take ours lower than medium in London. But I can't for the life of me remember the sequence sorry.

Rachel

i think it's too bad the information in the threat levels can't be more informative. if the threat level stays at high for a week or a month, people will forget about it. think about it--has your life really changed when a terrorist warning was issued?

on the other hand, if there is actual intelligence regarding terrorist activity, what level of information is appropriate to tell the media? there's probably a tightrope to walk between causing mass hysteria and not causing enough mass hysteria. plus, if law enforcement had specific knowledge of activities, they shouldn't divulge details of a sensitive nature for several reasons. among these is that they would show their hand to the terrorists themselves.

The U.S. has fuel that costs less than most other industrial countries but the threat of war has skyrocketed the costs of what I am used to paying. The Bush family has made it's fortune on the oil industry and literally millions by not finding any, at one point.
I am cynical an my response was too subjective and for that I apologise :(

Moby_Duck makes a great point. In this country, they do at least say "well we have raised security because we think people might be using rocket launchers to shoot down planes" although I'm not sure whether knowing is better than not knowing. Actually I'd prefer to know, so I could make a rational decision about whether or not to take the risk.

Right now I have no qualms about catching the next flight to New York though.

Rachel

It is my understanding that the threat level was raised due to recent intercepts and the end of a prominent muslim holiday. Its been suggested that Americans buy duck tape and plastic sheets (typically used to protect furintiure/flooring from paint) to seal windows in the event of a dirty bomb or bio attack.

I apperciate the warning but the prevous posted was corrected when they observbed that too high for too long will be meaningless.

I agree with Englishgirl with regards to travel. I have no objections travelling in a plane nor would I avoid NYC [my brother lives there and I do not worry nightly about him]. I think the best thing is to heighten security at events and continue leaving a normal existence.

Cheers,
-D

Sidebar: SNL did a skit where Ridge set the security level based on the color of his M&M in the morning. The country needs a chance to laugh to help relieve the stress.

it seems the major factor in raising the alert level was a tip from a cative in guantanamo who claimmed knowledge of a few cells that planned to detonate dirty bombs in the US. he was later shown not to be telling the truth using a lie detector test which by the way is 10% more accurate than flipping a coin. they decided to keep it orange anyway...guess so they dont look too dumb. good luck with that

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/U...alsealarm.html

But theirs allot of talk that the us oil companies are raising prices for the hell of it. and why not they raise prices for everything else. every holiday they raise the prices because folks will be traveling and because they can. i dont doubt the allegations