Homeland Security's Terror Target List Still Unfinished
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2004 — -- More than three years after the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government has yet to complete a list ranking the nation's most vulnerable sites. The Homeland Security Department's secret list of 80,000 potential targets includes some places that would not normally be considered terror targets, ABC News has learned.
Airports, dams and skyscrapers are named as potential terror targets -- but so are amusement parks, public libraries and even miniature golf courses.
"The compilation of this particular list, I think, is a bureaucratic exercise that has not been fruitful and a waste of taxpayer's money," said Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.
Congress asked the Homeland Security Department two years ago to develop the list as quickly as possible. It was not expected to take this long.
The target list is not based on intelligence from terrorists. Instead, security consultants say, many states, cities and counties sent long lists of targets from their areas hoping to get more federal funding.
"They're going to put everything on there they possibly can to get more money," said homeland security consultant Randall Larsen.
In Orlando, Fla., which is home to dozens of amusement parks, Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary says theme parks deserve to be on the government's list.
"There's hundreds of thousands of people here," he said. "And not only do I have to worry about my everyday job, I have to worry about each and every one of those tourists that we are sworn to protect, too."
Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has admitted his department gave no guidelines to communities to help them prioritize and narrow their lists.
Last summer, Ridge sent an urgent memo to his staff. "Are we clear and certain that these are the most important sites in America?" Ridge wrote. "I think our state and local partners are at a disadvantage … because they lack clear guidelines and standards from the department."
At the time Ridge wrote the memo there were 33,000 sites on the list. It grew, officials say, by almost 50,000 in just four months.
ABC News' Pierre Thomas filed this report for "World News Tonight."
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