Potential Terrorism Targets—Indiana #1

Most people would probably suspect that likely terrorism targets in the United States include New York City, Washington, DC, Houston, Chicago, and Los Angeles. These are all large cities with significant populations, assets, and symbols of American culture. Indiana, however, which may be best known for its Memorial Day auto race and the movie Hoosiers, leads all states with 8,591 assets.^[1]

Included on the list of likely terrorist target is Amish Country Popcorn, “which employs five people” and is located way out in the middle of nowhere “on a gravel road, not even blacktop.”^[2] Indiana has roughly 30 percent more targets than New York, which has 5,687, and nearly twice as many as California, which has 3,212.^[3] At 8,591 sites (which has increased from 8,303 in 2005, and from 322 in 2004), Indiana is ahead of Wisconsin at number 2, New York at number 3, Texas and number 5, and Illinois at number 10.^[4]

The national list of 77,069 sites includes 1,305 casinos, 163 water parks, 159 cruise chips, 244 jails, 3,773 malls, 718 mortuaries, 571 nursing homes, Old MacDonald’s Petting Zoo, the Mule Day Parade, Sweetwater Flea Market, and “an unspecified ‘Beach at End of a Street.’”^[5]

The Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General Richard Skinner has criticized the National Asset Database for including “these ‘unusual or out-of-place’ sites ‘whose critically is not readily apparent.’”^[6] The NAD is used to “help divvy up the hundreds of millions of dollars in anti-terrorism grants each year,” and DHS’s deputy press secretary Jarrod Agen says that DHS doesn’t “find it embarrassing” because “the list is a valuable tool.”^[7]

Part of the problem with the program is that there seem to “insufficient definitions or standards for inclusion provided to States, which submit lists of locations for the National Asset Database.”^[8] Thus, the NAD includes such anomalies as Virginia listing 2,126 schools while eight States or territories list none.^[9] Or New York listing “only 2 percent of the nation’s banking and finance sector assets,” which places it between North Dakota and Missouri.^[10] Or listing an insect zoo but not the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, the Empire State Building, or the Brooklyn Bridge.^[11]

It should be noted, however, that the assets are not listed in rank of importance or likelihood of attack.^[12]

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[1] Cordell Eddings, America’s No. 1 Terror Target: Indiana? Indianapolis Star, Jul. 13, 2006.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Eric Lipton, U.S. Terror Targets: Petting Zoo and Flea Market? NY Times (via International Herald Tribune), Jul. 12, 2006.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.
[11] Security Funding List: Bean Fest, But Not Times Square?, AP (via CNN.com), Jul. 12, 2006.
[12] Id.