You say “Department of Homeland Security” I say “massive pork barrel”

Amy Zegart had a must-read op-ed in yesterday’s Newsday on homeland security and intelligence reform. Here’s one of the disturbing bits:

If we ask how far we have come since 9/11 in terms of safety planning the evidence is not encouraging. Homeland security funds are flowing, but not to the right places. Since 9/11, Congress has distributed $13 billion to state governments with a formula only Washington could concoct: 40 percent was split evenly, regardless of a state’s population, targets or vulnerability to terrorist attack. The result: Safe places got safer. Rural states with fewer potential targets and low populations, such as Alaska and Wyoming, received more than $55 per resident. Target-rich and densely populated states like New York and California received $25 and $14 per person respectively. Osama bin Laden, beware: Wyoming is well fortified. It gets worse. Over the past three years, the federal government has spent 20 times more on aviation security than on protecting America’s seaports, even though more than 90 percent of U.S. foreign trade moves by ship, but less than 5 percent of all shipping containers entering the country are inspected. One recent study showed the odds of detecting a nuclear bomb inside a heavy machinery container were close to zero. As the 9/11 Commission concluded, such a lopsided transportation strategy makes sense only if you intend to fight the last war.

Read the whole thing.