WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A report released Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general says the department's database of potential terror targets is too flawed to be used as a guide for the allocation of federal security funding.
Outcries erupted in New York and Washington over the department's decision to cut security funding for the two cities by 40 percent. The original DHS assessment did not identify the Brooklyn Bridge or Statue of Liberty as terrorist targets -- but did cite a Sears Auto Center, a cookie shop and the Apple and Pork Festival held each September in Clinton, Illinois. (
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Calling many of the target listings "quirky" and "out-of-place," Inspector General Richard Skinner said the National Asset Database, which is an inventory of "critical infrastructure and key resources" in the country, is "not yet comprehensive enough to support the management and resource allocation decision-making envisioned by the National Infrastructure Protection Plan."
The database of 77,069 targets, or "assets," names specific sites such as the Kangaroo Conservation Center in Dawsonville, Georgia, as well as non-specific entities, including one "Beach at End of (a) Street," as being potentially vulnerable.
A DHS representative told CNN the purpose of the list has been misinterpreted.
"The major point to get across is that this database is not a list of critical infrastructure across the United States," said DHS spokesman Jarrod Agen. "The states provided us with a list of assets in their area -- assets the states believe are critical."
The report cited several examples of questionable assets, as well as entire categories it described as flawed, including racetracks, with 224 listed; retail stores, 234; and libraries, 130.
