Heartland security

Middle America is a target, too, but don't try telling that to New York and Washington | Jamie Dean

CHARLOTTE—When FBI agents uncovered a well-oiled Lebanese terror cell deep in a sophisticated plot to fund top Hezbollah terrorists through a multimillion-dollar cigarette-smuggling operation, one of the biggest surprises was the bust's location: The raid didn't go down in New York City or Washington, D.C., but in Charlotte, N.C., a mid-size city known as a hotbed for NASCAR races, not terrorist activity.

Hezbollah may have a hot war with Israel on its hands, but Middle East cities aren't the only ones ensnared by its agenda. Charlotte Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Dulin says the major 2002 terrorism sting revealed that North Carolina's largest city is no Mayberry, and that some low-profile cities might prove attractive targets for high-profile terrorists. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agrees, and says that's part of the reason it increased funding for a handful of mid-size cities like Charlotte when it awarded grants in its Urban Area Security Initiative program last month.