1st LD Writethru: U.S. rolls out new terror alert mechanism amid threats of home-grown attacks

The U.S. government on Wednesday announced a new threat alert mechanism in the wake of new warnings about home-grown attacks.

As a major change to the existing National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) now adds NTAS Bulletin as an intermediate level to the NTAS system, which previously only included two advisory levels, namely an elevated alert and an imminent alert, DHS chief Jeh Johnson announced here at a press conference.

According to Johnson, an elevated alert under the NTAS system warns of a credible terror threat, and an imminent alert warns of a credible, specific and impending threat. No alert had been issued since 2011 when the NTAS replaced the color-coded alerting system.

From now on, NTAS Bulletins will "describe general developments or trends regarding threats of terrorism," namely circumstances which do not warrant the issuance of an elevated or imminent alert, said Johnson.

Also, the DHS on Wednesday issued its first NTAS bulletin, which noted "a new phase in the global threat environment."

"Particularly with the rise in use by terrorist groups of the Internet to inspire and recruit, we are concerned about the 'self-radicalized' actor(s) who could strike with little or no notice," said the bulletin.

The adoption of the new mechanism came 10 days after U.S. President Barack Obama warned Americans in a rare Oval Office address about "a new phase" of terrorism in the wake of a shooting spree in San Bernardino, California. Endit