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Sunday, May 14, 2006

Ind. Gov't. - Indiana has yet to identify its critical infrastructure

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has several stories today on the State's failure to compile a list of its "critical infrastructure."

"Checking the list, if it exists" is the headlie to this story by Dan Stockman. It begins:

If you had to name the physical things that are critical in your life, it would probably take just a few seconds: House for shelter, car for transportation, phones for communication, clothing, water, food and medicine.

Making the same list for the state of Indiana is a little more complicated. But how long should it take?

In the frightening days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act, which called for increased information sharing in the efforts to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure, and devoted $150 million over two years to make it happen.

A year and a half later, in February 2003, the federal government released its national strategy for protecting critical infrastructure and key assets, detailing what needed to be done.

“Like the federal government, states should identify and secure the critical infrastructures and key assets under their control,” the strategy says.

And just in case officials were unsure of what constitutes a critical infrastructure or key assets, the national strategy explains there are 13 types of critical infrastructure – from agriculture to transportation – and three types of key assets, from monuments and icons to industry and technology to commercial centers and anywhere crowds gather, such as sports stadiums. It then devotes a chapter to each type.

But three years after the national strategy was released, Indiana still cannot say what its critical infrastructure and key assets are.

If it exists, it might be secret.

In fact, officials said, they’re still working to figure out what “critical infrastructure” and “key assets” mean.

When The Journal Gazette filed a request under the state Access to Public Records Act to see the list of sites, Indiana Department of Homeland Security officials said it doesn’t yet exist.

“The definition of the phrase ‘critical infrastructure and key resource sites’ has not been created on the state level, and therefore no such list exists at the current time,” wrote Diane Mack, chief of the department’s strategic planning branch.

More on the confusion:
Bernie Beier, director of the Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Homeland Security, said the federal list includes only sites with national implications, such as interstate pipelines that carry oil and gas across the country. For the entire state, Beier said, there are fewer than 30 sites.

The list compiled by Fort Wayne of critical sites in the city, by contrast, includes more than 100 sites.

Bright said the definition the department is working on is to determine whether sites like those on Fort Wayne’s list are critical to the state, or if it is only sites like those identified by the federal government.

Though the lists made by individual cities and counties will likely be compiled into one statewide list someday, Bright said, there are no plans to create a list of state assets, such as the Statehouse or the State Department of Health, because they are within Marion County.

“(The Statehouse) belongs to the Marion County infrastructure,” she said. “There’s not that many state buildings, so it would fall within whatever jurisdiction it sits in.”

Randy Collins, who handles the critical infrastructure and key assets list for Indianapolis/Marion County, said that’s not exactly true.

The Marion County list originally did not include any state facilities at all, Collins said, but an update in February included them as an addendum.

“On the update, we broke out and noted that we do have some state critical infrastructure but do not consider them part of our jurisdiction,” Collins said.

Finally, on May 9, the Indiana Department of Homeland Security said that whatever information it does have must be kept secret because it would put those sites at risk of attack.

Re the Fort Wayne list:
Fort Wayne’s list of critical infrastructure and key assets that would need protection from terrorist attacks includes more than 100 sites, including government buildings, health care facilities and chemical plants. Many of the sites were redacted from the list for security reasons, but most – even those with the name missing – are obvious, such as the three entries under “Key high-rise structures.” Many sites make the list because of the large crowds they attract, such as Memorial Coliseum, Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo and the Johnny Appleseed Festival. Others, such as postal and shipping sites, make the list because they are critical to the economy.
A second story, also by Dan Stockman, details his paper's efforts to obtain information on the State's list. Some quotes:
The Journal Gazette first asked the Indiana Department of Homeland Security for the list of the state’s critical infrastructure and key assets on Feb. 28, two weeks after the “Indiana Strategy for Homeland Security” – which mandates such a list – was announced.

On April 7 – more than a month later – department officials finally said they were working to release the list, but first had to remove any confidential information. They expected the process would take another week, since the information was in “at least several large 3-ring binders.”

Four days later, the department said no list exists, because “the definition of the phrase ‘critical infrastructure and key resource sites’ has not been created on the state level.”

If such a list did exist, they wrote, it would probably be exempt from the Access to Public Records Act, which says vulnerability assessments and detailed plans of buildings don’t have to be made public. The newspaper did not ask for vulnerability assessments or detailed plans, only a list of sites.

The Journal Gazette then asked what is in the “large 3-ring binders” the agency initially said contained the list, only to be told on April 13 that it was information from the federal government, but that the state was asking the federal Department of Homeland Security whether it could be made public.

On May 9, the state said the federal government was still reviewing the request, but that any information the state has cannot be released because it would make the sites vulnerable to attack.

Open government advocates say that too often, public officials confuse national security – which means a safe populace – with keeping the government safe from informed criticism by the public.

“In wartime we have to have security, but homeland security is a whole new ballgame and I don’t think we have sorted out yet what it means to our way of life,” said Marian Pearcy, president of the Indiana Coalition for Open Government. “It gets to be a bit oppressive when the fear factor enters in.”

When the Des Moines Register wanted to examine Iowa’s list of key assets, it found that while state law made the list public, it was illegal to copy it in any way. That meant the reporter could look at the list, but was not allowed to take notes of what was on it.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 14, 2006 08:44 AM
Posted to Indiana Government