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U.S. Critical Sites Database Behind Schedule
The U.S. Homeland Security Department’s effort to create a comprehensive list of potential terrorist targets in the United States is behind schedule and facing withering attacks by some lawmakers, USA Today reported yesterday (see GSN, May 25). President George W. Bush last year ordered the department to develop a database of sites such as chemical plants and skyscrapers, and to set priorities for securing them. The project was expected to be largely completed by this month, but instead could take years to complete, according to USA Today. Some lawmakers who have seen parts of the classified list of some 80,000 sites said it includes miniature golf courses and water parks but omits some high-profile targets. “Their list is a joke,” said Representative Ernest Istook (R-Okla.), a member of the House homeland security committee. He referred to the project as “an exercise in full employment for bureaucrats, rather than a realistic way to make the country safer.” Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) also criticized the effort following a briefing Tuesday. “I honestly don’t know what they’ve been doing over there,” she said. “I think you could take the average mayor or member of Congress and give them a month, and they would come up with a better list.” It might take years to compile the list, acknowledged Robert Liscouski, head of infrastructure protection at the Homeland Security Department. He said the agency relies on state and local governments and private industry in identifying sites for the list. Sometimes the department receives a surplus of information, other times it is not given enough for preparing the catalog, he said. In a July memo, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge wrote that that local officials “lack clear guidelines and standards” from his department to help them determine which sites to include. “Absent such clear delineation, it is impossible to justify any item contained on the national list,” Ridge wrote. Liscouski, however, said officials have started analyzing the information. “We have a good handle on what the top targets in the United States are,” he said. “It’s not going fast, but it’s coming along” (Mimi Hall, USA Today, Dec. 8).
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