---
title: Homeland Security Advisory System threat-level chart
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/homeland-security-advisory-system-2002/
description: A five-color scale (green through red) communicated a national terrorism threat level to the public from 2002 to 2011, with no attached base rate and…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Homeland Security Advisory System threat-level chart](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/homeland-security-advisory-system-2002.svg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/homeland-security-advisory-system-2002.svg)

# Homeland Security Advisory System threat-level chart

A five-color scale (green through red) communicated a national terrorism threat level to the public from 2002 to 2011, with no attached base rate and usually no geographic scope or specific recommended action beyond generic vigilance. The color carried the message; the underlying intelligence behind a given level was rarely disclosed.

- **Date:** 2002
- **Period:** [Contemporary](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=contemporary)
- **Made by:** U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Document](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=document)
- **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [George W. Bush Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=george-w-bush-administration)
- **Leader:** [George W. Bush](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=george-w-bush)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Warn or inform](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=warn-inform)
- **Theme:** [Security and surveillance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=security-surveillance)
- **Event:** [War on Terror](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=war-on-terror)
- **Techniques:** [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [U.S. Department of Homeland Security (via Wikimedia Commons)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hsas-chart_with_header.svg), retrieved September 25, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (U.S. government work) U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2002-2011 (Homeland Security Advisory System, retired March 2011).

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
[Seal: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY]

HOMELAND SECURITY
ADVISORY SYSTEM

SEVERE
Severe Risk of
Terrorist Attacks

HIGH
High Risk of
Terrorist Attacks

ELEVATED
Significant Risk of
Terrorist Attacks

GUARDED
General Risk of
Terrorist Attacks

LOW
Low Risk of
Terrorist Attacks
```

The SVG file's text is rendered as vector outlines rather than a text element, so this was read visually off a rasterized rendering of the chart rather than extracted from markup.

[← ANC Western Cape Poster: "DP + NNP Stole Your Homes" (c. 2001)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anc-district-six-election-poster-2001/) [Mobile Production Facilities for Biological Agents (UN Security Council slide) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/powell-un-mobile-labs-2003/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [豬叫取胎圖 (Picture of the Pig Sect Extracting a Foetus), from Reverently Obeying the Sacred Edict: A Complete Picture Gallery to Repel Heterodoxy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pig-cry-taking-foetus-hunan-1891/) (1891 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Colour woodblock caricature depicting foreign Christians as members of a 'pig' sect and showing them cutting a foetus from a woman; violence against a woman and derision of Christianity.
- [The Radical Programme, No. 4: Dismemberment of the Empire (Gladstone & Co. auction India), St Stephen's Review Presentation Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/radical-programme-selling-india-st-stephens-review-1891/) (Oct 31, 1891 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating)
- [En posesión de su presa (In Possession of Its Prey)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/en-posesion-de-su-presa-el-diablo-1894/) (Jun 2, 1894 · Fear appeal)
- [劉永福懸賞抓拿日本奸細告示 (Liu Yongfu's notice offering rewards for capturing Japanese spies), Taiwan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/liu-yongfu-reward-notice-japanese-spies-1895/) (1895 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Sífilis: Curación absoluta y radical en el Sanatorio para sifilíticos (Syphilis: Absolute and Radical Cure at the Sanatorium for Syphilitics)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sifilis-sanatorio-abreu-1900/) (1900 · Fear appeal)
- [時局圖 (The Situation in the Far East / Map of the Present Situation), newer version with English labels](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/situation-in-far-east-tse-tsan-tai-1900/) (1900 · Fear appeal)