The latest ``code Orange'' has drawn mild scorn from U.S. allies in the war on terror, who say Washington's high-profile alerts cause undue panic and could make people less safe by undermining trust in intelligence.Most of Washington's major allies have avoided color-coded alerts like those Washington introduced in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, saying the public can do little with warnings unless it is told specifically how to respond.
Officials and experts in other countries have been careful not to comment on the nature of intelligence that prompted this week's clampdowns in Washington and New York, after Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge declared ``code Orange'' in those cities.But allies also say such public warnings, often with few details, do little to make countries safer.Britain, which honed its approach over decades of combating Irish militants, made its position clear by what it did not do. News reports said intelligence seized in Pakistan that prompted the U.S. clampdown had also referred to targets in Britain. But while armed squads took to the streets in New York, British police took no public steps.
``There is no change to the deployment. We haven't put hundreds of police officers on the streets,'' a security source told Reuters.
Instead, comments by British officials reinforced the differences between the British and American approaches, emphasizing that Britain avoids public statements about security threats unless it can tell people exactly how to respond.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-security-alerts.html
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