September 26, 2002	Thursday	Rajab 18, 1423

WASHINGTON, Sept 25: The US government has reduced its threat warning from Orange to Yellow Alert as intelligence reports suggest that the threat of a terrorist attack inside the United States has reduced, the White House said.

This is based on a review of intelligence and an assessment of the threats by the intelligence community, as well as the passing of the anniversary of Sept 11, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told a news briefing in Washington on Tuesday afternoon.

He also attributed the reduction of threat to the recent arrests of Al Qaida operatives in the United States and abroad and said: “All these factors allowed the president to make the decision to lower the threat level.”

The highest level of threat is the Red Alert, followed by Orange and then Yellow, which is still high but it allows law enforcement agencies not to work at emergency footings. The Red Alert was issued after the Sept 11 terror attacks last year but was later relaxed.

The US authorities, however, increased it to Orange level as the first anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks approached and intelligence reports indicate possible terrorist attacks inside the United States.

“Keeping the alert level at a artificially high level can, over time, lead to the degradation of the meaning of the level, because it’s impossible for the law enforcement community to stay up at that heightened a level unless there’s sufficient ongoing information to justify it,” said Fleischer.

“These types of actions will be meaningful only if they are put into place when the circumstances actually warrant it. To leave it up at such a high status when the circumstances no longer warrants it, can lead to people not taking it seriously any longer,” he added.

“So based on those intelligence threats, based on the information from the arrests and the passage of Sept. 11th, it was returned to its elevated level from a high level. We still are on alert. We still need to be careful.”