NBC News
The ranking Republican on a Senate panel on Wednesday accused the
Department of Homeland Security of hiding embarrassing information about
its so-called "fusion" intelligence sharing centers, charging that the
program has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars while contributing
little to the country's counterterrorism efforts.
In a 107-page report released
late Tuesday, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said
that Homeland Security has spent up to $1.4 billion funding fusion
centers -- in effect, regional intelligence sharing centers-- that have
produced "useless" reports while at the same time collecting
information on the innocent activities of American Muslims that may have
violated a federal privacy law. -[Full Article]
Showing posts with label fusion centers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fusion centers. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
DHS Counterterror Centers Produce ‘a Bunch of Crap,’ Senate Finds
Wired
They’re supposed to be “one of the centerpieces of our counterterrorism strategy,” according to Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. In practice, not so much.
The Senate’s bipartisan Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found no evidence that DHS’ 70-plus fusion centers — places where state, local and federal law enforcement analyze and share information – uncovered a single terrorist threat between April 1, 2009 and April 30, 2010. Terrorism is thankfully rare within the United States. But during that time, the FBI discovered would-be New York subway attacker Najibullah Zazi; U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 people at Fort Hood; Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airplane; and, in early May 2010, Faisal Shahzad attempted to detonate an SUV in Times Square. DHS has praised the fusion centers’ work in helping on the Zazi and Shahzad cases. The Senate found fusion centers played little, if any, role in either case.
“Nor,” the Senate panel writes in its just-released report, analyzing more than 80,000 fusion center documents, “could [the inquiry] identify a contribution such fusion center reporting made to disrupt an active terrorist plot.” Unnamed DHS officials told the panel the fusion centers produce “predominantly useless information” and “a bunch of crap.” An internal 2010 assessment, which DHS did not share with Congress, found that a third of all fusion centers don’t have defined procedures for sharing intelligence — “one of the prime reasons for their existence.” At least four fusion centers identified by DHS “do not exist,” the Senate found.-[Full Article]
They’re supposed to be “one of the centerpieces of our counterterrorism strategy,” according to Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. In practice, not so much.
The Senate’s bipartisan Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found no evidence that DHS’ 70-plus fusion centers — places where state, local and federal law enforcement analyze and share information – uncovered a single terrorist threat between April 1, 2009 and April 30, 2010. Terrorism is thankfully rare within the United States. But during that time, the FBI discovered would-be New York subway attacker Najibullah Zazi; U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 people at Fort Hood; Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airplane; and, in early May 2010, Faisal Shahzad attempted to detonate an SUV in Times Square. DHS has praised the fusion centers’ work in helping on the Zazi and Shahzad cases. The Senate found fusion centers played little, if any, role in either case.
“Nor,” the Senate panel writes in its just-released report, analyzing more than 80,000 fusion center documents, “could [the inquiry] identify a contribution such fusion center reporting made to disrupt an active terrorist plot.” Unnamed DHS officials told the panel the fusion centers produce “predominantly useless information” and “a bunch of crap.” An internal 2010 assessment, which DHS did not share with Congress, found that a third of all fusion centers don’t have defined procedures for sharing intelligence — “one of the prime reasons for their existence.” At least four fusion centers identified by DHS “do not exist,” the Senate found.-[Full Article]
Friday, May 20, 2011
University "Campus Watch" Citizen Spy Program Partners With Threat Fusion Center To Report Suspicious Activity
Activist Post
A University of Arizona student sent us the following forwarded message from a professor:
Based upon Osama bin Laden being killed by U.S. military forces, The University of Arizona Police Department, in a joint effort with The Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center, is asking all Citizens to increase vigilance and maintain a heightened awareness of suspicious activities.
Activist Post
A University of Arizona student sent us the following forwarded message from a professor:
Anthony Daykin, Chief of Police
CAMPUS WATCH
May 18, 2011
REPORTING SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY
Based upon Osama bin Laden being killed by U.S. military forces, The University of Arizona Police Department, in a joint effort with The Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center, is asking all Citizens to increase vigilance and maintain a heightened awareness of suspicious activities.
The University of Arizona Police Department encourages you to remain alert and aware of your surroundings and the people in your vicinity at all times. If you notice suspicious activity or persons, please call your local law enforcement agency by first dialing 9-1-1. Information can then be forwarded to the ACTIC Watch Center at 1-877-2SAVE-AZ (1-877-272-8329), or via email at actic@azdps.gov.
We know that threat assessment fusion centers, represented above by The Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center (ACTIC), have been set up around the country in order to federalize local communities through public and private partnership programs. On their website, ACTIC states that in 2006 they launched a Community Liaison Program which now includes "More than 4,000 contact representatives from 300 private and public sector organizations participate" to support "the National Homeland Security Strategies of 'Strengthening Information Sharing and Collaboration Capabilities.' In so doing they have enlisted the following Participating Partners:
Fusion centers are actually a spawn of the Total Information Awareness program banned by Congress in 2003. It was a program spearheaded by Iran-Contra criminal, John Poindexter, with a logo that left nothing to the imagination about its intentions...[Full Article]
_______________________________________________________________________________
We know that threat assessment fusion centers, represented above by The Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center (ACTIC), have been set up around the country in order to federalize local communities through public and private partnership programs. On their website, ACTIC states that in 2006 they launched a Community Liaison Program which now includes "More than 4,000 contact representatives from 300 private and public sector organizations participate" to support "the National Homeland Security Strategies of 'Strengthening Information Sharing and Collaboration Capabilities.' In so doing they have enlisted the following Participating Partners:
- Religious groups
- Block watches
- Private security companies
- Tourism industry
- Financial groups
- Utility companies
- Public health organizations
- Educational institutions
- Technology
- Transportation
- Community Groups
- And Many More...
Fusion centers are actually a spawn of the Total Information Awareness program banned by Congress in 2003. It was a program spearheaded by Iran-Contra criminal, John Poindexter, with a logo that left nothing to the imagination about its intentions...[Full Article]
Monday, January 17, 2011
An American Stasi?
The Freeman
The Freeman
The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported on July 25 that “there are 72 fusion centers around the nation, analyzing and disseminating data and information of all kinds. That is one for every state and others for large urban cities.”
What is a fusion center?
The answer depends on your perspective. If you work for the Department of Homeland Security, it is a federal, state, local, or regional data-coordination unit, designed to improve the sharing of anti-terrorism and anti-crime data in order to make America safer. If you are a privacy or civil-rights advocate, it is part of a powerful new domestic surveillance infrastructure that combines data from both the public and private sectors to track innocent people and so makes Americans less safe from their own government. In that respect, the fusion center is reminiscent of the East German Stasi, which used tens of thousands of state police and hundreds of thousands of informers to monitor an estimated one-third of the population.
The history of fusion centers provides insight into which answer is correct...
[Full Article]
Saturday, November 13, 2010
DHS funded fusion centers
Since the creation of fusion centers throughout the country, they have been more like "confusion" centers. Fusion centers are controversial due to the massive amount of personal information secretly collected and shared. Without oversight, members of the public that pose no threat to national security unknowingly are entered into a database as terrorist threats...
[Full Article]
RELATED ARTICLE: Ohio center fuses intelligence data
Since the creation of fusion centers throughout the country, they have been more like "confusion" centers. Fusion centers are controversial due to the massive amount of personal information secretly collected and shared. Without oversight, members of the public that pose no threat to national security unknowingly are entered into a database as terrorist threats...
[Full Article]
RELATED ARTICLE: Ohio center fuses intelligence data
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