About a month ago, the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a report that covered progress in identifying our country’s critical infrastructure, presumably those facilities most in need of protection from terrorist attacks.
The list is known as the National Asset Database, and of course it’s not available to the public. It is the result of two requests for states to provide data, one in 2003 and again in 2004.
As the report puts it, “The states’ unfamiliarity with identifying CI/KR [Critical Infrastructure/Key Resources] and DHS’s [Department of Homeland Security] lack of direction contributed to the poor quality of data.”
Thus, the auditors found many “out-of- place assets.” In other words, Homeland Security couldn’t figure why these items were listed when it presumably was looking for things like power plants, water supplies and major bridges. No locations were given in the report, but among the out-of-place assets of 2003 were a groundhog zoo, kangaroo conservation center, a check-cashing outlet, a bourbon festival and a mule-day parade.
The 2004 call for data “generated more relevant assets,” but also “included noticeable out-of-place assets,” such as an ice cream parlor, a donut shop, a yacht repair business, a brewery, several Wal-Mart stores and, perhaps significantly, an “apple and pork festival.”
Perhaps some state governments were under the impression that the more they put on the list, the more federal funds they might get, so this whole thing could qualify as a “pork festival.”
The auditors observed that “Indiana lists 8,491 assets in the NADB, more than any other state and 50 percent more than New York (5,687).” Further, “Some classes of assets where national criticality needs to be determined include 1,305 casinos, 25 golf courses, 24 swimming pools, 44 recreational centers and 163 water parks. Other asset types and quantities reported included 130 public libraries, 159 cruise ships, 34 Coca-Cola bottlers/distributors, 244 correctional facilities, 718 mortuaries, 571 nursing homes, and 3,773 [shopping] malls.”
As a loyal citizen of Colorado eager to castigate our senators and representatives if we do not get our share, I carefully perused the 54-page report. We may not be big on cruise ships and yacht-repair shops, but we do have casinos, golf courses, breweries, donut shops and similar facilities.
However, it did not list any specific Colorado out-of-place assets. All I could learn about us is that we had 422 items on the National Asset Database in 2003, we submitted 872 the next year – of which one was a duplicate – and so we now have 1,293 listed assets. Our neighbors vary considerably, from 305 in Oklahoma and 369 in Wyoming to 3,457 in Nebraska.
It’s easy to make fun of the inclusion of a petting zoo on these lists, but the auditors pointed out that the states got little guidance from the feds, and there were no consistent requirements.
Thus, some states ignored school buildings while others listed them, not only because they might be terrorist targets, but because they’re often used for emergency shelters.
And I need not explain in detail the relationship between protecting donut shops and protecting police officers. Indeed, this “war on terror” makes it hard to determine what might be a target and thus in need of additional protection.
For instance, the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York knocked out a significant portion of the nation’s communications infrastructure. Among other things, the wire services were knocked out and newspapers could not get their stock-market reports. Our infrastructure improved so much that the 2001 attack, while much more destructive and deadly, barely disturbed communications.
Also, terrorists might prefer to strike places of symbolic value. For instance, as best I know Mount Rushmore in South Dakota has no military value – no strategic minerals, no defense plants, no bases, no vital transportation or communication links. But our national psyche would suffer if Thomas Jefferson’s nose were blown off by terrorists. And how vulnerable would we feel if suicide bombers penetrated some small-town festival in the middle of nowhere?
Doubtless, there is a lot of pork-hustling in the lists that the states submitted to the federal Homeland Security Department. And surely funds have been wasted. But I’m glad I’m not the one who has to make decisions about what’s worth protecting and what isn’t. Given the peculiarities of a “war on terror,” how could anyone know?
Ed Quillen of Salida (ed@cozine.com) is a former newspaper editor whose column appears Tuesday and Sunday.
