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PICTURE OF THE WEEK: Orange Alert Issued

On Sunday, December 21st, the United States government raised the national terrorist alert level from yellow to orange. Orange means that there is an "elevated risk" of an attack on the United States. This means that when there is an orange alert, the government believes that there may be a terrorist attack, or that Americans should be careful because there may be a terrorist attack. The threat level was raised to orange on Sunday because the government believes that al Qaeda terrorists--the terrorist behind the September 11th attacks--are planning new attacks on the Unites States.

The government claims that it believes that al Qaeda terrorists are looking for ways to steal airplanes leaving from airports in other countries, and then fly them into the United States in order to attack Americans. Although the United States government believes that terrorists may be planning to try to do this, they do not know exactly where or when an attack like this may take place.

When the alert level raises to orange, security in the United States--especially in airports, shopping malls, and other places where many people gather is increased. This means that when people travel, they have to go through more security than usual. However, because there have been three orange alerts in the past four months, Americans are no longer taking the alerts seriously. Because the government has been raising the alert to orange, and nothing has been happening, people have started ignoring the alerts.

However, the government believes that it is important to issue orange alerts, because they think that the increased security will discourage terrorist attacks. In other words, when security is increased, the government believes that it will be less likely that terrorists will attack.

--Written by Angela Schutte

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