May

12

Threat Level Colors

[From The J-Walk Blog]

Somebody actually uses those threat level colors. From today’s
White
House Press Briefing:

Let me give you a little facts about what happened. At approximately 11:59 a.m., the threat level here at the White House was raised to yellow. There was a Cessna plane within about 15 miles of the White House. It was north of the White
House. Shortly after that, around noon, fighter jets were scrambled. At approximately 12:01 p.m., the threat level was raised to orange. The plane was within 10 miles, and an evacuation and moving of people to more secure locations began at that point.

Let me just point out that the Cessna was traveling in restricted airspace toward the White House and Capitol. The pilot was not responding to efforts to communicate with the plane. And then, at 12:03 p.m., the alert level was raised to red. And at approximately 12:11 p.m., the alert level went back down to yellow.

Reading a bit further, we learn that the White House threat color system predates the Homeland Security color system — although they use the same colors:

Q The color-coded levels — I mean, these correspond to the Department of Homeland Security, right? In other words, is this the first time red has ever been reached, the red levels have been reached at the White House?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think you might want to double-check with the Secret Service. I think that these are a threat level system that they have had in place maybe for some time that preceded even the Homeland Security threat system — threat advisory system.

Q — a different color-code system, though?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, it has — I think it has the same colors. You might want to double-check with the Secret Service.

Q But if it predates that Department of Homeland Security’s color-coded system, then it’s a different —

MR. McCLELLAN: Hang on a second, James. You might want to check with the Secret Service. I think that that’s correct. I’m not sure that that’s correct, but I think that this has been a system that was in place even before the Homeland Security advisory threat level was put in place.

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