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Report Slams DHS Fusion Centers: No Terrorists Nabbed, Civil Rights Violated
PolygamousRanchKid writes with news of a Senate report on just how ineffective those DHS "Fusion centers" have proven to be. From the article: "The lengthy, bipartisan report is a scathing evaluation of what the Department of Homeland Security has held up as a crown jewel of its security efforts. ... Because of a convoluted grants process set up by Congress, Homeland Security officials don't know how much they have spent in their decade-long effort to set up so-called fusion centers in every state. ... 'The subcommittee investigation could identify no reporting which uncovered a terrorist threat, nor could it identify a contribution such fusion center reporting made to disrupt an active terrorist plot,' the report said. When fusion centers did address terrorism, they sometimes did so in ways that infringed on civil liberties. The centers have made headlines for circulating information about Ron Paul supporters, the ACLU, activists on both sides of the abortion debate, war protesters, and advocates of gun rights."
There are virtually no government ministries that are effective, why would this one be different? Actually, it is... it's even less effective and even more insulting than most.
...Steve
Aah, DHS, yet another delegation of Congressional power to an unelected office with officials that apparently have unlimited powers, yet another violation of Constitution by the Congress and all other branches of government that do not protect the Constitution and are not stopping this. Yet another manifestation of collectivism, rejection of individual liberties for the purpose of maintaining the planned economy and planned society, which eventually leads to destruction of economy and of society.
You can't handle the truth.
They have very important business catching terrorists to do, and filling out paperwork to be sure they're doing their job?
Waste of time. Even supposedly pro-accountability in government conservatives agree with that. And the supposedly freedom supporting liberals? Well, you can't possibly have them look soft on terror by suggesting that maybe the job is a waste of time.
Wait, you don't think that the fusion centers actually had ANYTHING to do with fighting terrorism, do you?
How quaint.
A lot of these fusion centers do more than just work on terrorism-related issues. They deal with drug trafficking, kidnapping, organized crime, and other issues that concern both state and federal authorities and which require them to work together. Their primary role is really more of a clearinghouse, where state authorities can contact other state and federal agencies to share information, and they allow local state officials to work side by side with federal officials. On top of this, they provide for state governments what the CIA does for the White House, it gives the state analysts that can be called upon to give briefings on a regular basis as well as in more imediate cases, such as after the Dark Knight shooting in Colorado. It is important that state government officials know the drug, organized crime, etc situation in their state, and this is how they find out.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
And in other news, the Russian Cyber War attack on a SCADA system controlling a water pump that burned out the pump?
Well they decided it was an attack based on a Russian IP address for a control engineers login. He in turn points out that he was asked to check it when he was on holiday (in Russia), and that the pump burned out 5 months later due to simple wear and tear.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/10/dhs-false-water-pump-hack/
More over, the biggest part of this news is that the DHS already knew it wasn't a cyber attack when its press office was leaking details of the story.
As long as the DHS exists, and has a budget to defend it will do this. Just as the FBI has been equipping disgruntled individuals with terrorists garb (plans bombs weapons money) in order to arrest them as terrorists.
They'll keep leaking super secret terrorists plots that have Hollywood scenarios, but lucky they saved us from them, and can't tell us anything about them, other than they were DEFINITELY REAL.
It was fishy 11 years ago when it was first created. It's still fishy now.
All the entities that were put under its umbrella (ICE, BCP, Coast Guard, etc) can and should go back to being seperate entities.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
Man, can you imagine if those funds had been put into researching and building actual fusion centers? The US would have nigh-unlimited energy and resources to distribute around the world, ending famine, starvation, poverty and oil tyrants. THAT would have done a hell of a better job of eliminating terrorists, I bet you.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
Are they getting more energy out than they put in yet?
Just last week, Janet Napolitano testified before a congressional committee about the state of terrorism in America. She was testifiying exactly how you would expect the head of a government agency with endless authority and no clear-cut goal to testify. She was.. asking for more money, saying the terrorist threat is greater than ever before, and saying the DHS has helped to curb the terrorist threat.
So.. the DHS:
- We need more taxpayer money
- The terrorist threat is greater than ever before
- The DHS does a great job
Hrm.. seems like bullshit.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
The socialists are using terrorism as an excuse to sneak in their policies. Terrorism, banking crisis and then who knows what else they'll use as an excuse.
But it'll have to be something along the lines of protecting America or something else to con the Republicans to jump in and shut the Tea Partiers up - like the DHS and bank rescues did in the past.
A detective, Shannon Dowell, from a Fusion center has been implicated in setting up the "Gulf Port 7" (Occupy protesters) for felony charges:
http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/09-06-12-a-chilling-police-infiltration-of-occupy-houston-port-protest-shines-a-harsh-spotlight-on-undercover-cops/
Last I heard about the case the detective claimed that he lost the USB drive with subpoenaed evidence down a storm sewer on the way to work the morning of his court appearance. Even finding out that a detective from a fusion center had been assigned to infiltrate occupy was difficult.
One of the protesters and his lawyer was interviewed on Democracy Now, here's the transcript: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/10/infiltrating_occupy_austin_activists_face_charges
You can't catch a fictitious enemy. Watch Loose Change on youtube - that will tell you who we should catch.
Sent from my ENIAC
If you want something done inefficiently, badly, at high cost and overly influenced by politics, have the government do it. :)
It seems like a good idea - share intelligence information between different agencies at the local level, in a way that was impossible previously. But the government fucked it up.
I'm sure this country could be run at a fraction of the cost if it weren't for the government.
After the 1st plane flew into the 1st of the twin towers I knew our world changed. Within mere weeks our civil liberties were being stripped in the form of the Patriot act. But it was justified. "If a few innocents get caught in the nets for the sake of millions...."
Well we have gotten what we've asked for, right? We're more secure now, right?
By accepting the Patriot Act, we've given away our rights to not get caught up in nets like this, and because we've sat back quietly and let it happen we are at fault as citizens, and we have no room to complain.
People forget that if you don't like your limited choices at voting time, they can write in their vote, and if you are doing that because you disagree with the limited choices then you are indeed making the first step in stopping this bullshit. But if you vote for someone on the ballot and don't agree with what they stand for because the other choices suck too, you're just as much at fault.
Stop voting party lines, break from the mold, write in your vote, you're not throwing it away, that is just republican and democratic fear mongering to get you to vote for one of their two parties.
Politicians hated / feared Ross Perot because he stressed real change in our Government. Ron Paul is hated / feared for his stance being against the norm.
If enough people wrote in a vote and took away any majority to the limited parties on the ballot, who knows maybe there will be an awakening in Politics that things need to change and citizens won't stand for their rights being squashed any longer.
Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
Never give up on a bad idea. Because, then, the terrorists win.
When fusion centers did address terrorism, they sometimes did so in ways that infringed on civil liberties. The centers have made headlines for circulating information about Ron Paul supporters, the ACLU, activists on both sides of the abortion debate, war protesters, and advocates of gun rights"
- make a mental note that DHS treats Ron Paul supporters as 'terrorists'. Apparently at the minimum 15% of population of USA are on this terrorist list just according to this little fact.
Also note that Republicans and Democrats always are very capable of 'putting their differences aside' when attacking a third party candidate, especially as it was the case with Ron Paul. The Republican primary debates were televised by various networks, Ron Paul was mostly ignored, in one debate, hosted by CBS, Ron Paul got a total of 89 seconds of speaking time out of 90 minutes. Of-course there were 7 more people on stage, still, even if split evenly everybody could get almost 12 minutes of time. And that's with 'serious' people on stage like Bachmann, Cain, Perry, Gingrich and Santorum.
Why are Ron Paul supporters labelled as terrorists? Is it because Ron Paul wouldn't go to war with Iran?
Is it because Ron Paul wouldn't authorise torture of prisoners?
Is it because Ron Paul is against the federal government telling people how to live their lives? Some will say that leaving things up to States is wrong, they are missing the bigger point, that leaving things like that to federal government is completely wrong and unconstitutional. As to allowing people to deal with these issues on State level does not mean that the State should in fact interfere with people either! At the minimum there should be competition among States for residents.
Is it because Ron Paul wants to audit and eventually get rid of the Federal reserve? The Fed is the actual main tool of destruction of US economy with its inflationary policy.
Is it because Ron Paul actually wants to balance the budget and start working out the problem of debt? Yes, it means cutting all sorts of programs and departments, but a government that you cannot afford will destroy you.
Is it because Ron Paul is against bail outs, stimulus and any form of welfare including corporate welfare?
Is it because Ron Paul is honest about Medicare and SS being bankrupt? He offers a transition period off these programs by means testing people and cutting military spending, foreign aid spending and various illegal domestic programs first that are not Medicare and SS, and by allowing people to opt out of the system and save their money for themselves to take care of themselves.
Is it because Ron Paul is in general against government intervention into the economy?
----
Of-course no MSM outlet is reporting on Gary Johnson being in the race, being on 47 ballots (and Washington DC) out of 50 in USA. He is not on all 50 yet because of lawsuits by Romney campaign. Gary Johnson is trying to prevent the debate between Romney and Obama with a court order or to be in that debate. Gary Johnson is also trying to get documents released that would show whether th
You can't handle the truth.
As someone who watches our rights erode, and even though this government is behind it. I am very happy to be living in a country where such a report is generated by the government it self and is publicly available. Given all the bad stuff going on (real and in theory) I'm glad we're open enough to openly criticize ourselves, particularly in a matter that is seen as something the government would be interested in continuing (if those conspiracy theories are right).
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Wired pointed out that part of the report too, they are budgeted for anti-terror work, the law that permits all the info sharing is for anti-terror work, yet they use it for drug enforcement and misleading allegations against Ron Paul supporters.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/fusion-centers/
"Some fusion centers simply don’t care about terrorism. A Senate survey of 62 fusion centers in 2010 found that more than one third of them, 25, didn’t even “mention terrorism in their mission statements.” Instead, they take federal anti-terrorism money and use it to supplement local law-enforcement priorities like fighting drugs, under the pretext that terrorists “would commit precursor crimes before an attack.”
You should read the rest. It's clear they're trying to justify their budget by jumping on anything and claiming their involvement resulted in success. (Something you did for them in your comment, they had nothing to do with Dark Knight, they released a general 'terrorists might attack movie theatres and mass gatherings" scarer, which you are referencing afterward the event as significant, in the same was astrologers show their predictions came true in hindsight).
"One such report, in November 2009, reported that al-Qaida propagandist Anwar Awlaki praised the Fort Hood attacks — four days after the Los Angeles Times reported that. “Surprisingly,” the Senate found, “a subsequent performance review for the [report's] author cited this report as a signature accomplishment.”"
They've spent a large quantity of money (ooh, stimulus package by another name) in searching for terrorist threats and have found nothing. Not a shock, as there really isn't much in the way of a terrorist threat to find.
Essentially, they've been pouring money into offices, staff, systems, software, all in searching through an abandoned coal mine at midnight searching for a black cat THAT ISN"T THERE!
Unfortunately, the paranoia of those in power is such that they feel they have to be on the lookout for the citizens to rise up in revolt and squash it before that happens.
"Flame away, I wear asbestos underwear"
It's the greatest expansion of Federal power since the New Deal, and it's 100% crap.
Yes, I know this is a troll.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
I know this might sound crazy, but perhaps the DHS should be given up entirely. Perhaps it is better to accept that terrorist attacks can and will happen occasionally instead of giving up civil liberties and spending billions of dollars trying to prevent them. What if some day civil liberties will have been undermined so much and there will be so much oppression that terrorists become freedom fighters? Shouldn't there be a balance of power between the people and the government, such that by risking their lives people fighting against an oppressive and undemocratic government could still stand a chance?
then there is no absolute prtoof of the chinese attacks makes one wonder dont it whom really is behind them
A Police State is a Safe State!
The summary is an exercise in redefining terrorists as nonhostile by declaring them to be no more notable than the rest of the most mainstream of the larger ideological groups in which they operate.
Here is a Bullshit to English Dictionary:
* "Ron Paul supporters" -> white supremacists and Christian Identity who happen to be active in the Ron Paul support community.
* "the ACLU" -> certain branches of the ACLU have dropped pro-terrorist propaganda and deserve to be investigated.
* "activists on both sides of the abortion debate" -> people violently attacking abortion clinic workers and people suggesting hitting back.
* "war protesters" -> rioters engaged in warfare against the United States.
* "advocates of gun rights" -> KILL PRESIDENT HUSSEIN BEFORE HE TAKES YOUR GUNS!!!
Reading between the lines, the DHS fusion centers are investigating exactly who they need to be investigating. What we learn from this report is that the violent extremists on both the left and right extremes have enough supporters in Congress to demand that the police stop keeping an eye on those who say they are going to start smashing shit and shooting people.
The bullshit in the article itself begins in the headline: "Intelligence effort named citizens, not terrorists". There is nothing to prevent a citizen from becoming a terrorist other than his own personal virtue, yet the AP wants you to believe that citizens cannot by definition be terrorists.
The AP report's attempt to find waste is laughable. So the recently-built fusion centers have flat-screen televisions in their conference rooms, and that is supposed to be a problem. If they were buying huge bulky CRTs, that would be a waste of taxpayer money. One of the fusion centers has a couple of company cars. It's in Arizona. Maybe they need them.
Quote: "The subcommittee investigation could identify no reporting which uncovered a terrorist threat, nor could it identify a contribution such fusion center reporting made to disrupt an active terrorist plot." Reality: The subcommittee has redefined "terrorist threat" to be so meaningless that nothing meets the definition, while actual terrorist threats are not prosecuted because they are so popular and those making the threats have friends in high places:
* "Support Palestine" -- is a terrorist threat (it means Kill All The Jews).
* "Smash the system!" and "Revolution!" -- are terrorist threats.
* "Take Obama Out" -- is a terrorist threat.
* "Follow in the path of Mohammed" -- may or may not be a terrorist threat, depending on the speaker's intent. To gauge this, the intelligence service must have detailed knowledge of the speaker's affiliations and past statements correlating with violent extremism. This is exactly the kind of information that the report does not want the intelligence services to collect.
Quote: "One fusion center cited in the Senate investigation wrote a report about a Muslim community group's list of book recommendations." Reality: This is exactly what the intelligence services should be doing. We know who the terrorist authors are, and anyone recommending several of them at once should be investigated.
Quote "Others discussed American citizens speaking at mosques or talking to Muslim groups about parenting." Reality: This is exactly what the intelligence services should be doing. Again there is the false claim that citizens cannot possibly be engaged in criminal activity.
The rest of the article tries to tell you that the fusion centers don't really do anything related to terrorism, but the first half of the article stands in opposition to that claim.
The authors responsible for this journalistic turd are Eileen Sullivan and Matt Apuzzo, who
as intended. The system is what it does.
Same type of folks that show up at schools in a flashy D.A.R.E.* car - and afterwards, drive it to the nearest titty bar. Do as I bloviate, not how I personally act.
* - D.A.R.E. stands for Drug and Alchohol Resistance Education, a US program known to accomplish jack shit other than the purchase of Camaros and Corvettes for cops.
‘He said he wanted to expose something at work’
In his $5 million mansion, Robert McKeon, head of private equity firm, Veritas Capital, commits suicide by strangling himself.
Strangling himself ???????
Awhile later, the news reports or claims that Albert Peterson, a wealthy defense contractor, formerly with Northrop Grumman, and presently employed as a Senior Subcontracts Administrator with BAE Systems Information Technology, murdered his wife and children, then turned his gun on himself, committing suicide.
A terrible tragedy, and the news reports further claimed Mr. Peterson was supposed to have committed those horrific acts because he was afraid President Obama would be reelected!
Because he was afraid President Obama would be reelected ?????????????
One enterprising journalist actually did report that the now-deceased Mrs. Peterson had mentioned to a co-worker at defense contractor, Blackbird Technologies, where she worked, that her husband was troubled by something he had learned at BAE which he was seriously concerned about. Albert Peterson had been involved with a BAE unit which a few years previously had been owned by Veritas Capital, then later sold to BAE.
It should be noted that Robert McKeon’s Veritas Capital had made some extremely fortuitous investments in the defense industry shortly prior to 9/11/01. Some months prior to 9/11, Veritas Capital had also purchased Raytheon Aerospace, a subsidiary of Raytheon.
Aboard several of those four ill-fated airliners on 9/11/01 were developers of remote piloting hardware/software from Veritas Capital’s Raytheon Aerospace, and several similar subcontractors (from BAE, I believe).
Sounds more like a brutal cleanup crew was active --- cleansing a possible leak of a probably innocent man and his family, and the private equity principal of a highly profitable operation eleven years earlier.
(While it may be the only actual coincidence here, it should also be noted that several years ago --- or the last time we checked --- the majority shareholders in Northrop Grumman were James Baker and the Bush family.)
Things that make you go hhhmmmmmmmmmm..?
[With a criminal congress populated with the likes of Darryl Issa, with his arrest record, insurance fraud and arson background, and John Boehner, who washed out of Navy boot camp, then falsely claimed military service during Vietnam when he first ran for the House, we are assured of no real investigation ever taking place.]
Financial Fraud Roll Call:
$2.3 trillion unaccounted for from DoD (announced on 9/10/01 by Pentagon’s comptroller)
$8.7 billion (plus ?) missing during Iraqi war operations
$16.7 billion (plus ?) missing during Afghanistani war operations
Over $1 billion unaccounted for from “Fusion Center” budget: domestic intelligence collection operation instituted by DHS in conjunction with private sector
Its time to do away with Nightwatch errr Homeland Security and turn the job back over to the FBI to whom should have been doing this instead of wasting trillions of dollars creating a mindless Security Department.
The security industrial complex is like locusts stealing our money and scaring us into being happy about turning this country into an extra-constitutional police state.
I personally don't give a damn to hear they are ineffective. Even if their illegal activities were effective it would not change my opinion in the slightest.
To assume ends justify the means is admission of moral bankruptcy.
An electon is coming up soon.. tell your representitives "Nuke em .. Let's nuke the bastards".. do your part to advert a DHS locust invasion today.
And inefficient government fix that actually causes more problems then what they are supposed to protect us from?
Guess what, government? Spending money doesn't always fix problems, mainly when the problems are making the laws.
I'm going out on a limb here, but our government isn't fix able, it's going to get worse, until we have no rights, or we have a new government installed.
I am more scared of my own government then I am of any terrorist group. I'm not scared to ride public transport, I'm scared that my government is going to kick in my door, to arrest me for no reason. I'm scared that my government has apparently sold itself to some corporations.
My government scares me, not the terrorist.
Be seeing you...
Stupid you are also stupid.
Just sounding like a broken record, sorry: http://www.pdfernhout.net/recognizing-irony-is-a-key-to-transcending-militarism.html ...
"Likewise, even United States three-letter agencies like the NSA and the CIA, as well as their foreign counterparts, are becoming ironic institutions in many ways. Despite probably having more computing power per square foot than any other place in the world, they seem not to have thought much about the implications of all that computer power and organized information to transform the world into a place of abundance for all. Cheap computing makes possible just about cheap everything else, as does the ability to make better designs through shared computing.
There is a fundamental mismatch between 21st century reality and 20th century security thinking. Those "security" agencies are using those tools of abundance, cooperation, and sharing mainly from a mindset of scarcity, competition, and secrecy. Given the power of 21st century technology as an amplifier (including as weapons of mass destruction), a scarcity-based approach to using such technology ultimately is just making us all insecure. Such powerful technologies of abundance, designed, organized, and used from a mindset of scarcity could well ironically doom us all whether through military robots, nukes, plagues, propaganda, or whatever else... Or alternatively, as Bucky Fuller and others have suggested, we could use such technologies to build a world that is abundant and secure for all."
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
circulating information about Ron Paul supporters, the ACLU, activists on both sides of the abortion debate, war protesters, and advocates of gun rights
So the DHS Fusion centers work as an political intelligence division of the campaign offices for all the parties. What if the parties funded this research instead of taxpayers? Should the Fusion centers provide information having academic value, the NSF could support them as well. Off you go, boys and girls of DHS to fill the NSF grant applications!
- make a mental note that DHS treats Ron Paul supporters as 'terrorists'. Apparently at the minimum 15% of population of USA are on this terrorist list just according to this little fact.
And provided not one iota of evidence to support it. You linked to a bunch of biased youtube clips to somehow make an argument for your cult leader being the greatest thing since air itself.
And for that matter, even your claim of 15% of the US population being either on the terrorist list or supporters of ron paul is bullshit.
You are a disgrace to the ron paul campaign. He does actually have a few valid points but you twist it so severely that sometimes it looks like you are actually trying to discredit the campaign and make him look like a nutjob.
You deserved the terrible karma that you had earned earlier; how on earth you managed to get back to positive is anyone's guess. Did your sock puppets manage to score some mod points and push you back into the positive?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Skimming the comments I can't believe how so many people are really this clueless.
These centers are part of the NWO agenda to strip and squash America.
Much of what we will see here has already happened for the most part and continues in Europe.
The Fusion centers are solicited under false pretenses. Give it a few more years and then the whole world will see what they were really built for. The U.S. constitution and bill of rights are being striped away slice by slice, freedom of speech, gun ownership, etc... All the past, current, and future events are leading up to Martial Law where U.S. citizens will be rounded up and placed in these fusion centers.
As this all unfolds and becomes more and more clear to people, they will also begin to realize how the N.A.F.T.A. will come into play and fit neatly inline.
Think about it. If the U.S. Government wasn't owned by a private banking cartel and truly cared about it's citizens, would they be wasting so much money on frivolous BS, or would they have poured it into the 2 major systems in most dire need of even fractions of what has been spent. Namely the Educational and Health Care systems.
No, instead they have been incrementally ruining this country by dumbing it down and poisoning it with genetically modified and chemically altered food products making everyone more and more dependent and less capable of realizing what is really going on. The greater majority have little to no means of getting the health care they need and the number of people falling through the cracks is staggering.
The U.S. public has been systematically trained to be more concerned with their TV shows, materialism, and trying to make ends meet than their own health and education. This ignorance of political matters, the country's history, racial inciting agenda, social engineering, and other incrementalism tactics are what will eventually kill of many of us as... ' The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.' ... er, um, Know not how to do anything.
Everyone's keeping their eyes on the black man, and so many lost souls are still hoping for that promised change, but the change we're getting is not what they all expected from their new messaiah. All that social conditioning over the past 30 years about a certain races plight has payed off. Even the other ethnicities have adopted 'Change' on a grand scale. So grand in fact that they have forsaken and frown upon their own history and heritage, in exchange for adopting the ways, dress code, vernacular, and mannerisms of a race once foreign and despised by them. It's all history folks, look it up.
There is so much going on behind the scenes that the greater majority have no clue nor even want to know about. It's emotional for these brainwashed people. The ignorant are playing right along in mass numbers enough to carry the elite agenda right on through.
Mark my words, This century will be the last for the United States of America. It's too far gone to pull back now. What was holding her together is being ripped to shreds and quickly forgotten. The foundations upon which this great nation were built upon are all decaying and crumbling away, now faster than ever with our latest government players busting out the power tools to expedite things.
I'll leave you with the words of William Penn: "Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants."