WASHINGTON — A federal domestic security effort to help state and local law enforcement catch terrorists by setting up more than 70 information-sharing centers around the country has threatened civil liberties while doing little to combat terrorism, a two-year examination by a Senate subcommittee found.
The so-called fusion centers were created in 2003 after the Sept. 11 commission concluded that federal, state and local law enforcement agencies needed to collaborate more in counter-terrorism efforts.
Funded by federal grants, the fusion centers were intended to share national intelligence with state and local law enforcement and to analyze potential terrorist activity detected by police. Homeland Security Department officials have credited the centers for helping uncover terrorist plans, including a 2009 plot to bomb the New York subway. But the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, in a 146-page report released Tuesday that reviewed intelligence reports from fusion centers between April 1, 2009, and April 30, 2010, “could identify nothing that uncovered a terrorist threat, nor could it identify a contribution any fusion center made to disrupt an active terrorist plot.”
Costing us millions…and does absolutely nothing! This is a perfect example of the overall effectiveness of Homeland Security and another layer of bureaucracy brought to you under the pretext of national defense! It’s outrageous.
WHO THINKS UP THIS CRAP? SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE OWNS THIS BOONDOGGLE …WE DESERVE TO KNOW WHO DID IT SO WE CAN FIRE THEM!
We should get our money back too, Congress should be forced to pay back our money anytime they squander it. (I know…fat chance)
If Congress votes for something totally stupid and worthless, like those Obama phones, we should penalize them directly. It’s not enough to get the program repealed. We (voters) should see gov. stupidity punished for a change. Do you think if passed a law that will take $100 out of each yes voting member’s paycheck until its paid back or the leave that would help? Oh, boy…I do. I would love to see that one!
You want to see government stupidity come to a screeching halt and real smart money management start…. that would do it. Hit em in their wallet, just like they keep doing to us. Wasteful spending would come to a halt almost immediately if there was any chance at all they might be held financially responsible for it!
We should get our money back too, Congress should be forced to pay back our money anytime they squander it.
That’s hilarious. It’s their job to squander money.
Joseph, it has been their job to squander our money, but if we keep letting them it’s our fault. We need to have some remedy for punishing tax and spend wackos that find their way into public office. For some odd reason, for which I will never understand, we can’t hang em or shoot em or set them on fire, but failing that, there ought to be a way of docking their paycheck when they do stupid things. Might make em think twice before trying to buy votes with some give away of our money!
Good to see a conservative admit the waste of homeland security and its violation of civil liberties. An example:
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-08-21/news/33307378_1_muslim-student-groups-demographics-unit-terror-cases
“In more than six years of spying on Muslim neighborhoods, eavesdropping on conversations and cataloguing mosques, the New York Police Department’s secret Demographics Unit never generated a lead or triggered a terrorism investigation, the department acknowledged in court testimony unsealed late Monday.”
Civil liberties are the lifeblood of America. Without them, we are nothing.
This was created in the atmosphere following 9/11 when the ferocity of the attack was fresh in our experience and the need to be more vigilant was a number one priority after discovery that the wall, constructed in the 1990’s under Bill Clinton, prevented information sharing and preparedness. It was feared that individual communities were vulnerable, particularly large cities. We DID NOT KNOW whether more attacks were planned. I can see why this “good idea” seemed smart in that atmosphere. But it might have been a good idea to make the idea temporary so that it could be reevaluated as we learned more.
I have long been a fan of the sunset clause. Our representatives are loath to vote for ending programs and the jobs that go along with them but clearly some things they choose to support should end. If the program is found to be necessary, if is working, if it make sense in terms of cost and value to the people after a period of time they deserve to be made more permanent…if not, they should go.
Tax dollars at work indeed, in the finest tradition.
Tax dollars at work #1?…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamp_Act_1765
Our Forefathers fought a helluva lot harder over a helluva lot less.
You’re not making any sense at all.
First, that fact that it hasn’t, doesn’t mean it won’t. Having an agency to pull information threads from here, there, and all around, looking for themes and patterns and shit is an entirely prudent thing to be doing … and something that all our disparate agencies have always done.
Second, if the FBI and CIA and NSA had been working together, rather than in competition, those 9/11 dudes never would have boarded a plane. This is a no longer some “suppose”. This is now a fact.
The sensible thing to do would be to abolish or actually combine the separate agencies. No more pursuing this plan over that plan (the narrow-minded, wildly competitive and terribly masculine approach that will damn the poor Shrub in the eyes of posterity) … one agency pursues ALL possibilites.
And … legions of “research analysts” make good money and earn a government pension!
Libby, I know what these fusion centers do and it’s nothing that could not be incorporated into any federal agency without adding any further to the overhead. Libs they’ve had 9 years and haven’t accomplished a thing..how much time are you going to give them to do something helpful?
“I know what these fusion centers do and it’s nothing that could not be incorporated into any federal agency without adding any further to the overhead.”
Of course it could. The same sort of work is done in all our security agencies. All it wants is a hard-charging, all-powerful, super-hero-bureaucrat. We must have a couple? He collects a cadre of world-class IT people to rope it all together, and we’re on our way.
You know, this civic malaise you suffer from … it’s all in your head … all generated by the grisly prospect of taking instruction from (shudder) liberals.
“They’ve had 9 years and haven’t accomplished a thing … how much time are you going to give them to do something helpful?”
Shouldn’t you be pleased that in nine years, there has been nothing to find … the last nasty incident occurring in a country so internally shredded that AQ can moblized unhindered, and it takes seven hours to muster security forces to our embassy?
We are not internally shredded. We are right on top of things.
You’re reminding me again of Henry VII, as interpreted by the BBC. “Taxes for war? Oh joy, oh bliss. Taxes for peace? And you never hear the end of the grief.”
The polity does not evolve, apparently.
While you can certainly complain that they’re not as efficient with our money as they should be, the doings of the HSA won’t compare with this … not on any level.
http://news.yahoo.com/secret-cold-war-tests-st-louis-raise-concerns-214608828.html
This goes on my “Ashamed to Be an American List.” Right along side the syphillis experiments in Guatemala, … and maybe we should be looking more closely into what ol’ Pentagon is getting up to these days.
Ick.
M’ dear Libby, you have an “Ashamed to be an American” list? Wow…that’s kinda unusual, but okay, let’s take a look at your current reason for being ashamed.
Based on your link (thank you for that, I read it) this was because the Army tested zinc cadmium sulfide, a fine fluorescent powder by fogging various neighborhoods to see how it would spread. Actually, this was to simulate how chemical and radiological contamination would spread; part of our national defense plan during the cold war times. Perfectly reasonable and logical for the time, it could have save lives if we had a WWIII.
The powder was considered 100% benign and to this day there have been NO connections between zinc cadmium sulfide and any known pathology. But, there could be!
The test has no known connection between the illnesses experienced by one family. But, there could be!
The Army has not been shown to be covering up any facts and so far they have been trying to comply with all requests for information on this 50 year experiment that nobody in the Army today had any connection with or even knew about as far as we know. There is no apparent cover up. But, there could be!
The Army could be guilty of everything you suspicion Libby. However, as of right now there are no facts to substantiate a rational conclusion of guilt by anyone for anything. Therefore a prudent person might want to hold off on adding this event to their list of “Ashamed to be an American.”
You may recall that our jurisprudence was founded in the presumption of innocence until found guilty by a court of law. I realize this is inconvenient at times, but please consider it before doing anything rash, like accusing America of crimes against humanity.
Oh, and I just happened across this Libs, the test was not done on poor black neighborhoods as the author would have us believe.
Operation LAC (Large Area Coverage), was a Chemical Corps operation in 1957 and 1958 which dispersed microscopic zinc cadmium sulfide (ZnCdS) particles over much of the United States. The purpose was to determine the dispersion and geographic range of biological or chemical agents. Zinc cadmium sulfide was used as it could be easily detected. It was not thought at the time to pose any particular health risk.
“… a U.S. government study, done by the U.S. National Research Council stated, in part, “After an exhaustive, independent review requested by Congress, we have found no evidence that exposure to zinc cadmium sulfide at these levels could cause people to become sick.”[2] Still, the use of ZnCdS remains controversial and one critic accused the Army of “literally using the country as an experimental laboratory”.
So there you go…this sure reads a lot less dastardly than what you assumed. Still feeling ashamed? Well, maybe you should, but not for the reasons first stated.
It’s you, Jack, right? I’ve lost all hope for Tina the Islamophobe, and now I’m starting to worry about you.
This is one creepy piece of apologism. It says plainly in the Army documents that St. Louis was choosen for its layout, similar to potential targets in Russia. This was an offensive, not defensive “esperiment”. The object being to study the spread of radioactive poison in the dust. The resulting high cancer rates in that neighborhood at that time would seem to indicate that, just to make it a really accurate test … the dust was contaminated.
And the public housing project was chosen for a dispersal point because, as Romney will tell you, the poor people aren’t worth bothering about.
More ick … seriously ick.
Jack: “Costing us millions…and does absolutely nothing! This is a perfect example of the overall effectiveness of Homeland Security and another layer of bureaucracy brought to you under the pretext of national defense! It’s outrageous.
The laws were written because at the time we knew very little about our enemy and because we were all on high alert not knowing what might come next.
Government does not correct…and it certainly does not act quickly. This is one area that needs review and strict reform. I think Romney/Ryan would be a good team with the right experience to take it on…not sure the rest of the congress would go along.
Good info here about the construction of the fusion centers:
http://www.it.ojp.gov/default.aspx?area=privacy&page=1283
More here:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/6/124h
The Homeland Security Act (2002-2003) is here:
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/hr_5005_enr.pdf
The 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 is here:
http://intelligence.senate.gov/laws/pl11053.pdf
Libby: “The sensible thing to do would be to abolish or actually combine the separate agencies”
The separate agencies are not charged with the same types of duties, FBI is crime in the homeland-CIA is foreign/intel stuff, for instance. But information sharing should happen between agencies (Bush agreed with you by the way).
This came up as a problem when the 911 Commission discovered The Wall. The Qall existed to protect American civil liberties and strengthened in the 1990’s by Jamie Gorelic under Janet Reno to protect BC. (And speaking of ugly intrigue, remember the criminal Sandy Burger stealing official documents by stuffing them in his pants and later destroying them?)
Libby should we or should we not consider extremists in the Muslim world that join in calling for the destruction of Israel, America and the West, that call for oppression of women and for killing homosexuals, Christians, Budhists and other religions our enemies? Are they not the enemies of freedom?
I think they are our enemies and I think we don’t have a choice but to deal with them. So I must ask: On what precisely do you base this absurd charge of Islamophobia?
Our readers might find this article from a former Soviet Intel officer (defected under Carter) of interest regarding communism, zionism and Hezbollah and al Qaeda:
http://thenewamerican.com/world-news/asia/item/13069-russian-red-jihad
Keep that head firmly planted in your PC pile of sand and you will bring more misery not only to Israel, the US and Europe but to the millions of Muslims wishing to escape the insanity of the extremists…including Palestinians of all religions!
Tina, there is so much reform needed here. If there was ever a place to start cutting this would be it. We are way overloaded with top heavy do nothing agencies, sub contractors and all the fat cats that run them it’s nuts.
When it comes to counter terrorism and intel, everything I have read points to one conclusion….all the heavy lifting is still done the way it was decades ago, with ground level operator developing informants, bribing people and listening in on the bad guys.
On the other side of this we have all the tools we need, we have all the personnel we need, we just need people in higher levels with a brain… to match the performance of their guys out here at the street level doing a fantastic job of getting next to the terrorists and stopping the plots.
The field agents are like our street cops. They risk their lives for this valuable information every day in some backwater place nobody ever heard. All this HS and new buildings is just fluff for the civilians, the hard job is still done by the grunts.
You know it was a boss at the FBI that totally mishandled the hot tip from the flight school, pre-9-11. Nobody got in trouble for that huge blunder and nobody in the FBI even wants to talk about it now. We deserve to know this stuff….that was outrageously wrong. Wondering…how come there was never a full disclosure about that?