Replies

Terror threat level still "high" at eight US airports
Sat Jan 10, 6:49 AM ET Add Top Stories - AFP to My Yahoo!

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is keeping eight airports and other unspecified facilities on high alert for terrorist attack, after lowering the general threat level to "elevated" from "high".

Announcing the lowering of the threat level Friday, after 19 days of intense nationwide security precautions, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said that the United States would however "maintain particular vigilance around some critical resources and locales," The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Without giving details he said most of the increased security would involve "the private sector" and this included airlines.

Sources told the paper those facilities included eight airports, including those in Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The move signals a major departure in US strategy on internal security, in which officials "communicate quietly with local officials who need to ramp up security in specific areas" rather than issue costly blanket alerts encompassing the entire country, the Post noted.

The change reflects narrower, more "sophisticated" risk assessments concerning specific facilities, locations and types of infrastructure, homeland security sources said.

During the past nearly three weeks, numerous flights to the United States cancelled and many others delayed and even escorted to US airports by fighter jets.

The United States introduced a five-level, colour-coded alert system after the September 11, 2001 attacks. "Elevated", or yellow, is the third highest level.