CCS/MSP430F5529: GPIO Pin Only Responding to 0V Input. Interrupt Cannot Be Configured for 5V

Part Number:MSP430F5529

Tool/software: Code Composer Studio

I'm having a hard time with a pretty basic problem.  I've going through the user guides and examples but I can't figure out how to fix my problem.  I have a GPIO pin on an MSP430F5529 configured as an input, and when the input is low, the outputs change.  I want the outputs to change when the signal goes high.  Here are the configurations:

P2DIR &= ~BIT5;		// reset signal hardware interrupt
	P2OUT |= BIT5;		// internal resistor pull up
	P2REN |= BIT5;		// resistor enable
	P2IES |= BIT5; 		// interrupt edge select, 1 = high to low, 0 = low to high
	//P2IFG &= ~BIT5;
	//P2IE |= BIT5;			// interrupt enable

#define EXT_INPUT P2IN & BIT5

and I have a function that controls the outputs based on this reading here:

if(EXT_INPUT){  //JP7 pin 4 will be used as the trigger input

	   if (event == DETECTED)
		{
			   if(consecpass++ > 2) //if there are three or more passes indicate there is a sample by turning green on and red off
			   {
				   GREEN_LED_ON;
				   RED_LED_OFF;
				   consecfail=0;
			   }
		}

		 if (event==NOT_DETECTED){

			if(consecfail++ > 3 && consecfail < 35)
			{
				RED_LED_OFF;
				GREEN_LED_ON;
				consecpass=0;
			}

			if(consecfail > 35){

				RED_LED_ON;
				GREEN_LED_OFF;
			}
		}

			if (consecpass>30000) //used to prevent roll over and to indicate failure if device is standing still.
			{
				consecpass=3;
			}

			if(consecfail>30000) //used to prevent roll over and to indicate failure if device is standing still.
			{
				consecfail=3;
			}

	   }else{
		   consecpass=0;
		   consecfail=0;
		   RED_LED_ON;
		   GREEN_LED_ON;

	   }

I tried changing EXT_INPUT definition to ~BIT5, which kept the outputs in the if condition regardless of input.  When I have if(EXT_INPUT==0) or ==1, the device stays in the else condition.  What am I doing wrong?