Dump The Color-Coded Terror Alerts

Michael Maiello, 08.24.09
Forbes.com

In a forthcoming tell-all book from the Bush administration, former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) director Tom Ridge will reportedly claim that the White House pressured him to raise the color-coded terrorist threat level just before the 2004 election in an attempt to scare people into re-electing the president.

All we have now is a tidbit of information meant to sell copies of Ridge's book, and lets face it, Ridge will need all the help he can get selling The Test Of Our Times: America Under Siege And How We Can Be Safe Again. Note to ex-Bush administration officials: If the title of your book sounds like the title of a Steven Seagal movie, start over. Still, if it's Ridge's contention that terror levels were sometimes chosen for political reasons, I'd say he's understating the case--the terror level is always set for political reasons. This isn't like the pollen count, there's nothing to measure objectively. The only thing the terror level tells us is what the government wants us to think about our safety and security. After seven years we can conclude that the government wants us to believe that we are in constant danger.

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There will always be some risk of terrorism for everyone, just like there's always some risk of becoming a crime victim. But that doesn't mean that the government should be telling us we're perpetually at war. Getting rid of the color-coded system would deprive the government of a powerful propaganda tool. Then we can debate our security tactics more rationally and place some limits on government intrusion into people's privacy.

The Homeland Security Department is proposing to discontinue the colour-coded terror alert system that became a symbol of the country�s post-9/11 jitters and the butt of late-night talk show jokes.

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Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ordered a review of the system in July 2009. Earlier this year, the department decided the best way forward would be to scrap the colours and use more descriptive language to talk about terror threats. The recommendation is not related to the recent furor over airport security pat-downs and body scans.

The details of the new alert system � including the words that would be used to describe the threats � are still being worked out internally by multiple government agencies and the White House.