| Fusion Centers and Freedom | | Print | |
| Written by Becky Akers |
| Monday, 30 March 2009 01:29 |
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That may partly explain why a report entitled “The Modern Militia Movement” from the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) raised so many hackles. Not only did it imply that Americans who disagree with politicians on any issue from abortion to the UN – especially those who disagree enough to vote for a third-party candidate – are terrorists, it neglected to include the usual claptrap about the threat these rebels pose to other citizens. No, such dissidents endanger cops and, in the voting booth, Republicans and Democrats. The implication that the malcontents bear watching was deliberate. It was not a mistake, nor should apologies lull us. The report is a naked attempt by the two parties that split the world’s biggest pot of political power to protect themselves and the bullies who force their will on us. Indeed, Lt. John Hotz of the Missouri State Highway Patrol waxed explicit: "Troopers have been shot by members of [dissident] groups,” he said with blithe disregard for the facts, “so it's our job to let law enforcement officers know what the trends are in the modern militia movement." Horrific, yes, but it gets worse. Though “state officials” have since “killed the report” thanks to the public’s fury, they haven’t killed the goose that laid this rotten egg. And said fowl is only one in a flock 58 strong, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It dubs MIAC and its 57 fellows “fusion centers” for fusing forces that free people separate to forestall tyranny: the police, the military, and the private sector. Both the DHS and the supposedly non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) claim that the centers’ impetus comes from “states and larger cities” who want “to share information and intelligence within their jurisdictions as well as with the federal government.” DHS funded this scuttlebutt to the tune of “$254 million from FY 2004-2007” – though that’s only a fraction of what such espionage costs us: “Fusion centers are state-created entities largely financed…by the states,” says the CRS. By themselves, the centers could obliterate what little privacy remains to us; between them and Leviathan’s myriad other incursions, we have become a population under constant surveillance – worse than Soviet Russia ever was thanks to technological advances. Nor is the Federal maw sated, however much it knows about us. "There is never ever enough information when it comes to terrorism" says Maj. Steven G. O'Donnell, deputy superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police. "That's what post-9/11 is about."
The centers differ in the information they collect and how; as the CRS puts it, “…there is no one ‘model’ for how a center should be structured.” But they all share the same outcome and justification: they spy on us to protect us. For that they require an army 1/3 the size of China’s, the world’s largest. Monitoring us are “700,000 local and state police officers across the country, as well as private security guards and others being courted by the centers.”
No activity is too innocuous to escape those omnivorous eyes. Los Angeles’ police department is converting its cops from flatfeet “trained to gather evidence to prove crimes” into spies who “cultivate and analyze intelligence to prevent terrorists from striking.” Fusion centers aren’t alone in this. For decades, the belief that authorities should root out criminals before they act, rather than apprehending them afterwards, has fundamentally transformed government’s relationship to us. Because anyone could be plotting a crime, authorities scrutinize everyone.
To that end, some of the LAPD’s honchos listed 65 “kind[s] of potential terrorist-related activity. …[O]fficers are now required to fill out…forms if they observe suspicious activity, whether or not a crime was committed.” Those “forms” live forever in cyberspace, regardless of how mistaken Barney Fife was about what he saw and the conclusions he drew. And what do our rulers consider “potential terrorist-related activity”? Deeds many of us commit each day: “abandoning,” i.e., parking, your car anywhere other than your driveway or the mall; forgetting the 6-ounce bottle of Listerine in your carry-on bag and “smuggling” it past an airport’s checkpoint; “stockpil[ing] unexplained large amounts of currency” since only terrorists rescue their life’s savings from failing banks. Obviously, as the ACLU points out, “This overbroad reporting authority gives law enforcement officers justification to harass practically anyone they choose, to collect personal information, and to pass such information along to the intelligence community."
Of course, information passes only one way. Fusion centers, like the rest of Leviathan, are adamantly close-mouthed about their own activities: it undermines national security when taxpayers can knowledgeably protest that their money’s being squandered. The centers also hew to government’s M.O. in their mission creep. "Fusion centers are vital to state and local efforts to fight crime, including terrorism," says Sue Reingold of the federal Information Sharing Environment Office. And Charles E. Allen, a “chief intelligence officer” at DHS, describes the centers’ turf as “all hazards, all crime, all threats…” Adding insult to injury is Harvey Eisenberg, an assistant U.S. attorney who “helps oversee” Maryland’s center: "You need to educate cops, firefighters, health officials, transportation officials, sanitation workers, to understand the nature of the threat. And not to become super-spies. . . . Constitutionally, they see something, they can report it." Really? Constitutionally, how do the Feds spy on citizens, let alone establish centers to which lesser governmental snitches can report?
But we expect such skullduggery from politicians and bureaucrats. What’s truly terrifying about these centers is their fascist incorporation of businesses, industries, even charities. The Feds’ “Guidelines for Establishing and Operating Fusion Centers at the Local, State, and Federal Levels” carries the subtitle “Law Enforcement Intelligence, Public Safety, and the Private Sector” and decrees, “The private sector is a crucial component of fusion centers. Approximately 85 percent of the nation’s critical infrastructure is owned by the private sector…”
So are some of the nation’s critical databanks – and fusion centers are busily mining them. That affords “access to personal information about millions of Americans, including unlisted cellphone numbers, insurance claims, driver's license photographs and credit reports”; one center even logs into “top-secret data systems at the CIA.” “Like most police agencies,” fusion centers subscribe “to private information-broker services that keep records about Americans' locations, financial holdings, associates, relatives, firearms licenses and the like,” including “Accurint, ChoicePoint's Autotrack or LexisNexis.” Maryland “rel[ies] on a little-known data broker called Entersect, which claims it maintains 12 billion records about 98 percent of Americans,” while Pennsylvania scans drivers-license photos with face-recognition software. Other states use LocatePlus, “the most comprehensive cell phone, unlisted and unpublished phone database in the industry."
Critics decry the centers’ lack of oversight and believe that Federal regulation will curb their abuses. That’s naïve at best. The DHS encourages and supports these centers; while no bureaucracy respects either the Constitution or our right to live free, DHS has spit on both since its inception.
Abolition is the only solution – not only for the centers but for the DHS. Otherwise, politicians will continue their war against us. And win.
Becky Akers, an expert on the American Revolution, writes frequently about issues related to security and privacy. Her articles and columns have been published by Lewrockwell.com, The Freeman, Military History Magazine, American History Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, the New York Post, and other publications.
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Defund them by cutting the purse strings
If they could not create the money out of thin air, these folks would not be sustainable. Can it be done? Yes, on a state by state level. See http://www.constitutionaltender.com/
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Will, I missed it. Where did JBS "upper management" urge citizens to cultivate a good relationship with the fusion centers? I already explained the tongue in cheek title I used for my earlier article.
Akers nails it! Another brave patriot of JBS
Thank you Becky for your bravery in exposing the Fascist progession of this once free country. Larry McDonald would be proud of you. I still feel JBS should have a Larry McDonald award for bravery in fighting for freedom.
The Nightmare is almost upon us
Thank you, Becky Akers. The Orewllian nightmare is almost here. And we can't understand how the Germans could have been so stupid as to allow Hitler to become their leader? This is how it happens. Most people, most Americans, will not (or cannot) notice the evil in our midst until their own personal door is kicked in at 3:00 AM.
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Jim, didn't you see the March 20 JBS press release regarding the fusion centers and the MIAC report? -- |
From the beginning, America’s rulers have fought their War on Terror against two enemies: foreign “terrorists” (as those rulers define them) and the American people. Alas, our public servants are seldom honest enough to confess their hostility towards taxpayers. Nor do they often admit to spending much of our money on ferreting out something, anything, to use against us. After all, we might take enough offense to decide we’d be safer and freer without such persecution. And so they usually cloak their offensives against us with assurances that they’re spying on us solely to keep us safe. 
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Our valuable member Becky Akers has been with us since Friday, 15 August 2008.
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