Petting Zoo Critical to Homeland Security Infrastructure

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[Beating Dead Horses]
The Department of Homeland Security is building a massive database of critical national infrastructure to be used to determine what sites most need protection from terrorist attacks.

Among the critical assets in the database are Old MacDonald's Petting Zoo, a Kangaroo Conservation Center, Jay's Sporting Goods, several Wal-Mart stores, Amish Country Popcorn, and the Sweetwater Flea Market.

The DHS Office of Inspector General found the National Asset Database, being compiled to support a variety of infrastructure protection projects, full to overflowing with "poor quality" data, such as 4,055 malls, shopping centers, and retail outlets, 224 racetracks, 539 theme or amusement parks and 163 water parks, 514 religious meeting places and 1,305 casinos.

Casinos and amusement parks are critical infrastructure in the event of a terrorist attack?

The data, compiled largely from two calls to states for submissions, is inconsistent between states, and contains large numbers of "out of place" items, largely due to lack of clear DHS guidance on what should be submitted, the inspector general's report said.

And some of those out of place items seem quite out of place on a critical infrastructure list, such as a Sears Auto Center, a Pepsi bottling plant, the Trees of Mystery, the 4 Cs Fuel and Lube, a truckstop, High Stakes Bingo, and the Mule Day Parade.

The state of Iowa, for instance, has several strange places on its critical infrastructure list, including a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop near Des Moines. And Florida counts two small tourist attractions, Weeki Wachee Springs and Dinosaur World, among critical assets for which it's applied for homeland security grant money.

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