Administration lowering alert from code orange to yellow

Tuesday, September 24th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Two weeks after putting the nation on high alert, the Bush administration lowered the nationwide terror alert back to code yellow on Tuesday because of disruptions in the al-Qaida terrorist network.

The president left the decision with his senior advisers, who decided in a Tuesday morning meeting to lower the threat level, according to an official familiar with the deliberations. The Justice Department had prepared a written statement announcing the change.

Bush had raised the alert to orange _ the second-highest level _ after U.S. intelligence warned of a ``high risk'' of a terrorist attack in connection with the Sept. 11 anniversary two weeks ago.

Officials stressed that Americans should remain alert; even at code yellow, the nation faces a significant risk of attack.

Tuesday's change came after Bush met with senior administration officials who review daily new intelligence, weigh the potential for attack on U.S. targets and prepare threat-level recommendations for the president.

In the days leading up to the Sept. 11 anniversary, U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House that terrorists operating in several South Asian countries and linked to al-Qaida hoped to explode car bombs or launch other attacks on U.S. facilities abroad.

While there was no direct evidence of a plot against the United States, U.S. intelligence noted a similar pattern before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and urged Bush to raise the alert level.

Officials had said earlier that Bush could be expected to return the level to yellow because of ``some disruptions in plots and operations'' of terrorists. Several developments on the terrorism front _ some public, others confidential _ could prompt Bush to lower the alert level, they said.

The advances include:

_The Sept. 11 arrest in Pakistan of Ramzi Binalshibh, one of the suspected planners of the suicide hijackings a year earlier.

_The arrest of six suspected members of a New York terrorism cell.

_The detention of a Sudanese pilot being held in North Carolina while investigators determine whether he was plotting to fly a plane into a U.S. target.

In addition, the Sept. 11 anniversary passed without incident, the officials noted.

Homeland security director Tom Ridge, FBI Director Robert Mueller, CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft advised Bush on Sept. 10 to raise the alert level based in part on intelligence from a high-level al-Qaida operative in custody, Omar al-Farouq.

The color-coded system ranks threats by colors, starting at the bottom with green and followed by blue, yellow, orange and red as perceived dangers intensify. The warning level can be upgraded for the entire country or for specific regions or economic sectors _ such as the nuclear industry.

Ridge put the nation on yellow alert when he imposed the system in March. The status was unchanged until Sept. 11.