High Alerts for Terror Get Harder to Impose
The Bush administration's color-coded terrorism alert system, which has been strongly criticized by counterterrorism specialists and much of the public, is being revamped to make it far more difficult for the government to justify raising the threat level, senior administration officials said.

Under revisions made in recent weeks, they said, the Department of Homeland Security has set tougher internal guidelines for raising the threat levels.

They said the alert level — which is now at yellow, representing an "elevated" threat and the midpoint in the five-color palette of alerts — would now be raised only if there is credible, detailed evidence of an imminent terrorist attack on American soil.

The officials cited the new guidelines in explaining why the administration decided not to raise the alert level this week despite a pair of events that could have easily justified a heightened alert in the past: Thursday's anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks and the broadcast of a new videotape suggesting that Osama bin Laden and his chief lieutenant were alive and plotting catastrophic attacks.

Last September, on the eve of the Sept. 11 anniversary, the level was raised from yellow to orange, representing a "high risk" of terrorism, after intelligence analysts warned that Al Qaeda would use the anniversary to strike domestic targets. The anniversary passed without incident.

The color-coded system, which was introduced by the administration in March 2002 and is known formally as the Homeland Security Advisory System, has been criticized as having unnecessarily confused and alarmed the public. It has been a popular target for the administration's Democratic critics on Capitol Hill, as well as for late-night television comedians.

A nonpartisan Congressional report warned last month that the system was so vague in detailing terrorist threats that the public "may begin to question the authenticity" of the threats and take no action when the alert level was raised.…

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/13/national/13ALER.html