WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential contender Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., says he would end the system of color-coded terror warnings issued by the Department of Homeland Security.
In an interview this week with Rolling Stone magazine, Kerry said that "I think Americans, sadly, laugh at" the alerts.
"They don't know what to do," he added.
"I'm going to find some more thoughtful way of alerting America," Kerry told the magazine's editor, Jann Wenner.
The color-coded system, launched in March 2002, was designed to disseminate information regarding the risk of terrorist attacks to federal, state, and local government agencies and the public.
But the system has been criticized as too much of a "blunt instrument," putting the whole nation on guard when not all parts of the country are equally at risk.
Some Democrats have also accused the administration of using the system for political gain -- to focus Americans thoughts on the terror threat at key moments in the election campaign for example.
But Kerry brushed aside that question, saying, "you know what? I'm not going to question motivations."
