U.S. to keep transit alert ‘high’

Homeland Security officials will keep the terrorism alert level for mass transit at “high” at least through this morning to guard against threats to buses and trains, although new information on the London bombings will be reviewed hourly to consider lowering the level.

Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff also said yesterday during his first appearances on the Sunday talk-show circuit that he is not optimistic the terrorism threat level will go to low, or “green” in the near future.

“I’d love to say we’re going to see green in our lifetime. It’s kind of an aspirational state,” Mr. Chertoff told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Retired Adm. James Loy, former Homeland Security deputy secretary, also told NBC: “I don’t believe we will” ever see a low level of a terrorist threat.

“Green is about the old normalcy, yellow is about the standard of the new normalcy until we have a much, much better picture of the intentions and the capabilities of this new enemy,” Adm. Loy said.

Only once has the government used its severe or “red” alert level. The White House and Capitol were put on red alert in May when a Cessna 150 crossed into restricted air space.

Mr. Chertoff raised the alert level for mass transit from “yellow” or elevated to “orange” or high, hours after four bombs ripped through London’s subway and a double-decker bus.

“We’re going to see what the British develop, that’s going to tell us something about who may have been responsible, what kinds of tactics we have to worry about,” Mr. Chertoff told ABC’s “This Week.”

“And we’re monitoring that on an hourly basis, so we’re really getting real-time information,” Mr. Chertoff said.

British officials think an inexperienced sleeper cell linked to al Qaeda might be to blame for the terrorist attack.

Asked by “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert whether there are homegrown cells in the U.S., Mr. Chertoff said, “We’ve seen sleeper cells.

“One of the important things to recognize is a sleeper cell can become operational in the blink of an eye,” Mr. Chertoff said.

Homeland Security and the Justice Department have been criticized for arresting suspects who were “just training” or “just sitting there,” Mr. Chertoff said.

“We can’t wait until the fuze is lit. We have to move actively against sleeper cells when they’re in the planning and training phase, and not wait until they become operational,” he said.

The Justice Department has broken up cells in Northern Virginia and Lackawanna, N.Y., which Mr. Chertoff credited to intelligence gathering.

“We’ve seen these cells, and we’re continuing to conduct active investigations of other cells,” Mr. Chertoff said.

“Fox News Sunday” guest host Brit Hume asked White House homeland security adviser Fran Townsend “how alarmed” officials are that there was no intelligence or warning of the London attack.

“It tells us that is was well-planned, well-coordinated and that the tradecraft of our enemy — they learned from their mistakes,” she said.