Homeland Security Threat Level: Extinct

This one is just too amusing to pass up. Opening headline this morning: New York judge rules that Homeland Security can seize dinosaur skeleton from art storage company.

NEW YORK — One of the more unusual arrest warrants in U.S. history was issued today when a federal judge authorized the Department of Homeland Security to seize a dinosaur from an art storage company. There’s no need for handcuffs though. It’s been dead for 70 million years.

Uh, what? (And which is 70 million years old, the dinosaur or the art company?)

Created in the aftermath of 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security was established in part to bring several federal bureaucracies together under one umbrella, with focus on intelligence and law enforcement agencies. We all know about the color-coded threat level system. A little research on their website tells us that they are keenly focused on counterterrorism, border security, disaster-related activities, immigration and cybersecurity. I'm not sure how the apprehending of long-dead dinosaurs fits within their mission. We need a little more on this story:

U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel signed the warrant after finding there was “probable cause to believe” that the nearly complete Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton is subject to forfeiture under U.S. laws. The U.S. filed a lawsuit against the skeletal property a day earlier, seeking to seize it for an eventual return to Mongolia.

…

The lawsuit said the Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton was brought in March 2010 from Great Britain to Gainesville, Fla., with erroneous claims that it had originated in Great Britain and was worth only $15,000. It sold at auction on May 20 for more than $1 million, though the sale was contingent upon the outcome of court proceedings.

…

Tyrannosaurus bataars were first discovered in 1946 during a joint Soviet-Mongolian expedition to the Gobi Desert in the Mongolian Omnogovi Province. Since 1924, Mongolia has enacted laws declaring fossils to be the property of the government of Mongolia and criminalizing their export from the country.

Ok, so that makes a little more sense. The dinosaur shouldn't even be here, and it apparently made its way here under false pretenses. So maybe this falls under the Fraud & Counterfeit component of the Counterterrorism division. Or maybe the International Activities or Law Enforcement components of that same division. As with so many things about DHS, this one isn't exactly clear to me. Don't misunderstand - the Government is doing the right thing, if a relic such as this was indeed taken illegally from Mongolia. But it probably doesn't help DHS from a PR standpoint.

I guess it doesn’t matter. Until such time as some group of scientists decide to go all Jurassic Park on the world, we as a nation are safe from dinosaurs. Good to know. But I love this little paragraph in a related Associated Press article (emphasis mine):

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Luis Martinez says the skeleton will be moved to a government warehouse. He says the government cannot disclose the name or address of the storage site because other priceless antiquities are there.

Cool. Secret government warehouses filled with "other priceless antiquities." Indiana Jones lives!