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U.S. Terror Targets: Petting Zoo and Flea Market?
By ERIC LIPTON
Published: July 12, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/12/washington/12assets.html?th&emc=th
WASHINGTON, July 11 — It reads like a tally of terrorist targets that a
child might have written: Old MacDonald’s Petting Zoo, the Amish Country
Popcorn factory, the Mule Day Parade, the Sweetwater Flea Market and an
unspecified “Beach at End of a Street.”
But the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, in a
report released Tuesday, found that the list was not child’s play: all these
“unusual or out-of-place” sites “whose criticality is not readily apparent”
are inexplicably included in the federal antiterrorism database.
The National Asset Database, as it is known, is so flawed, the inspector
general found, that as of January, Indiana, with 8,591 potential terrorist
targets, had 50 percent more listed sites than New York (5,687) and more
than twice as many as California (3,212), ranking the state the most
target-rich place in the nation.
The database is used by the Homeland Security Department to help divvy up
the hundreds of millions of dollars in antiterrorism grants each year,
including the program announced in May that cut money to New York City and
Washington by 40 percent, while significantly increasing spending for cities
including Louisville, Ky., and Omaha.
“We don’t find it embarrassing,” said the department’s deputy press
secretary, Jarrod Agen. “The list is a valuable tool.”
But the audit says that lower-level department officials agreed that some
older information in the inventory “was of low quality and that they had
little faith in it.”
“The presence of large numbers of out-of-place assets taints the credibility
of the data,” the report says.
In addition to the petting zoo, in Woodville, Ala., and the Mule Day Parade
in Columbia, Tenn., the auditors questioned many entries, including “Nix’s
Check Cashing,” “Mall at Sears,” “Ice Cream Parlor,” “Tackle Shop,” “Donut
Shop,” “Anti-Cruelty Society” and “Bean Fest.”
Even people connected to some of those businesses or events are baffled at
their inclusion as possible terrorist targets.
“Seems like someone has gone overboard,” said Larry Buss, who helps organize
the Apple and Pork Festival in Clinton, Ill. “Their time could be spent
better doing other things, like providing security for the country.”
Angela McNabb, manager of the Sweetwater Flea Market, which is 50 miles from
Knoxville, Tenn., said: “I don’t know where they get their information. We
are talking about a flea market here.”
New York City officials, who have questioned the rationale for the reduction
in this year’s antiterrorism grants, were similarly blunt.
“Now we know why the Homeland Security grant formula came out as wacky as it
was,” Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said Tuesday. “This
report is the smoking gun that thoroughly indicts the system.”
The source of the problems, the audit said, appears to be insufficient
definitions or standards for inclusion provided to the states, which submit
lists of locations for the database.
New York, for example, lists only 2 percent of the nation’s banking and
finance sector assets, which ranks it between North Dakota and Missouri.
Washington State lists nearly twice as many national monuments and icons as
the District of Columbia.
Montana, one of the least populous states in the nation, turned up with far
more assets than big-population states including Massachusetts, North
Carolina and New Jersey.
The inspector general questions whether many of the sites listed in whole
categories — like the 1,305 casinos, 163 water parks, 159 cruise ships, 244
jails, 3,773 malls, 718 mortuaries and 571 nursing homes — should even be
included in the tally.
But the report also notes that the list “may have too few assets in
essential areas.” It apparently does not include many major business and
finance operations or critical national telecommunications hubs.
The department does not release the list of 77,069 sites, but the report
said that as of January it included 17,327 commercial properties like office
buildings, malls and shopping centers, 12,019 government facilities, 8,402
public health buildings, 7,889 power plants and 2,963 sites with chemical or
hazardous materials.
George W. Foresman, the department’s under secretary for preparedness, said
the audit misunderstood the purpose of the database, as it was an inventory
or catalog of national assets, not a prioritized list of the most critical
sites.The database is just one of many sources consulted in deciding
antiterrorism grants.
The inspector general recommends that the department review the list and
determine which of the “extremely insignificant” assets that have been
included should remain and provide better guidance to states on what to
submit in the future.
Mr. Agen, the Homeland Security Department spokesman, said that he agreed
that his agency should provide better directions for the states and that it
would do so in the future.
One business owner who learned from a reporter that a company named Amish
Country Popcorn was on the list was at first puzzled. The businessman, Brian
Lehman, said he owned the only operation in the country with that name.
“I am out in the middle of nowhere,” said Mr. Lehman, whose business in
Berne, Ind., has five employees and grows and distributes popcorn. “We are
nothing but a bunch of Amish buggies and tractors out here. No one would
care.”
But on second thought, he came up with an explanation: “Maybe because
popcorn explodes?”
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