Far from skyscrapers and busy airports, America's heartland protects the nation's resources. CARYN ROUSSEAU examines threats to some key national assets.
KANSAS CITY, Mo.
The Mexican border: a possible target. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Kalsie Briggs, her 3-week-old son Kaeden and her father Brian Briggs, at their home in International Falls, Minn. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Kalsie Briggs)
Texas rancher Stephen Diebel with his horse "Gypsy" at his ranch. (AP Photo/Paul Iverson)
It's home to our fresh water and farmland, our border crossings and oil pipelines.
For the people of Middle America, where so many of our nation's resources are held, terror threats since Sept. 11, 2001, are just as real as they are in major cities.
Folks living in the country's smallest towns and counties -- the people who guard these resources for the rest of the country -- worry about terrorism too. And many terrorism experts have warned that America's heartland may be just as likely a target as New York or San Francisco, Miami or Chicago.
"When you're looking at the heartland, one of the biggest missions is to realize that terrorism can happen anywhere," said James Ellis, a terrorism specialist with the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism in Oklahoma City, created after the bombing at the federal building there in 1995. "It's not just something that happens on the coast, not just in big cities, not just in populations over 1 million."
The Department of Homeland Security keeps a list of terror targets that's thousands of items long. It's got a very bureaucratic name -- the National Asset Database. And, yes, some targets included were Middle American petting zoos, popcorn factories and flea markets -- locations that earned the list some angry criticism.
But Homeland Security officials say they're serious about a pared down, 600-plus critical item list that they aren't releasing to the public. Here's betting the locations aren't all on the coasts.
Terrorists have their choice of targets and they like the ones critical to the American way of life, Ellis said. That's why he says residents of the middle of the country face two big risks: complacency and overreaction.
"What you need to work to do is find a balance," Ellis said.
asap found five regular people who live between the coasts, near five of the nation's prized resources -- national borders, cattle ranches, farms, water reservoirs and oil pipelines. Here's what they had to say about living in America five years after 9/11.
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BORDER
Name: Kalsie Briggs
Age: 22
Occupation: Minnesota Air National Guard
Location: International Falls, Minn., a major crossing on the U.S.-Canadian border
Population: 6,700
Where she was on 9/11: "It was my 18th birthday. My parents took me out for breakfast at Sandy's Cafe. When the second plane hit my dad dropped his silverware and said, 'Well, I guess I'll be seeing you guys.' Because he knew right then that he would be deployed. He's in the Minnesota Air National Guard. He ended up going a week after that."
In her words: "I'm more aware just because we're so close to the Canadian border. You look out my parents' window and you look right into Canada. It's just a body of water that separates us. We're so close and you never know what can happen."
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CATTLE
Name: Stephen Diebel
Age: 33
Occupation: Fifth-generation rancher for Diebel Cattle Co.
Location: Victoria, Texas
Population: 60,600
Where he was on 9/11: "We happened to be just gathering a group of cattle that day when one of my secretaries had heard over the radio what had happened. We were in a little community called Thomason, Texas. It's just a post office there. My initial thought was anger, definite concern."
In his words: "We have ethanol plants in the Midwest. We have lots of produce, agriculture in California and we have lots of population on the East Coast and then you have petroleum plants in Houston. I think there's places all over the United States that could be threatened. I don't feel that there's one location that would be considered more of a threat than another."
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OIL
Name: Paul Green
Age: 44
Occupation: Terminal manager, SemCrude oil company
Location: Cushing, Okla., the major oil pipeline crossroads for the United States
Population: 8,300
Where he was on 9/11: "I was in a hotel room working on a project in Osage, Wyo. I got up that morning like I always do and turned on CNN. Shortly after that I got a phone call from my wife. Shock. I couldn't believe what was going on."
In his words: "I think it's something we'll probably live with every day from here on in. Our backyard is a pipeline hub, but it hasn't stopped me yet.
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WATER
Name: Celeste Sherbert
Age: 36
Occupation: Doubletree Hotel sales manager
Location: Aurora, Colo., home of the Aurora Reservoir, the 2,500-acre source of Aurora's drinking water
Population: 297,000
Where she was on 9/11: "I was at home getting ready for work when the second plane hit the tower. I never thought I'd have a day in my life I remembered so vividly. I drove to work and was listening to a radio and then heard about the Pentagon. It was just complete and total disbelief."
In her words: "In New York they have different caution every day than we have. I think when something happens in small-town America, you think, 'Oh my gosh.' Like when crime or drugs started happening in small-town America, people were like, 'Oh we didn't think it would happen in my neighborhood. That only happens in the big cities.' Should something happen in mid-America I think it would affect the country just as much, if not more, because it has hit that level."
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FARMING
Name: John Thaemert
Age: 50
Occupation: Wheat farmer
Location: Sylvan Grove, Kan.
Population: 324
Where she was on 9/11: "I was in Washington, D.C., when it happened. We were walking around in D.C. on Capitol Hill. We were in Senator Max Baucus' office and he came out of his office and said, 'Guys, I'm not going to be able to talk to you. Security is shutting down this place.' I look out the window and there's smoke coming out of the Pentagon."
In his words: "I feel quite confident that our food supply is secure. However, if someone who is dedicated, driven, a fanatic, wanted to do something, I supposed they'd find a way to introduce some type of bio threat, a germ, a disease, a nuclear contaminant to a food-production area. Could be something that would really catch us off guard."
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MORE ON SEPT. 11
For more stories related to the fifth anniversary of the attacks, look at asap's special report Living with 9/11.
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Caryn Rousseau is asap's Midwest writer, based in Kansas City, Mo.
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