Problem, Reaction, Solution: US Will Add a Third Level to Terror Warnings

For us old-timers, memories of those post-9/11 days persist like that rotting squirrel stuck somewhere under your back porch.

One of the features of those dirty days was the panic index, actually called the terrorism alert system, created by the then-new Department of Homeland Security. The system featured a five-step, color-coded “alert level” ranging from black (normal) to red (attack imminent.) The system was criticized for doing little more than promoting a constant background hum of anxiety when it basically got stuck at “elevated risk” for nearly eight years.

The Obama administration, in 2010, replaced the old five step system with a new two step one: imminent and elevated. It too got stuck in elevated mode and faded into obscurity.

Click to read more...