Threat level? What threat level? Who Cares!

[n2doc]

U.S. on high alert — but do travelers really care?

Security system gets the word out, group finds, but the info is often ignored
BY ERIC D. LAWRENCE
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

When two Yemeni nationals with ties to metro Detroit were temporarily detained last week in Amsterdam after suspicious items were found in one of the men’s luggage, the color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System remained at orange for U.S. domestic and international flights.

The alert level, which indicates a high risk of attack, stayed orange even after a botched attempt to blow up a jetliner approaching Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. In fact, the advisory system has remained at orange for air travel since 2006.

Everything outside of air travel is covered by a different advisory level. That has remained at yellow, or elevated alert — the middle of the advisory system’s five levels and colors — since 2005.

The system, created in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to pass on information about potential threats against the U.S. and offer guidance to the public and security personnel, appears to be on autopilot. Of bigger concern, security experts said, is that many Americans are indifferent because the system lacks credibility — a sentiment generally shared among travelers interviewed last month at Metro Airport.

“I usually ignore it. It’s always orange,” said Genevieve Johnson, 24, a former Commerce Township resident now living in Oklahoma City who was in the area to visit family.


Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20100906/NEWS05/9060334/1318/Threat-level?-What-threat-level?

[Catshrink]

1. They've cried wolf too many times.

[tavalon]

4. Bingo!

[DailyGrind51]

2. The possible return of cancer scares me more than any terrorist threat.

Hell, drunk driving has killed more Americans than ANY terrorist attack, yet, who are we supposed to fear?

[HughBeaumont]

3. Well, durrrrr, it's never going to be blue or green.

"Fear Works" - Jim McDermott (D), Fahrenheit 9-11