U.S. Struggles to Rank Potential Terror Targets (Washington Post)

[Up2Late]

(I'm sure you've heard about the GAO report, but here are more of the CRAZY details!)

U.S. Struggles to Rank Potential Terror Targets

Securing All Sites Is Not Financially Feasible, but Choices Are Fraught With Uncertainty

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 16, 2006; Page A09

The U.S. government has made limited headway in identifying and securing the domestic targets whose destruction would pose the greatest threat to American lives and national defense, experts and former government officials said.

The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general reported last week that a department target list has grown exponentially -- from 160 in 2003 to 28,000 in 2004 to 77,069 today -- but it is filled with bean festivals, car dealerships, small-town parades and check-cashing stores....

(clip)

"It is absurd that at least 32,000 of the 77,000-plus assets in our National Asset Database are sites of no national significance," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). Boxer led the Senate on Thursday to bar certain DHS officials from spending on travel until they correct what she called "gross mismanagement...."

(clip)

...President Bill Clinton signed a White House directive in 1998 that called for the country to come up with a plan to defend its vital infrastructure from attack by 2003. President Bush called again for a national plan in December 2003. Yet, despite $18 billion a year in government spending, "It appears that DHS is not yet able to base its critical infrastructure resource allocations on risk analyzed in a systematic manner," the Congressional Research Service said this spring.

(more at link) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/15/AR2006071500726.html?sub=AR>

[Kutjara]

1. You can just see how this grew into an almighty...

...asscovering exercise. Nobody wanted to leave something off the list that a terrorist subsequently either attacked or used in an attack, so every 'dog house, hen house and outhouse' (to paraphrase Tommy Lee Jones) got thrown in. Then, if some 'terrorist' used the local Quick-E-Mart to buy Slurpees for his team or planted a bomb at the Nowheresville Tarp Festival, the relevant local authorities would be able to point to the fact that they'd 'put it on the list,' so it wouldn't be their fault.

Add to this the usual feeding frenzy of politicians who sense that money might be coming their way in proportion to the number of 'targets' they have in their constituency, and you can guarantee that every frickin' blade of grass and dried dog turd will instantly take on the importance of the Lincoln Memorial.

Fear and greed: humanity's cardinal virtues. Totally predictable.

[Demeter]

2. That Federal Building In Oklahoma Was Of No National Significance

until one of our homies blew it up. The message is the medium.