Plead the First

The Department of Homeland Security updated our threat level yesterday:

August 11, 2006 – The United States Government has raised the nation’s threat level for the aviation sector to:

• Code Red or Severe for flights originating in the United Kingdom bound for the United States
• Code Orange or High for all commercial aviation operating in or destined for the United States.
• The rest of the country remains at Code Yellow.

Currently, there is no indication of plotting within the United States. We believe the arrests of extremists engaged in a substantial plot to destroy multiple passenger aircraft flying from the United Kingdom to the United States have significantly disrupted the threat, but we cannot be sure that the threat has been entirely eliminated or the plot completely thwarted.

Question: If the bombing plot was not “significantly disrupted” – say more than half of the plotters were still on the loose – what would the threat level be, considering that it’s at red now? What about if attacks are actually carried out on UK to US flights next week – what will they set the threat level to then?

Will they add a “Super Dooper Severe” threat level, maybe with a color of purple? If not, then how reasonable is it that the level is currently set to red?

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 12th, 2006 at 6:13 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.