It’s my nature to talk smack about The People Upstairs, it’s just what I
do. Today the threat level was raised to ORANGE and, as a professional, I
have to say:
Well done gentlemen.
I was flipping
channels when I surfed past Sec. Ridge’s press conference I kept going
until the banner sunk in – “hightened security alert” or some nonsense. I
actually pay attention to these things because it makes a real difference
in my work environment (and sometimes my pay cheque). So I flipped back to
confirm that we were in fact going to Code Orange. Yep. So I called work.
See, the last time we went to Code Orange we found out from the TV in the
break room. When I told the Assistant Port Director he looked confused:
“we don’t change until I get the fax.” The
time before that it was the color-coded Ashcroft on the left of
this page that clued us in. I called up the port to ask if they
knew, they didn’t but the message was passed along and later verified.
This time it was different. I called the port: “Did you guys know we just
went to Code Orange?” “Yeah, we’ve been at Orange since this morning.”
THAT’s the way it’s supposed to work. Nice to see there’s some improvement
in the chain of communication.
By the way, I don’t know why we went to previous alerts but this one’s
legit. They may say “credible but unspecified threats” on TV but the
threats are very specific. One widely reported threat is so specific that
we’ve been wondering for a week whether they’d raise the alert level. It’s
so specific they may be able to prevent the attack if it goes forward. Not
that you’ll ever hear about it.
Some people are “saying
things to imply that the information is worthless, is stupid, doesn’t do
them any good or even, in a few cases, implying that it’s just an attempt
to frighten us.”
I’m with
Dean on this one: “The government is pretty worried, and they want us
to know it.”
Yeah… this one’s for real.
If you think I’m going to tell you what I think the specific threat
is, you’re smoking crack.
Atrios points to this as proof that HREF=”http://atrios.blogspot.com/2003_12_21_atrios_archive.html#107202883138864
888”>capturing
Saddam hasn’t made us safer. Frankly, Iraq was always more of a
geopolitical threat than a domestic threat like, you know, Al Qaeda.
The color codes are for domestic threats. So it’s a little odd for people
who said Saddam didn’t have links to Osama to now be gripping about the
Code Orange meaning Hussein’s capture hasn’t made us safer. If you assume
that the threat level has little or nothing to do with Saddam and
everything to do with Al Qaeda, you’ll probably be right.
If you’re upset that DHS doesn’t tell you the specifics, get over it.
They’re trying to catch the bastards, not warn them they’ve got a
leak. If you think it’s all about getting travelers to behave themselves,
you’re right. Stop acting like dorks. Oh: and don’t tell me they’d raise
the alert to Red if they were serious. You don’t
want to see Code Red.
This time at least, Ridge and his crew have got things under control.
Kudos gentlemen.
[NOTE: The above post assumes that the front lines are not subject to
internal disinformation.]