Hundreds of New York nonprofit groups have gotten a slice of nearly $2 billion in national Homeland Security grants this year by claiming they face a “high risk” of a terror attack, reports the New York Daily News. They include a Long Island church that got $150,000 because one of its members hosts a radio show where Islam is sometimes discussed; a Rochester children’s museum that got $75,000 in 2009 by claiming its colorful design made it a terror target from the air, and the New York City Police Museum, which got $75,000 in fiscal 2008 to upgrade security because of its “symbolic nature.”
“It’s ridiculous,” James Carafano, a security expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said of some of the grants. He said the entire grant program has little value and would be better spent on active counterterrorism efforts. Henry Willis of the Rand Corp. added, “We haven’t done a good job of understanding how our investments in these programs come together to increase our capability.”