WASHINGTON, May 30 (UPI) -- The United States Friday lowered its color-coded, threat-level index to yellow, or "elevated," citing intelligence reports showing a reduced risk of a terrorist attack.
The level was raised to orange, or "high," on May 20, following two series of apparently coordinated suicide bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Casablanca, Morocco. The attacks, aimed at Western and Jewish targets, killed scores of people, including eight Americans.
Yellow is the midpoint of the five-step, color-coded scheme introduced last year. The orange alert that ended Friday is the fourth. At all other times, the level has been set at yellow.
"The U.S. intelligence community has ... concluded that the number of indicators and warnings that led to raising the level have decreased and the heightened vulnerability associated with the Memorial Day holiday has passed," said Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in a statement.
The announcement was not unexpected. "The department indicated (Thursday) to members (of Congress) that they were considering lowering the level," a congressional source told United Press International.
Last week, in testimony to the House homeland security committee, Ridge explained that the decision to raise or lower the level is taken by President George W. Bush's Homeland Security Council, after it is briefed by intelligence and law enforcement agencies and after it hears Ridge's own recommendation.
"It is as much art as it is science," he said.
This fourth orange alert -- at 10 days -- was the shortest yet. The last one, during the war on Iraq, lasted exactly one month and cost the federal government at least $5 billion. This sum did not include all of the huge costs incurred by cash-strapped state and local jurisdictions, mainly in overtime for law enforcement personnel and first responders. Los Angeles city authorities, for instance, said during the previous alert that their costs were $2.5 million a week.
"U.S. cities are feeling the pinch of a weak national economy, increased homeland security costs and -- in many cases -- cuts in state aid as well," Andy Solomon of the U.S. Conference of Mayors told UPI Friday.
The Department of Homeland Security has doled out several rounds of funding to defray those costs, but so far the grants have been focused on a small number of big cities thought to be at special risk, like Washington, Los Angeles and New York.
"Most U.S. cities will not see any federal money for homeland security until at least July," said Solomon.
Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., the chairman of the House homeland security committee said recently that the Homeland Security Council is -- and should be -- aware of all the ramifications of its decisions about the threat level, including the costs. He said that this calculation ought to take into account not just direct costs, but costs to the economy.
In common with previous announcements raising or lowering the threat level, Friday's statement attempted to walk a fine line between justifying the lower alert and encouraging complacency. "The lowering of the threat level is not a signal ... that the danger of a terrorist attack has passed," the statement goes on. "The U.S. intelligence community remains concerned that al-Qaida is attempting to exploit our weaknesses and believes that the United States and its interests are still at a significant risk of terrorist attack."
It's a tightrope Ridge has walked before. On May 20, raising the level to orange because "the U.S. intelligence community believes that al-Qaida has entered an operational period worldwide," he also urged Americans to "continue with your plans for work or leisure," over the Memorial Day weekend.
