Creation of the Department of Homeland Security:
The Sept. 11 attacks changed the way our government approaches security on American soil. Overnight, the threat of terrorism became a real concern for Americans. Small-town police officers whose biggest concern may have once included apprehending the town drunk are now learning how to handle bioterrorist attacks. In order to help oversee and organize this transition from a pre-911 America to a well prepared and ever vigilant post-911 America President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security(DHS) on November 25, 2002.
Purpose/Responsibilities of the DHS:
The primary responsibility of the DHS is protecting the domestic United States as well as its interests overseas from terrorist attacks and natural disasters. It is responsible for training and coordinating small/local police departments, fire departments, health care personnel, boarder and port authorities, etc to deal with terrorist threats and disasters. The DHS website lists its responsibilities as: counterterrorism, border security, preparedness/response/recovery, immigration and cyber security.
The Homeland Security Advisory System.
The DHS is best known for the Homeland Security Advisory system. It was created on March 12, 2002 as "a system to provide a comprehensive and effective means to disseminate information regarding the risk of terrorist acts to Federal, State, and Local authorities and to the American people"(Department of Homeland Security).
The system uses a simple color code that correlates to the immediate risk of terrorist attacks with red being the most severe and green being the least severe level. Prior to 9-11 Americans rarely, if ever pondered the possibility of a terrorist threat. The constant reminder of a looming, impending threat seems distinctively dystopian. The widely criticized threat scale "invokes a state of fear," (NTAS)
