Special Interests Feeding at the Anti-Terrorism Trough

Dunkin’ Donuts received $22 million in federal loans to safeguard its assets against terrorism. Augusta, Georgia, received $3 million to protect its fire hydrants against terrorist tampering. Veterinary schools have called for a four-fold increase in funding to fight hoof-and-mouth disease spread by future terrorists. With a half-billion dollars in homeland security funds available, virtually every interest group in the country is trying to grab a slice of the anti-terrorism pie, no matter how unlikely or bogus the threat. With the U.S. Congress authorizing so much wasteful spending in the name of fighting terrorism, perhaps the 9/11 terrorists got more than they bargained for.

“For a multitude of politicians, interest groups, professional associations, corporations, media organizations, universities, local and state governments and federal agency officials, the War on Terror is now a major profit center, a funding bonanza, and a set of slogans and sound bites to be inserted into budget, project, grant and contract proposals,” writes Independent Institute Research Fellow Ian S. Lustick in a recent op-ed. “For the country as a whole, however, it has become a maelstrom of waste and worry that distracts us from more serious problems.”

From 2003 to 2006, the list of potential terrorist targets compiled by the Department of Homeland Security has grown from 160 to 300,000. That anti-terrorism spending is running amuck is admitted quietly within parts of the federal government. In 2004, Lustick heard a federal official encourage scientists to pursue “outside the box” projects to fight terrorism, although, as Lustick explains in his report, “Our Own Strength Against Us,” the official later admitted off the record that much of the spending was for show, rather than for genuine security. In 2005, the Small Business Administration’s inspector general reported that 85 percent of the businesses granted low-interest SBA loans for counterterrorism failed to establish their eligibility. These and other episodes leave Lustick to conclude that “al Qaeda’s most important accomplishment was not to hijack our planes, but to hijack our political system.”

“The War on Terror Feeding Frenzy,” by Ian S. Lustick (The Hill, 4/22/08)

Also see, “Our Own Strength Against Us: The War on Terror as a Self-Inflicted Disaster,” by Ian S. Lustick

Center on Peace & Liberty