[ OUR OPINION ]
Specific intelligence justified
Hawaii’s alert levelFEDERAL officials have agreed to raise the terrorist alert status for the fifth time to "high risk," or code orange, and -- for the first time -- Governor Lingle has included Hawaii at the heightened level. While the governor again says there has been no "credible threat" against Hawaii, more specific information about the nature of the current threat warranted her inclusion of the state in the orange alert.
THE ISSUE
Hawaii joined in the nation's heightening of the terrorist alert to the "high risk" level on the color-coded status of threats.
Increased security costs to state and local governments caused by the orange alert have been estimated to be as much as $1 billion. Some fiscally strapped governors and mayors had become skeptical, perceiving the threats to be against Washington and New York.
When the national alert level was raised to orange in early February and again in early March, Lingle kept Hawaii two levels lower, at blue, or "guarded," on the five-color scale, calling Hawaii "one of the safest places in the nation or in the world." She increased the level to yellow, or "elevated risk," several weeks later.
State Adjutant General Robert Lee has suggested that Hawaii is safer than other states because it cannot be reached by highway, where tools of terrorism can be transported more easily across state or national boundaries. However, law enforcement officials say they have received "credible" information about a possible attack using passenger planes departing from abroad and heading toward the United States.
U.S. airports, harbors and ports have been included in past orange alerts because they fall under federal authority, but Hawaii's airports provide no impenetrable barrier against flights originating from abroad. Lingle has extended the increased security at power plants, water supply stations and other critical infrastructure facilities.
At last month's security summit in Honolulu, Singapore Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng told delegates that the terrorist threat is as serious in the Pacific Rim as elsewhere in the world. Wong said Jemaah Islamiyah, part of the al-Qaida-linked terrorist network, is planning more attacks similar to the August bombing at Jakarta's Marriott Hotel, which killed 12 people, and the 202-fatality bombing of a Bali nightclub in October 2002.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Sunday that U.S. intelligence "indicates that extremists abroad are anticipating near-term attacks that they believe will rival or exceed" the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. He cited particular concerns that attackers might again try to use commercial aircraft as weapons.
Ridge's information about the nature and scope of a possible attack and Wong's warning about terrorist plans by al-Qaida-connected groups in Asia are a sufficient warning. Hawaii no longer can bask as a safe haven.
