Topper

ORANGE!

I wish the government would be a little more vague about this whole alert system. What are we supposed to do....go out and buy bread and milk?

It surprises me that they keep it at the sme level during things like New Years Eve and the Fourth of July...seems that would be the time the terrorists would strike.

How does this impact travelers?...(just so Fodor's doesn't delete thread)

Spike

Seems to me there should just be two colors, red and green. When it's green you go about your business as usual. When it's red you pull the curtains and hide under the bed. Why do we need all these other colors? Did Tom Ridge have a bowl of M&Ms on his desk when he invented this?

al

Here's a little something a lot of you probably don't know. While the rest of the country is under YELLOW, New York has always been under ORANGE. What does it mean? Nothing, really. Just get out there and enjoy yourselves.

leslie

The terror warning has been raised today from elevated to high. The last time that we were at the high terror warning level was in September 2002, but it was lowered back to elevated 10 days later. John Ashcroft and Tom Rich said the warning they were giving was not to stop people from traveling, just to make them more aware of their surroundings and to have all of the contact information of their families readily available. Tom Ridge said "Heightened awareness and readiness saves lives." Everyone is to go about their normal course of business. The change won't have an impact on most people. Basically its to pay attention to anything that is an aberrance. One of the examples given on local television in Boston was for people to pay attention to changes in their neighborhoods (eg. a series of burglaries).

beachbum

yeah, what leslie said. and it's also a cya tactic so that if something does does happen, we have no place to point a finger. sadly (and without comment as to reasons), i think government today spends as much time in cya mode as they do governing.

Anonymous

Terrorists are related to increased burglaries? I don't get it.

Ryan

I have several relatives that work in federal law enforcement, one of whom has a fairly senior position at the DEA in NY. Based upon conversations we've had in the past, the federal government believes that some terrorist cells/groups have supported themselves through criminal activity. A suspected cell in Michigan was supporting themselves through a "butt-legging ring" (a scheme to avoid cigarette taxes), another in upstate NY ran a drug lab, and Al Qaeda had involvement with heroin production in Afghanistan.

That's probably why an increase in break-in's would be one of several items that police should monitor.

E

OK, I tried to resist asking, but I could not. What is a "butt-legging ring"??

barcadi

Don't mean to panic anyone but I work in a public sector building and we had it inspected and mapped out last week for emergency incidents eg registration, a Place for pets, incident control, welfare room etc etc

beachbum

E, Ryan explained the butt-legging ring as a scheme to avoid taxes on cigarettes (cigarette = butt). Made me think of the many truck stops and gas stations purchased in recent years by persons of middle-eastern descent. I often wondered how they were able to sell fuel at what I thought were very tight margins. Hmmm......don't suppose they were avoiding federal and state fuel taxes in support of terrorist activities, do ya?

Trisha

Has it ever been red since they have developed the color coding? When do they use the color red?

Magnus

Instead of writing about the real issue of Islamic terroritst, isn't anyone shocked by how Fodors now indexes EACH AND EVERY POST BY USER? If that isn't the most intrusive, liberal-democrat thing to happen to this board in ten years I don't know what is.

Darvy_Kuntz

Magnus, it's really not that different from the last site. They could probably "index" - as you say - all messages posted with the same poster name. In the old site, it would have been less reliable since there are too many xxx's, but all the same - it's just another query for data. Big deal.

beachbum

I don't get it. What are you afraid of Magnus?

soccr

These alerts are horrendous. I guess I'm glad that someone somewhere is mobilizing if intelligence says there's a reason to, but for all of us great "unwashed" public, it's like saying: "Worry! But don't worry! Things are bad, but just ignore it! Get anxious, but remain calm."

This business of "remain vigilant," as if the only thing between US civiliation and local episodes of annihilation will be the ability of a single person to spot someone up to no good with a dirty bomb....well, "CYA" doesn't begin to describe it.

(As for our civil rights under the new Fodors regime, I think I'll search on "Magnus" to see what else he's said here before! And if you have any credit cards or loans, M., then it isn't those awful liberals who've been peeking under your hood. And oh, yeah, remember Ken Starr?)

gocats2002

I've concluded these alerts are just a government attempt at CYA. How many people are fussing about not having been warned about Sept 11. So, now, they can say, we warned you! It's all PR. Too bad.

Magnus

These boards area dead. I will no longer vistit. What is the purpose of being able to view every other poster's messages except censorship?

Well, good riddance to bad rubbish. These boards were fun while they lasted. They hypocrit liberals have won here with their intrusive ways. It won't help much after they've been proven wrong when WMD are found in Iraq, but we knew they were idiots all along anyway.

Cassandra

I really look forward to being able to tell the authorities that "yes, you certainly did warn us" the next time some horror is visited us in one or more of our own cities. It will make all the difference.

xxx11

Tom Ridge is not the M&M's type. More of a Skittles guy.

joan

Did anyone else see the Saturday Night Live parody on the color alert system? They had tan, beige, ecru, cream, off-white, you get the picture. That was too funny.

But seriously I think we're all more alert, no matter what the color. I live near the water, for example, and I'm just more observant of the boaters, what they're doing, whether they "fit the picture". And I think we all look funny at planes flying extra low or in unusual places...it all helps.