When President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed, there was no color-coded chart in the corner of the TV screen to alert Americans that the government had raised the threat level from yellow to orange.

As of Wednesday afternoon, there was no heightened alert. Gone are the days of the Department of Homeland Security’s rainbow legend charting “elevated,” “high” and “severe” risks of terrorist attacks. Days before Obama’s Sunday announcement, the department scrapped the Bush-era color chart — which critics had viewed as useless — and replaced it with a system that will alert specific areas of the country about potential attacks, only if useful information is available.

This thinking was reinforced Monday, when Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced she wouldn’t issue a terror alert — even as the White House raised the possibility that extremists might retaliate after bin Laden’s death. Napolitano said in a statement that she would put out an alert “when we have specific or credible information.”

Her decision earned the approval of Tom Ridge, the first homeland security secretary, who created the color chart that was replaced April 27.

“If the Obama administration thinks this is a better way to do it, so be it,” Ridge said in an interview. “As long as they alert us to the threat and, as important, tell us what to do about it, it could very well be improved. But time will tell.”

One of the most tangible differences is the basis for announcing an alert — specific information that can be given to local authorities. Yet there’s also a new sense of “restraint” in the department, according to one official there.

“There are thresholds that have to be met, and if they are not, an alert does not go out,” the official, who requested anonymity, said in a statement. “Decisions aren’t made based on sentiment or emotion but, rather, on clearly defined processes that we built with the input of our partners in federal, state and local government and the private sector.”

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