This means Americans should be vigilant, report suspicions to law enforcement authorities and be prepared for an emergency.

OK….

Established on March 11, 2002, the Homeland Security Advisory System serves nominally to keep government agencies of various levels and the public at large informed of the likelihood of a terrorist attack on America on any given day. The U.S. Attorney General sets the level, known as the threat condition.

A task force convened last July to review the system surprised no one by finding that there was little public confidence that the system did anything to keep the U.S. safe.

The 19-member task force did a two-month review and on Sept. 19 issued a report unanimously recommending the system be retained, but acknowledging a pervasive lack of confidence on the part of the public that the system was actually doing anything to keep them safe.

The Department of Homeland Security is in the midst of reviewing the recommendations and consulting with the affected agencies, but DHS won’t comment on which recommendations will be implemented or how long before any changes are made, a homeland security spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The system premiered in six months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks at yellow, the midpoint of the scale between green’s “low” and red’s “severe.” The threat condition has bounced from yellow, or “elevated,” to orange, or “high,” and back seven times since it was created.

• Sept. 10 to Sept. 24, 2002 – Attacks were feared on American interests in South Asia at the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington.
• Feb. 7 to Feb. 27, 2003 – Attacks were feared on lightly-secured U.S. locations such as apartment buildings and hotels.
• March 17 to April 16, 2003 – The start of the Iraq war raised concern that U.S. and its allies would be attacked.
• May 20 to May 30, 2003 – Terrorist bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco led to fears of attacks against the U. S.
• Dec. 21, 2003 to Jan. 9, 2004 – Intelligence agents noticed a surge in threats and raised the threat level accordingly.
• Aug. 1 to Nov. 10, 2004 – The first time a threat level was raised for an isolated sector, it jumped to orange for just the financial services sectors in Washington, New York City and northern New Jersey because an al-Qaida attack was suspected. The threat level was lowered after the affected organizations and businesses installed permanent protective measures.
• July 7 to Aug. 12, 2005 – Train bombings in London provoked the DHS to raise the threat condition to orange for U.S. passenger rail, subways and bus systems

The threat condition jumped to red for flights from Britain and orange for all other flights from Aug. 10 to 16, 2006 and has remained at orange for air travel since then.

Among the task force’s recommendations:

• The color system needs reform to reflect that the country is now always on guard, making the lowest threat level “guarded.”
• Elevations of the threat condition need to be more focused and include information on specific actions people can do to protect themselves. Overly broad alerts engender too much skepticism to be useful.
• After the threat passes, agencies should tell people what the government did to resolve the threat.
• DHS should use the entire menu of communications available including social media and texting and should designate someone to communicate threat-related information for the department.