Homeland Security Advisory System
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the Homeland Security
Homeland security
Homeland security is an umbrella term for security efforts to protect states against terrorist activity. Specifically, is a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the U.S., reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do...
Advisory System was a color-code
Color code
A color code is a system for displaying information by using different colors. Color codes are often difficult for color blind and blind people to interpret....
d terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
threat
Imminent threat
Hugo Grotius, the 17th century jurist and father of public international law, stated in his 1625 magnum opus The Law of War and Peace that "Most Men assign three Just Causes of War, Defense, the Recovery of what's our own, and Punishment."...
advisory scale. The different levels trigger specific actions by federal agencies and state and local governments, and they affect the level of security at some airports and other public facilities. It is often called the "terror alert level" by the U.S. media. The system was, as scheduled, phased out April 27, 2011, and replaced with a new system called the National Terrorism Advisory System
National Terrorism Advisory System
The National Terrorism Advisory System is a two-level terrorism threat advisory scale used by the United States Department of Homeland Security since April 26, 2011. The system was announced on January 27, 2011 by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano during a speech at George Washington...
. The phase-out was announced on January 27, 2011 by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano
Janet Napolitano
Janet Napolitano is the third and current United States Secretary of Homeland Security, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She is the fourth person to hold the position, which was created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the 21st...
during a speech at George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
.
History
The system was created by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 3 on March 11, 2002, in response to the September 11 attacks. It was meant to provide a "comprehensive and effective means to disseminate information regarding the risk of terrorist acts to federal, state, and local authorities and to the American people." It was unveiled March 12, 2002, by Tom RidgeTom Ridge
Thomas Joseph "Tom" Ridge is an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives , the 43rd Governor of Pennsylvania , Assistant to the President for Homeland Security , and the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security...
, then the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security. However, responsibility for developing, implementing and managing the system was given to the U.S. Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
.
In January 2003, the new Department of Homeland Security
United States Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet department of the United States federal government, created in response to the September 11 attacks, and with the primary responsibilities of protecting the territory of the United States and protectorates from and responding to...
(DHS) began administering the system. The decision to publicly announce threat conditions is made by the Secretary of Homeland Security in consultation with the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, according to Homeland Security Presidential Directive-5.
On January 27, 2011, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano
Janet Napolitano
Janet Napolitano is the third and current United States Secretary of Homeland Security, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She is the fourth person to hold the position, which was created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the 21st...
announced that the Homeland Security Advisory System would be replaced by a new two-level National Terrorism Advisory System in April 2011. Napolitano, who made the announcement at George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
, said the color-coded system often presented "little practical information" to the public and that the new system will provide alerts "specific to the threat" and that "they will have a specified end date."
Description
- Severe (redRedRed is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...
): severe risk - High (orangeOrange (colour)The colour orange occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum at a wavelength of about 585–620 nm, and has a hue of 30° in HSV colour space. It is numerically halfway between red and yellow in a gamma-compressed RGB colour space, the expression of which is the RGB colour wheel. The...
): high risk - Elevated (yellowYellowYellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green...
): significant risk - Guarded (blueBlueBlue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...
): general risk - Low (greenGreenGreen is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...
): low risk
The specific government actions triggered by different threat levels have not always been revealed to the public, although the government has provided general guidance for civilians and federal agencies. Actions have included increasing police and other security presence at landmarks and other high-profile targets, a closer monitoring of international borders and other points of entry, ensuring that emergency response personnel were ready, and, in some cases, deployment of members of the National Guard
United States National Guard
The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...
and State Guard
State Defense Forces
State defense forces in the United States are military units that operate under the sole authority of a state government; they are partially regulated by the National Guard Bureau but they are not a part of the Army National Guard of the United States...
to assist local law enforcement on security details.
Some of the actions taken as a result of the threat levels have been challenged as being illegal under the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause...
. No court has yet ruled on these various actions.
The published terror alert notices have urged American citizens, especially those traveling in the transportation systems, to "be vigilant, take notice of their surroundings, and report suspicious items or activities to local authorities immediately." In addition, DHS advises the public to prepare an emergency preparedness kit and a family emergency plan.
This system is no longer in place. It was replaced in January 2011.
Objective criteria
There are no published criteria for the threat levels, and thus no independent way to tell whether the current threat level is accurate. The threat levels Green (low risk) and Blue (general risk) have never been used. The evidence cited to justify changes in threat levels has been stated vaguely (see below) and its sources have seldom been revealed. Supporters of the system defend this by stating that providing detailed, current intelligence about terror organizations would endanger the ability to gather similar information in the future.Some critics worry that the absence of clearly defined, objective criteria has allowed the baseline threat level to be established as elevated (yellow), thus precluding the system from ever dropping down to low (green) or general (blue). This limits the communicative value and options of the system to the three highest values. As persons become habituated to the threat level being perpetually elevated, they are increasingly likely to pay less attention to warnings issued.
Political manipulation
The lack of disclosure makes the system vulnerable to manipulation by government officials. These attributes have been criticized by cartoonists, journalists, entertainers, independent writers, and security experts.The alert level was raised once in 2004, an election
Elections in the United States
The United States has a federal government, with elected officials at the federal , state and local levels. On a national level, the head of state, the President, is elected indirectly by the people, through an Electoral College. In modern times, the electors virtually always vote with the popular...
year, leading some critics to speculate that the Bush Administration used them for political rather than strictly security reasons. In 2009, Ridge alleged in his book The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege...and How We Can Be Safe Again that top aides to President Bush (including defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and attorney general John Ashcroft) pressured him to raise the alert level on the eve of the November 2004 presidential election. Ridge refused. "After that episode, I knew I had to follow through with my plans to leave the federal government for the private sector," he said.
In December 2004, the Homeland Security Advisory Council
Homeland Security Advisory Council
The Homeland Security Advisory Council is part of the Executive Office of the President. It was created by an Executive Order on March 19, 2002.-Council Members:* William H. Webster , Partner, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, LLP...
voted to review the color-coded system. One panel member suggested that it had outlived its usefulness. In a public forum, Ridge conceded the system had invited "questions and even occasional derision." Ridge also said that he had not always agreed when others pushed to raise the threat level. "Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment," Ridge said. "Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on [alert]. ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?'"
On its terror alert page, DHS makes clear that "Raising the threat condition has economic, physical, and psychological effects on the nation." A study published in the January 2009 issue of the American Journal of Public Health found that the mentally ill, the disabled, African Americans, Latinos, Chinese Americans, Korean Americans, and non-U.S. citizens were likelier to think that the HSAS alert level was higher than it was, and to worry more and change their behavior due to those fears.
Task force
A September 2009 report from the HSAS Task Force found that the "current system had functioned reasonably well" for institutional audiences, but that the "system's ability to communicate useful information in a credible manner to the public is poor", and that "there is a disturbing lack of confidence in the system." The task force recommended that future threats be more narrowly targeted by "specific region and sector under threat", rather than "elevating the alert status of the nation as a whole", and that the number of levels be reduced from five to three to acknowledge that "the new baseline for the United States is guarded." The task force was divided on whether to recommend abandonment of color-coding in the system, but asserted that if such a coding remains in use, "substantial reform is required."Threat level changes
Severe (Red)
The threat level has been raised to Severe only once, which applied only to flights coming from the United Kingdom:- August 10–14, 2006, in response to British law enforcement announcing it had disrupted a major terror plot2006 transatlantic aircraft plotThe 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot was a terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives carried on board at least 10 airliners travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada...
to blow up an aircraft, DHS raised the threat level for commercial flights from the United Kingdom to the United States to Severe.
High (Orange)
On a nationwide level, it has been raised to High five times:- September 10–24, 2002, the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
- February 7–27, 2003, near the end of the Muslim religious holiday HajjHajjThe Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
. Intelligence reports suggested the possibility of terrorist attacks against "apartment buildings, hotels, and other soft or lightly secured targets." - March 17 – April 16, 2003, around the beginning of U.S. and Coalition military action in Iraq2003 invasion of IraqThe 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
. - May 20–30, 2003, after the Riyadh compound bombingsRiyadh compound bombingsThe Riyadh compound bombings took place on May 12, 2003, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Altogether, 35 people were killed, and over 160 wounded. A smaller campaign of insurgency in Saudi Arabia had started in November 2000 when car bombings were carried out targeting and killing individual expatriates in...
and the Casablanca bombings2003 Casablanca bombingsThe 2003 Casablanca bombings were a series of suicide bombings on May 16, 2003, in Casablanca, Morocco. The attacks were the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country's history. 45 people were killed as a result of these attacks...
. According to Tom RidgeTom RidgeThomas Joseph "Tom" Ridge is an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives , the 43rd Governor of Pennsylvania , Assistant to the President for Homeland Security , and the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security...
: "The U.S. Intelligence Community believes that Al Qaeda has entered an operational period worldwide, and this may include terrorist attacks in the United States." - December 21, 2003 – January 9, 2004, citing intelligence information suggesting large-scale attacks around the holiday season.
In addition, the alert has been raised to High on a select or partial basis three times:
- August 1 – November 10, 2004, for specific financial institutions in northern New Jersey, New York, and Washington, D.C., citing intelligence pointing to the possibility of a car or truck bomb attack, naming specific buildings as possible targets.
- July 7, 2005 – August 12, 2005, for mass transit systems only. The DHS secretary announced the level after the 7 July 2005 London bombings7 July 2005 London bombingsThe 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....
despite the absence of "specific, credible information suggesting imminent attack" in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. - August 10, 2006 – present, for all domestic airline flights and all international flights to or from the United States, with the exception of flights from the United Kingdom to the United States. Flights from the United Kingdom to the United States had been under a Severe alert, but were downgraded to High on August 13, 2006.
Elevated (Yellow)
- March 12 – September 10, 2002
- September 25, 2002 – February 6, 2003
- February 28 – March 16, 2003
- April 17 – May 20, 2003
- May 31, 2003 – August 1, 2004
- November 10, 2004 – July 8, 2005
- August 12, 2005 – April 27, 2011 (Replaced by the National Terrorism Advisory System, but excludes domestic and international flights)
Low (Green) and Guarded (Blue)
The threat level was never lowered to Low (Green) or Guarded (Blue). It was recommended in a September 2009 Task Force report to remove the Low and Guarded conditions from the Alert System altogether and set Yellow (Elevated) to "Guarded" as the new baseline of the system, without changing the baseline conditions issued when under Yellow in the current system.Other terror warnings
Other official terrorism warnings issued without raising the threat level above Elevated:- May 28, 2004, citing "credible evidence" of terrorist intent to affect upcoming elections.
- July 8, 2004, again citing "credible evidence" of terrorist intent to affect upcoming elections.
- July 11, 2007, reports that Al Qaeda has rebuilt operating capability, strength to level not seen before the September 11 attacks; strongest since summer of 2001.
- July 12, 2007, reports that Al Qaeda is stepping up efforts to sneak terrorists into the United States and has rebuilt capability to strike there.
See also
- BIKINI state (United Kingdom)
- DEFCONDEFCONA defense readiness condition is an alert posture used by the United States Armed Forces. The DEFCON system was developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and unified and specified combatant commands. It prescribes five graduated levels of readiness for the U.S...
- MARSECMARSECMARSEC is the three-tiered United States Coast Guard Maritime Security system designed to easily communicate to the Coast Guard and the maritime industry pre-planned scalable responses for credible threats...
- UK Threat LevelsUK Threat LevelsThe UK Threat Levels refer to the alert state that has been in use since 1 August 2006 by the British government to warn of forms of terrorist activity. Before then a colour based alert scheme known as BIKINI state was used...
- VigipirateVigipirateVigipirate is France's national security alert system. Created in 1978 by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, it has since been updated three times: in 1995 , 2000, and 2004....
(France)
External links
- Homeland Security Advisory System - Explanation and current threat level
- White House press release: Gov. Ridge Announces Homeland Security Advisory System
- White House press release: Homeland Security Presidential Directive-3
- New Report on Homeland Security Threat Advisory System Highlights Need for Reform