Of all the State Department documents yet loosed on the world by WikiLeaks, none will give critics as much ammo as the one containing a comprehensive list of facilities around the world that are “critical” to the national security of the United States otherwise known as “places terrorists should blow up.” But some of the information is illuminating. Why, for example, was an anti-snake-venom factory in Australia deemed important enough for inclusion on the list? Because, according to the document, it is the sole supplier of CroFab, an anti-venom for rattlesnakes, copperheads, and cottonmouths. And yet, only 8,000 Americans are bitten by poisonous snakes every year. This means either, (a) the list uses a pretty low bar for what constitutes “critical to national security,” or (b) terrorists are planning to simultaneously pull a Snakes on a Plane scenario for the whole country, perhaps as a means of ironic retribution for Snakes on a Plane.
WikiLeaks publishes list of worldwide infrastructure ‘critical’ to security of U.S. [BBC]
Aussie snake antivenom on US ‘vital’ list [9News]
