TerrorismDHS cuts funds for programs aiming to prevent a McVeigh-like fertilizer bombing attacks
Timothy McVeigh used two tons of fertilizer and $3,000 of racing fuel to detonate a bomb outside the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. The blast killed 168 people. The Obama administration is currently not allocating money or resources to preventing fertilizer bombing attacks like the one McVeigh used, according to a former DHS official with direct knowledge of the department’s budgeting and operations.
Two tons of fertilizer destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City // Source: tinhay.vn
Timothy McVeigh used two tons of fertilizer and $3,000 of racing fuel to detonate a bomb outside the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. The blast killed 168 people.
The Obama administration is currently not allocating money or resources to preventing fertilizer bombing attacks like the one McVeigh used, according to a former DHS official with direct knowledge of the department’s budgeting and operations.
The Daily Mail quotes the former official to say that the Boston Marathon bombing was “tragic, but if this were an Oklahoma City-type bomb, there would have been hundreds of deaths.”
The Mail reports that DHS now has only one federal employee and no contractors devoted to the task of preventing the deployment and detonation of ammonium nitrate bombs, a situation the former official called “completely ineffective, and very dangerous for the country.”
The former official was a political appointee at DHS headquarters and described the U.S. chemical security program as “disastrous.”
Robert Liscouski, a former DHS assistant secretary for infrastructure protection, told the Mail that the “the Obama administration has continued to cut the budget for offices such as the Office for Bombing Prevention from $20 million started under [George W.] Bush, to $11 million today.”
Ammonium nitrate is commonly found in farming fertilizer. In 2006, ABC News reporters purchased 1,000 pounds of fertilizer for less than $300 without identification, and transported it to a warehouse just a few miles away from the White House. According to ABC’s Brian Ross, that amount of fertilizer can take down a good sized building.
Terrorists across the globe have used ammonium nitrate because it is stable, inexpensive, and effective. This video shows just how effective the chemical can be.
According to the former official, other security programs are also being cut significantly:
The Buffer Zone Protection Program was a $50 million grant program which gave local law enforcement and first responders funds in an effort to “identify and mitigate vulnerabilities at the highest-risk critical infrastructure sites” according to DHS. The Urban Area Security Grants Initiative has also been cut significantly.
The Lower Manhattan Security Initiative and the Homeland Infrastructure Threat and Risk Analysis Center, once a $25-30 million program, have also seen their budget slashed.
The former official said that when President Barack Obama took office, $3.5 billion in grants were available to state and local law enforcement, but today there are “hundreds of millions of dollars” less available.
The former official also said infrastructure protection is an under-secretary level position, but it has turned into a “backwater” under the Obama administration, because the White House has not taken its function seriously since 2009.
