US terror alert falls, but stays for some

WASHINGTON -- The US government yesterday lowered the national terrorism threat level from "high," or orange, to "elevated," or yellow, except for four cities and at sites in critical industries, such as airports and nuclear facilities.

The Department of Homeland Security kept the cities of New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Washington on high alert. In Massachusetts, public safety officials said the state will maintain security at or near the orange level at Logan Airport and energy sector facilities in the state but decrease the attention at other locations.

It was the first time since the inception of the color-coded advisory system that the general threat level was lowered while specific geographic and industrial sites were kept on higher alert. Previously, the alert was lowered nationwide.

The terror level was raised to the system's second-highest level Dec. 21, when Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge warned that intelligence reports indicated the threat of holiday attacks was greater than at any time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It was the fifth time that the terror alert level has been raised from "elevated" to "high" since system was created in March 2002.

"With the passing of the holidays and many large gatherings that certainly occur during this time, we have made the decision to come down to yellow," Ridge said. "Yellow still means that we are [at] an elevated risk of attack. And we will maintain particular vigilance around some critical resources and locales."

The repeated adjustments to the national alert level have engendered criticism from security specialists that the alert system is ineffective -- raising public fears, they say, while wasting money to broadly ramp up security. During the most recent period of heightened alert, the US government relayed news of potential threats to airlines, causing the delay or cancellation of several international flights to the United States. Ridge said he did not know whether any specific plots were foiled.

He said airlines will remain at a higher state of alert, but cited security concerns in declining to specify which other sectors will do so. "We don't want to broadcast to everybody where we're going to be doing this," he said.

Certain airports will continue to have increased security, an unnamed Homeland Security official told the Associated Press. A few of the many hundreds of dams, bridges, and chemical plants that received heightened protection during the higher alert will continue to be treated with extra vigilance, the official said.

Nuclear facilities and ports also are expected to maintain higher vigilance.

The lowered terrorism threat level is not expected to produce wholesale changes in the way law enforcement in Massachusetts guards the state, officials said yesterday. Boston Police, for example, have not increased the number of officers working each shift since the orange level was declared Dec. 21, said Officer Nadine Taylor-Miller, a department spokeswoman.

Instead, officers were given specific assignments during their shifts, such as keeping close watch on historic landmarks and other places in the city that draw large crowds, and were required to keep riot gear at the ready.

Now, with the threat level lowered to yellow, officers will be back to handling more routine patrol assignments. "It's not a situation where, because of a higher level of alert, there is more officers on the street," Taylor-Miller said. "We maintain vigilance [at some locations], but not as much as we had before."

Lieutenant Marian McGovern, spokeswoman for the State Police, said the downgrade will lead to reassignments for some troopers, but not a cut in the number of troopers on patrol.

"It's not like we are taking 50 troopers off the road and telling them, `Go back and sit at your desk,' " McGovern said. "They are still going to be out there. We are going to maintain a high-level readiness and keep our visibility high out there, and be ready to respond any minute if anything did happen."

McGovern said "in excess" of 50 troopers will be working in and around Gillette Stadium tonight when the New England Patriots face the Tennessee Titans in a National Football League playoff game. Governor Mitt Romney plans to attend, according to Romney's office.

Public Safety Secretary Edward Flynn said that while federal officials warned of possible threats at airports elsewhere in the country, Logan was not ordered kept at the orange level. "We have not been advised that Logan is the subject of any specific information," he said. "Logan, nonetheless, will maintain a high level of security. It probably will be somewhat less than the all-out orange, but you will still see a robust police presence."

As for energy facilities in the state, Flynn was less specific. "There are certain aspects of the energy industry that command our extra attention, and I will allow you to speculate as to what those might be," he said. Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino has questioned the safety of letting liquefied natural gas tankers use Boston Harbor and remains concerned about that, a Menino spokesman said yesterday. A nuclear power plant also is operating in Plymouth.

The new approach to lowering the alert level caused some confusion: A spokesman for the Air Transport Association of America, the airline industry's lobbying group, said his organization had received dual messages -- both yellow and orange levels -- about their status and was still waiting to be briefed by the Transportation Security Administration.

But homeland security specialists praised the two-pronged approach of generally lowering the threat level while remaining on alert in targeted areas, saying that forcing the entire nation to go on heightened alert is costly and confusing.

Michael Greenberger, director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland, said being at the "high" alert level costs cities and localities $70 million per day.

"We've got to move away from this approach of every time there's an increase in [terrorist] chatter . . . we ramp up all the engines and the whole nation starts mobilizing," said John Cohen, a consultant who works with several state and local governments on homeland security issues, including Massachusetts. "Fiscally, it doesn't make sense and operationally, tactically, it doesn't make sense. . . . This whole surge approach has become obsolete."

Flynn praised the decision by the Homeland Security Department to allow states to make individual decisions about where to keep intensified security in place and where to pull back.

"What I appreciate about this downgrade is that for the first time since the threat alert system began, the Homeland Security Department is allowing for some nuance. . . . I mean, although they are generally reducing the threat level to yellow, they are allowing us to maintain orange-level posture at a few very key installations," Flynn said.

"I think that approach is long overdue."

Robert Schlesinger reported from Washington, and John Ellement reported from Boston. Schlesinger can be reached at schlesinger

@globe.com