GAO report criticizes terror warnings

[scottxyz]

U.S. government terror warnings to local police and citizens fail to give the specific information many authorities say is needed to protect the public, a report made for Congress said Monday.

...

"When the government gives warnings without more information about why they're giving them ... that inevitably leads to people questioning whether the timing is a diversion, or politically motivated," said Randall Yim, head of GAO's homeland security division.

...

"They didn't say what was new and they didn't suggest any additional measures to be taken other than please be a little bit more vigilant and please go about your shopping. I think that that really attacks the credibility of the government warning system," {said Yim}.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/07/13/terror.security.reut/index.html

[AirAmFan]

1. The GAO report covered 3 particular orange-alert periods. What news stories

during those periods could the alerts have been engineered to drown out?

"Reports and testimony" "by date" at gao.gov got me to a PDF download page at http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/abstract.php?rptno=GAO-04-682 .

Page 65 and many other pages of "GAO-04-682 Communication Protocols and Risk Communication Principles" lists the three code-orange periods studied as

"(1) March 17 to April 16, 2003
(2) May 20 to 30, 2003
(3) December 21, 2003, to January 9, 2004"