USA Department of Homeland Security fails its people

In the USA it has become the norm for people to turn to the Internet in times of national crisis. Anyone hearing about threat to blow up ten USA airline flights leaving the UK today would have felt some degree of comfort that the status on the Homeland security web site is a mere ‘Yellow’ – an elevated level of threat – with the site last updated five days ago.

According to CNN …

The U.S. threat level has been raised to the highest level of ‘severe,’ or red, for commercial flights originating in the United Kingdom bound for the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

In addition, the threat level has been raised to ‘high,’ or orange for all commercial flights operating in or coming to the United States, the DHS statement said.

The nation’s overall terror threat level has not been altered. (see CNN)

We find this ‘interesting’ as the main target of the threat was to blow up American planes, probably carrying predominantly American people. We suggest that anyone looking at the Homeland Securities web site would be lulled into a false sense of security. Certainly, at least the web site needs to be more clear about specific threats than it currently is.

After the fiasco in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina, we would hope that the government would take more care to keep its citizens aware of events and dangers. In this case we feel that the Whitehouse has once again failed to meet minimum standard s of care for its people.

Sources

Airline stocks drop Reuters

BA cancels Heathrow Europe flights News.com.au 

British terror alert hits travellers SwissInfo