When the SuperMall of the Great Northwest opened in Auburn back in 1995, its builders predicted it would be a regional icon as famed as the Space Needle or Pike Place Market.

Seemed preposterous. Especially when the hodgepodge of outlet stores almost went belly up a few years later. But it turns out the SuperMall is super after all. At least that's what the federal government says.

The mall just got a counterterrorism grant from the Department of Homeland Security — $48,416 to swap out its old video surveillance system with a new digital one.

In a press release, the mall said it got the grant because the feds had designated it as "critical infrastructure" at risk of international terrorist attack.

According to our national anti-terrorism strategy, critical infrastructure is "physical and cyber-based systems so vital to the operations of the U.S. that their incapacity would have a debilitating impact on national defense, economic security or public safety."

You know, like the Burlington Coat Factory.

Oh, I kid you, Auburn. But seriously: The SuperMall is critical infrastructure? I figured that would be dams, bridges, seaports, airports, power plants, water supplies. Maybe a skyscraper or monument.

Some malls were included because terrorists might be able to inflict mass casualties there, says Eric Holdeman, director of King County's Office of Emergency Management.

He said he didn't know what local malls made the list. Even if he did, he couldn't talk about it because the state's 47 critical infrastructure sites are supposed to be classified. (Unless a mall marketing department decides otherwise, apparently.)

Wouldn't you love to see what else is on that list? How about Muckleshoot Casino? Dick's Drive-In? Either is probably as crowded as the SuperMall. Definitely more iconic.

I can see that a terrorist might bomb a mall. One was arrested in Ohio for plotting just that. What I can't see is how digital cameras would stop that from happening.

Nearly five years after 9/11, too much of our counterterrorism spending is going for gadgets and gewgaws spread around to places where there's never been a terrorist threat.

One emergency-response official called it "spreading the peanut butter." In our War on Terror, it's the spoils.

Local example: The feds just doled out $25 million in counterterrorism grants to 404 nonprofit groups. The Jewish Federation of Seattle got $100,000 for locks, alarms and crash barriers to "harden the target" at four area schools, including the Seattle Hebrew Academy.

But the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, reports there's never been a credible international terrorist threat against any nonprofit group in the U.S.

No, we can't say where terrorists will strike next. But the feds are slashing funding for the most obvious targets, like New York. The reason? They say the Big Apple lacks sites of "iconic significance."

Serves New York right, I guess. They should have built a SuperMall.

Danny Westneat's column appears Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.

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