Thursday, September 17, 2009

Military to share classified intel with state and local fusion centers: And We Want to THANK YOU, BARACK!



Folks,

I would like to formally thank the Obamanoid administration for the lack of foresight illustrated by the action announced below. Please read this story, and meet me on the other side.

Military to share classified intel with state and local fusion centers

Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, September 15, 2009

Correct me if I am wrong, but this must spell an unprecedented level of domestic intelligence sharing. One wonders, is the sharing between the DoD and fusion centers – which incorporate local, state and federal law enforcement and homeland security agencies — both ways? Again, a big disappointment coming from a new President who promised all sorts of sunshine into the creepy darkness of Bush-era law enforcement/domestic security policies, but seems to be instead pushing forward into the gloaming of his own administration full throttle. Considering his justice department has announced it is pretty much all settled to extend the three controversial Patriot Act provisions set to expire at the end of the year, and now this story out of DHS, it is really hard to make out the sliver of sunlight between Obama and his predecessor.

From the ACLU tonight:

Fusion Centers To Obtain Access To Classified Military Intelligence

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


September 15, 2009

CONTACT: Mandy Simon, (202) 675-2312; media@dcaclu.org

WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Monday that it was giving state and local fusion centers access to the classified military intelligence in Department of Defense (DOD) databases. The federal government has facilitated the growth of a network of fusion centers since 9/11 to expand information collection and sharing practices among law enforcement agencies, the private sector and the intelligence community.

Allowing fusion centers access to DOD classified information appears to be a shift in policy. The New York Times reported in July that “Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary, said … that fusion centers were not intended to have a military presence, and that she was not aware of ones that did.”

The American Civil Liberties Union has long warned the government about the dangers posed by fusion centers without proper oversight and, in 2007, released a report entitled, “What’s Wrong With Fusion Centers?” The report, which was updated last year, identifies specific concerns with fusion centers, including their ambiguous lines of authority, the troubling role of private corporations, the participation of the military, the use of data mining and their excessive secrecy.

According to DHS, there were 70 fusion centers in the United States as of February 2009. It is unknown how many include military personnel.

The following can be attributed to Michael Macleod-Ball, Acting Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:

“As fusion centers gain more and more access to Americans’ private information, the information about them being made available to the American public remains woefully inadequate. There is a stunning lack of oversight at these fusion centers and, as we’ve seen, these centers are rapidly becoming a breeding ground for overzealous intelligence activities. Opening the door for domestic law enforcement to gain access to classified military intelligence coupled with no guidelines restricting the military’s role in fusion centers is a recipe for disaster.

“Congress must take the necessary steps to ensure that a thorough and rigorous oversight mechanism is in place to ensure that Americans’ most sensitive information is protected. Without proper guidelines, fusion centers will continue to threaten our privacy while doing nothing to improve security.”

To read the ACLU’s report, “What’s Wrong With Fusion Centers,” go to: www.aclu.org/fusion


Now this only matters to anyone who thinks that we still operate under the rule of law and the Founders' Constitution where the old rules which heretofore have obtained still apply -- you know, like ACLU bedwetting types. Three Percenters however understand that with the accession of the Obamanoids to power, the war against the liberty and property of the people has begun. We are through the looking glass here, and I for one am grateful that the Obamanoids have taken the decision to open the computer databases of the United States military to US.

Who do you think staffs these "fusion" centers? In most cases, at the grunt level, it is by men and women who still remember their oaths. When the deal gets really raw -- as more and more people begin to see that the feds are indeed waging a war on their own people for the aggrandizement of the power and money of an elite few -- these fusion centers will become a prime source of freedom fighter intelligence.

Databases, like tracers, work both ways -- both for real intelligence and for system vulnerability.

Just as the militarization of the police has put military hardware closer to the hands of the people (it is no longer necessary to raid a military base to get what you may need), the distribution of federal police and military intelligence to the local level makes what they know more easily available to US.

So, President Obama, I want to THANK YOU!

You and I both know that the war has unofficially begun, and I for one am appreciative of the fact that you just opened your fly to critical inspection of the contents therein.

The problem with the criminal, whether he's a freelance pickpocket or a government tyrant operating under color of law is HE NEVER KNOWS WHO HE CAN TRUST.

Inconvenient things, aren't they?

Oaths, I mean.

For an oath to the Constitution is only seditious to tyranny.

So thanks, again, Barack.

And have a nice day!

Mike Vanderboegh
III

6 comments:

Happy D said...

The ACLU's solution to bad congressional action more congressional action?
Is good congressional action even theoretically possible?
Well at least mike points out the good news.
And information travels both ways in this kind of system. Information overload anyone?
III

Tangalor said...

Wery, Wery interesting. Thanks for the heads up.

Jeffrey Quick said...

Well, not that it's funny, really, but I remember the resounding silence from GOP shills when Bush started pushing the domestic-surveillance envelope, and libertarians were pointing out that the tools he was forging would some day be wielded by a Democrat.

Anonymous said...

"Thank you, Barack"???

I would just as soon have all the Fusion centers shut down. Adding any power to an overgrown seditious government is a bad idea. The Fusion centers will always be run by grubby little Marxists(fed and state employees) on a quest hell bent for more power. Even if the Grubby little sob's are Oath-keepers (which I very seriously doubt), they will soon fall prey to the axiom that Ol' Lord Acton penned -- "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely"

And do you really believe that authentic/real DHS information could ever be a two-way street with the locals? IMO, The local patriots, to which you refer, would never see what the fed-gods didn't want them to see.

...but I hope I'm wrong.

As long as the fear-steered Republicans and Dems continue to support Un-Constitutional agencies and acts such as the DHS and "the Patriot act", I'll have no options, except III.

Anonymous said...

so next week Officer Doofus will roll up in a humvee complete with .50 mounted and a squad of jumpy guardsmen fresh from trashcanistan, crap, get me another 100 rds Mabel...what posse comitatus?

Anonymous said...

DUSTWIND SENDS:

Understand that the fusion centers are the means to have LEA and Intelligence presence throughout CONUS for the purpose of exercising net-centric, intelligence based policing. Net-centric being distributed, allows individual operations towards regions and cities independently of other fusion centers.

They are establishing a means for law and order (as they see it) vs. civil disturbance.