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National Threat Level Lowered to Yellow (Elevated Risk)

On January 9, 2004, the Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge announced that the national threat level has been lowered to yellow (elevated risk) from orange (high risk).

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(On December 21, 2003, the U.S. government raised the national threat level to orange. See ITT's Online Archives or 12/22/03 news, 03122200, for BP summary on the raising of the national threat level to orange.)

According to Secretary Ridge, the national threat level was lowered to yellow based on a careful review of available intelligence. Secretary Ridge stated that the U.S. is still concerned about the continued threats, but that the threat conditions that the U.S. has been following have diminished. Secretary Ridge also stated that with the passing of the holidays and many large gatherings that occurred during that time, the decision was made to lower the national threat level to yellow.

Secretary Ridge emphasized that although the threat level has been lowered to yellow, the U.S. has not let its guard down. According to Secretary Ridge, yellow still means that the U.S. is at an elevated level of risk and it will maintain particular vigilance around some critical resources and locales.

In his remarks, Secretary Ridge also noted that in the past three weeks, the U.S. has taken important steps to increase the nation's level of protection, including:

issuance of aviation emergency amendments to enhance security relating to passenger and commercial aircraft flying to, from and over the U.S.;

provision of air cover to several U.S. cities;

deployment of state-of-the-art sensor detection equipment that can readily scan for radiological devices and bioagents; and

launch of US-VISIT, a program that uses biometrics to expedite the processing of foreign travelers and stop known or suspected terrorists at U.S. borders.

Secretary Ridge's remarks on the lowering of the national alert level to yellow (dated 01/09/04) available at http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=2767.