Where Threat Alerts Meet the Real World

From a USA Today article published 8/9/2004: “A year after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Justice Department obtained video surveillance tapes suggesting terrorists were targeting Las Vegas casinos but authorities never alerted the public as they discussed whether a warning might hurt tourism or increase the casinos’ legal liability, internal memos show.”

I blogged about it at the time, basically speculating that when the rubber hits the road … when there is a credible threat against a specific city, tourist attraction, or shopping mall … we, the public, will never be told.  Why?  Because the business of the USA is business.

Will anything change with the Department of Homeland Security’s new terror alert system?  Here’s what we’re being told:

  • An elevated threat alert, the lowest warning, would be issued if a credible threat were determined, but it likely wouldn’t detail any timing or terrorist targets.
  • An imminent threat alert, the highest notice, would be triggered if there were a credible, specific and impending threat or ongoing attack.

The implication is that if a specific threat is received … let’s say, for example, that intelligence and counter-terrorism officials learn of an upcoming suicide bomb attack on a big casino in Las Vegas … an imminent threat alert would be issued stating that casinos in Las Vegas are being targeted and that tourists should stay away until the all-clear is sounded.

Do you think anything like that will ever happen?  Would you be interested in some 1500 thread count Egyptian cotton bedsheets?

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