Terror Target

[HardyHarHar]

Bullseye or Bullshit?

you decide.

the stats are pretty staggering,

the examples are pretty funny.

 

 

NY TIMES:

Come One, Come All, Join the Terror Target List

Bill Johnson/HorsePix Photography

 

The Mule Day Parade in Columbia, Tenn., is one of many targets listed in a federal database whose "criticality" is not apparent, a report says.

 

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By ERIC LIPTON

Published: July 12, 2006

 

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.”

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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?”

 

ABC NEWS:

 

July 13, 2006 — The Old McDonald Petting Zoo in Woodville, Ala., doesn't seem like a target for terrorists.

 

"No one would strike here because we're so remote," said Sherry Lewis, co-owner of the farm.

 

But this farm filled with goats, bunnies and roosters is in the Homeland Security Database, a list of 77,000 possible terror targets that includes power plants, bridges and stadiums.

 

That's not the only unlikely potential target on the list. Others include the Annual Mule Day Parade in Tennessee and the peaceful, historic Bok Sanctuary in Florida, an 80-acre garden.

 

Many people who live in these communities and work at some of the "targets" on the list are bewildered.

 

"I have absolutely no idea how we may have gotten on that list," said Robert Sullivan, president of the Bok Sanctuary.

 

And at the Anti-Cruelty Society in Chicago, Courtney Kieba said, "We're pretty sure the dogs are not sharing terrorist secrets here at the society."

 

List Riles Other States

 

But this list of terror targets is no joke. The database is used by the Department of Homeland Security to dole out hundreds of millions of dollars in anti-terrorism grant money.

 

When the department recently cut funding to Washington, D.C., and New York City by 40 percent, many accused the department of distributing funds based on politics, not need.

 

"I think some places clearly padded their lists," said New York's Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer. "There were no real standards."

 

The state on the list with the most potential targets? Indiana, with 8,500 sites — more than New York or California.

 

"I don't think there was a clarification of what assets were, so every state had a different version of what they were supposed to submit," said Pam Bright of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security.

 

One Indiana business on that list is Brian Lehman's popcorn company in rural Berne.

 

"I think it's funny," Lehman said. "I think it's some kind of mistake."

 

The popcorn business is basically a barn in a cornfield with five employees.

 

"The last news people who were looking for us drove right by us," Lehman said. "They couldn't find us."

[El Mamerro]

That's pretty fucking outrageous.

 

Though I understand the tacticality of a terrorist attack on a remote, unimportant site.

[angelofdeath]

its nothing new though. all of my friends vehicles were on terrorist watch lists for driving frequently around this one train yard in our area.

[The Man with the Answers]

what people don't understand is that these databases are compiled on a county-by-county basis...when you aggregate it together, what may seem strange or outrageous really isn't if you understand how the database was compiled...

 

 

I would not make an opinion about this until i understood how the database was used in the calculation for funding...

[HardyHarHar]

Sorry, I'm American, I shoot first ask questions later. Forget answers.

 

Regardless of how this database was compiled, it's still ridiculous that they put a popcorn stand in the same catagory as the Golden Gate Bridge. All that tells me is that the whole project was about as thoughtful as the color coded warning system.

 

2 + 2 = 5