The Department of Homeland Security is not protecting you. They are spying on you. They are controlling you. They are watching you. They are monitoring your electronic communications. They are listening to your phone calls. They are recoding your license plates. Their cameras are recording you. They are putting you into databases. They are George Orwell’s vision of the future. They are using your tax dollars to keep you caged and under control like animals. They are arming your local police agencies with predator drones. They are buying military equipment from their arms dealer corporate co-conspirators and doling it out to local police forces.
These sociopaths lure clueless 18 year old dupes into fake terrorist plots, convince them to blow something up, provide fake bombs, then arrest them as terrorists. They then have their other co-conspirators in the corporate MSM proclaim how the DHS foiled another plot. The gullible ignorant public swallows it hook line and sinker. They then use this bullshit to further take away our liberties and freedoms. Orwell’s vision of the future is here.
Intelligence effort named citizens, not terrorists
By MATT APUZZO and EILEEN SULLIVAN
Wednesday, October 3,2012
s In this March 15, 2011 file photo, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano speaks at the National Fusion Center Conference in Denver. A multibillion-dollar information-sharing program that was created in the aftermath of 9/11 has improperly collected information about innocent Americans and produced no valuable intelligence on terrorism, according to a Senate report that describes an effort that ballooned far beyond anyoneís ability to control. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) A multibillion-dollar information-sharing program created in the aftermath of 9/11 has improperly collected information about innocent Americans and produced little valuable intelligence on terrorism, a Senate report concludes. It portrays an effort that ballooned far beyond anyone’s ability to control.
What began as an attempt to put local, state and federal officials in the same room analyzing the same intelligence has instead cost huge amounts of money for data-mining software, flat screen televisions and, in Arizona, two fully equipped Chevrolet Tahoes that are used for commuting, investigators found.
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. The report underscores a reality of post-9/11 Washington: National security programs tend to grow, never shrink, even when their money and manpower far surpass the actual subject of terrorism. Much of this money went for ordinary local crime-fighting.
Disagreeing with the critical conclusions of the report, Homeland Security says it is outdated, inaccurate and too focused on information produced by the program, ignoring benefits to local governments from their involvement with federal intelligence officials.
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. Government estimates range from less than $300 million to $1.4 billion in federal money, plus much more invested by state and local governments. Federal funding is pegged at about 20 percent to 30 percent.
Despite that, Congress is unlikely to pull the plug. That’s because, whether or not it stops terrorists, the program means politically important money for state and local governments.
A Senate Homeland Security subcommittee reviewed more than 600 unclassified reports over a one-year period and concluded that most had nothing to do with terrorism. The panel’s chairman is Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.
“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.
One fusion center cited in the Senate investigation wrote a report about a Muslim community group’s list of book recommendations. Others discussed American citizens speaking at mosques or talking to Muslim groups about parenting.
No evidence of criminal activity was contained in those reports. The government did not circulate them, but it kept them on government computers. The federal government is prohibited from storing information about First Amendment activities not related to crimes.
“It was not clear why, if DHS had determined that the reports were improper to disseminate, the reports were proper to store indefinitely,” the report said.
Homeland Security Department spokesman Matthew Chandler called the report “out of date, inaccurate and misleading.” He said that it focused entirely on information being produced by fusion centers and did not consider the benefit the involved officials got receiving intelligence from the federal government.
The report is as much an indictment of Congress as it is the Homeland Security Department. In setting up the department, lawmakers wanted their states to decide what to spend the money on. Time and again, that setup has meant the federal government has no way to know how its security money is being spent.
Inside Homeland Security, officials have long known there were problems with the reports coming out of fusion centers, the report shows.
“You would have some guys, the information you’d see from them, you’d scratch your head and say, `What planet are you from?”‘ an unidentified Homeland Security official told Congress.
Until this year, the federal reports officers received five days of training and were never tested or graded afterward, the report said.
States have had criminal analysis centers for years. But the story of fusion centers began in the frenzied aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The 9/11 Commission urged better collaboration among government agencies. As officials realized that a terrorism tip was as likely to come from a local police officer as the CIA, fusion centers became a hot topic.
But putting people together to share intelligence proved complicated. Special phone and computer lines had to be installed. The people reading the reports needed background checks. Some information could only be read in secure areas, which meant construction projects.
All of that cost money.
Meanwhile, federal intelligence agencies were under orders from Congress to hire more analysts. That meant state and local agencies had to compete for smart counterterrorism thinkers. And federal training for local analysts wasn’t an early priority.
Though fusion centers receive money from the federal government, they are operated independently. Counterterrorism money started flowing to states in 2003. But it wasn’t until late 2007 that the Bush administration told states how to run the centers.
State officials soon realized there simply wasn’t that much local terrorism-related intelligence. Terrorist attacks didn’t happen often, but police faced drugs, guns and violent crime every day. Normal criminal information started moving through fusion centers.
Under federal law, that was fine. When lawmakers enacted recommendations of the 9/11 Commission in 2007, they allowed fusion centers to study “criminal or terrorist activity.” The law was co-sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins and Joe Lieberman, the driving forces behind the creation of Homeland Security.
Five years later, Senate investigators found, terrorism is often a secondary focus.
“Many fusion centers lacked either the capability or stated objective of contributing meaningfully to the federal counterterrorism mission,” the Senate report said. “Many centers didn’t consider counterterrorism an explicit part of their mission, and federal officials said some were simply not concerned with doing counterterrorism work.”
When Janet Napolitano became Homeland Security secretary in 2009, the former Arizona governor embraced the idea that fusion centers should look beyond terrorism. Testifying before Congress that year, she distinguished fusion centers from the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Forces that are the leading investigative and analytical arms of the domestic counterterrorism effort.
“A JTTF is really focused on terrorism and terrorism-related investigations,” she said. “Fusion centers are almost everything else.”
Congress, including the committee that authored the report, supports that notion. And though the report recommends the Senate reconsider the amount of money it spends on fusion centers, that seems unlikely.
“Congress and two administrations have urged DHS to continue or even expand its support of fusion centers, without providing sufficient oversight to ensure the intelligence from fusion centers is commensurate with the level of federal investment,” the report said.
And following the release of the report, Homeland Security officials indicated their continued strong support for the program.
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Yojimbo says:
And nobody notices, nobody cares.
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9th February 2013 at 10:47 am
A Good American says:
GOOD JOB Janet! You’re keeping us safe! We need to go after those people who are hoarding food and/or selling unprocessed foods – they might create food shortages or get people sick! Guns are too dangerous to let people have, other than the military and the police of course. We need to keep tabs on Ron Paul supporters, the Constitution Party, former military, and other potential terrorists and threats to law enforcement. If you are a good law-abiding person you have nothing to fear. We have the strongest democracy in the world and our government does the will of the people! So STOP YOUR WHINING!
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9th February 2013 at 10:58 am
DaveL says:
Brought to you by our Founding Fathers. A Constitution that gives the Federal Government absolute power to protect itself under the guise of protecting you.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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9th February 2013 at 11:14 am
Wyoming Mike says:
Dave??? Go read your fourth amendment. The only power they derive is by siding with the idiot 9 in IGNORING the Constitution.
Shut it down, SHUT IT DOWN NOW!!!
BTW, went over to Yahoo for a bit and read the comments on the political articles. We are truly doomed.
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9th February 2013 at 11:24 am
John Coster says:
I had a disturbing experience last week. I had some business at the regional social security office. There is a main room with about 40 chairs in it, and when I walked in along with about 20 other folks who had been waiting for the doors to open, we found ourselves greeted by a guy wearing what looked like a special police uniform including a holster and pistol. Another guy with the same outfit was standing at the back of the room. By some coincidence, my son in Pittsburgh, also went to a social security office that day. He needed a social security card, one of numerous documents required to get a PA license. He found the same armed guards. OK, WTF is this about ?!?! Is AARP now considered a terrorist organization? Are the Grey Panthers about to undertake coordinated attacks on the folks who send them their checks every month? Are lobbyists for firearms manufacturers and uniform designers trying to make sure that all Federal employees are armed ready for a military parade. Or, are certain elements within the administration taking every opportunity to embed subtle threats of violence against the citizenry in every branch of government they can? Is there anything worth stealing in a social security office?
I would be glad to hear some more benign explanation.
,
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9th February 2013 at 11:46 am
TeresaE says:
People are happy to be scared of something concrete, even if in reality it is ephemeral, “terrorists” fit that bill nicely.
The past few weeks I’ve been trying to shut out and do some inner searching. Bad shit is coming. And our neighbors – as evidenced by all the searching for IRS fraud reporting – will more than happily march to that drum.
As times get tougher, people will – once again – want a new boogieman to hate. Anyone not lining up with them, will become the targets.
Human nature and central control seem to suck at their core.
From the article, “…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. …”
Now this just pisses me the hell off. How can they NOT KNOW? They don’t have a fucking checkbook? A record of checks cut? A centralized printing office?
And if the federal government is incapable of providing accurate figures in this area, how is it that so many “smart” people trust the bullshit they tell us day in and day out?
Cripes. Because I pay attention and have SEEN the millions and millions and millions and millions poured into local cop shops and city halls (most have zero idea as to the true depth of federal largesse that has been spewed upon our local leaders), I’ve questioned their budget, deficit, collection, spending figures for a long, long, time. There is just WAY more money flowing around than we are shown in neat little news reports.
All we have left is a big illusion of a once grand nation. I’m really beginning to feel like getting with the program – and on the take – is the only way to deal with the insanity.
It is insane, but why are we all fighting so hard when it becomes more and more obvious that the majority never, ever, ever, will?
I wish I didn’t see because I’m at a loss as to how we are going to get through this shit alive AND free.
Thank gawd I’ve been trying (and still failing, but trying nonetheless) to keep my mouth shut. I get the feeling that when bad shit truly starts going down, that skill will be the most important one I’ve learned.
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9th February 2013 at 11:47 am
KaD says:
Thought you’d like to see the newest TSA story; they’re ‘training’ passengers to freeze on command:
The TSA has recently adopted a bizarre new policy where agents order travelers who have already passed through security checkpoints to “freeze” on command has been caught on camera, the video demonstrating yet again how this out-of-control federal agency has implemented a series of ridiculous policies that have little purpose in terms of enhancing travel security, but which really seem to serve as an obedience test for the public.
The clip shows the final 24 seconds of a two-minute time frame during which travelers were ordered by TSA workers to “freeze,” and were not permitted to move. One screener is heard demanding, “stay right where you are,” to a man who is walking through the airport, as other travelers look on in confusion and amazement.
The YouTube user responsible for uploading the clip wrote, “This video was shot within the ‘secure’ area of the terminal, beyond the security gate.”
‘Code Bravo Sierra’
“Note that the TSA ‘guard’ is offering no explanation, only giving harsh threats and orders to stay still,” the user said. “Note that there was NO event or threat taking place of any kind.”
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/037404_TSA_obedience_training_freeze_drill.html#ixzz28FfYf7OL
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9th February 2013 at 11:53 am
Stan says:
Bad shit is gonna happen soon.
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9th February 2013 at 11:54 am
Persnickety says:
@John Coster: a lot of ineligible people seek social security disability payments, and many of them make threats when they are denied. SSA is probably just trying to protect its own employees, in a typical brash, clumsy, selfish way. Ever notice how businesses that you can choose whether or not to deal with almost NEVER have visible armed guards?
If I ran SSA I would probably just give all the employees pepper spray, and allow those who have stated-issued concealed handgun licenses to carry (concealed) in the office. But I don’t run SSA and I’m not likely to ever run a government agency due to my common sense.
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9th February 2013 at 12:04 pm
Eddie says:
I could say that I saw all this coming the day after 9/11…but the thing is…that doesn’t mean much. The real problem with all this para-military crappola is what to do about it.
My best survival sense tells me one way is to never post here…but I’m still doing it. I’m pissed enough to speak out…but it makes me a traget. You too, folks. They probably know your read this site even if you never post.
If I could, I’d go rural and go local and try to eliminate my dependency on the currency. In the coming times wealth will be measured in food and shelter and in personal safety…not in money.
I see the over-armed, Constitutionally illegal DHS forces as a threat to the rule of law, not a support for it.
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9th February 2013 at 12:09 pm
harry p. says:
someone will do something stupid…
all they know is force, violence, coercion and compliance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMKqKruzZro
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9th February 2013 at 12:12 pm
DaveL says:
No doubt Wyoming Mike, but I took my cue from Federalist. The intent was to insure that the government was given all tools necessary to provide for the common defense. Obviously they now think that includes suppressing the very entity that gave them that power.
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people. It is an instrument for the people to restrain the government–lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”
Patrick Henry
We the people have lost our way.
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9th February 2013 at 12:59 pm
AWD says:
These idiots spend almost $40 billion per year, as you’ll see, for administrative and personnel, moves, overtime, and other government employee parasite activities. It’s a huge business, many many contracts paid with DHS funds. I thought the FBI was supposed to handle domestic terrorists. Vote for Obama again, and what freedom you do have left will vaporize just like the $1.4 billion from Obama’s best buddy John Corzine’s MF Global accounts.
Secretary Napolitano Announces Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Request
WASHINGTON—Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today unveiled the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget request of $39.5 billion in net discretionary funding.
The FY 2013 budget request directs over $850 million in base resources to administrative and mission support areas, including contracts, personnel (through attrition), information technology, travel, personnel moves, overtime, directed purchasing, professional services, and vehicle management to frontline operations.
FY 2013 Budget Priorities:
Preventing Terrorism and Enhancing Security.
Securing and Managing Our Borders
Enforcing and Administering Our Immigration Laws
Safeguarding and Securing Cyberspace
Ensuring Resilience to Disasters
Providing Essential Support to National and Economic Security
Securing and managing the borders? Enforcing Immigration laws? Are you kidding? Obama is giving amnesty to every Mexican that crosses the border. Safeguarding cyberspace? Is that a joke? Resilience to disasters? Another joke? I thought that was what FEMA is for. WTF, it’s only $40 billion, chump change for the criminal politicians.
http://www.dhs.gov/news/2012/02/13/secretary-napolitano-announces-fiscal-year-2013-budget-request
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9th February 2013 at 1:32 pm
AWD says:
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9th February 2013 at 1:36 pm
Wyoming Mike says:
Dave, I respectfully disagree. The Constitution was written to give them the minimum tools necessary to provide for the common defense, WITHOUT sacrificing our Liberty. I read the Federalist papers too.
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9th February 2013 at 6:56 pm
DaveL says:
I don’t disagree, but we have allowed the government to use far beyond the minimum tools and have sacrificed our liberty. Perhaps they shouldn’t have been given the keys to the kingdom in the first place. Provide for the Common Defense has taken on a whole new meaning to these DHS and other acronym/alphabet bureaucracies, and has filtered all the way down to the local levels of government.
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9th February 2013 at 7:06 pm
DaveL says:
Wyoming Mike:
I went back and re-read Federalist XXIII. If Hamilton could look at what he spoke of and proposed back then in “providing for the common defense” and compare it to what is really happening today, he probably wouldn’t have pushed for that section of the Constitution as hard as he did.
I think the ant-Federalists would be gloating today and saying “I told you.”
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9th February 2013 at 11:54 am
ron says:
They are all just getting ready for what is coming.The food bank i volunteer at has had a few people get wierd lately.And this is a total volunteer place supported partially by the church.People are animals,dumb ones.
I think if someone lives in the usa and dosent have a gun and some ammo,theyre stupid.
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9th February 2013 at 12:10 pm
What Is To Be Done? says:
[...] immorality" of the normalization of torture, indefinite detention, death of the Bill of Rights, an Orwellian Department of Homeland Security and its perverted TSA, obscene domestic surveillance, Internet surveillance, a very literal war on [...]
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9th February 2013 at 2:34 am
Allan says:
A a target of the SATANIC copnspiricy, All I can say is fuck you!
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9th February 2013 at 10:12 pm
AWD says:
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9th February 2013 at 9:54 am
Welshman says:
Four or five years ago I went to the S.S. office and there were guards w/o weapons. The guard asked if I had a weapon on me, I looked at him like the ass-hole he was and said, “Does it look like I am carrying a weapon?”. The guard stated “any weapons, like knives, etc.”. I asked him what if I was, he replied then you have to hand it over until I left the S.S. office. I had my Swiss Army knife with me, but told him I did not have any weapons and went about my business.
I told my son who was with me, watch in a few years they will be wearing weapons and ask you to go throught a metal detector. It is coming, a police state near you. This spring the county is getting, thanks to HLS, an assault vehicle with a sunroof to mount a machine-gun on.
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9th February 2013 at 9:58 am
flash says:
A nation ran by third worlders. effeminates and femi nazis under the authority of an empire controlled by oil barrons, banksters and the MIC.
What could possibly go wrong?
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9th February 2013 at 10:17 am
AWD says:
The modern day brownshirts, criminals and thugs in the Nazi regime, and criminals and thugs in the Obama regime.
Federal Auditor: 2,527 DHS Employees and Co-Conspirators Convicted of Crimes
There have been 2,527 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees and co-conspirators convicted of corruption and other criminal misconduct since 2004, according to a federal auditor.
Charles Edwards, the acting inspector general (IG) at DHS, made that revelation in written testimony prepared for an Aug. 1 hearing held by the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Organization, Efficiency, and Financial Management.
In his remarks, Edwards added that as of July 15, the DHS OIG (Office of the Inspector General) was dealing with 1,591 open criminal cases involving DHS employees and some accomplices. Some cases date back to fiscal year 2004 (Oct. 1, 2003 thru Sept. 30, 2004) although the majority of the open investigations were initiated in the last three fiscal years. The DHS started operating in March 2003.
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9th February 2013 at 11:05 am
AWD says:
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9th February 2013 at 11:19 am
DaveL says:
“Wyoming Mike says:
Dave??? Go read your fourth amendment. The only power they derive is by siding with the idiot 9 in IGNORING the Constitution.”
Someone using my name Mike. i didn’t post that.
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9th February 2013 at 11:31 am
DaveL says:
“DaveL says:
No doubt Wyoming Mike, but I took my cue from Federalist. The intent was to insure that the government was given all tools necessary to provide for the common defense. Obviously they now think ….
Not me again, and none of the others above are me. Jim, time to teach me again how to register my name and get my own picture thingy.
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9th February 2013 at 11:35 am
Kill Bill says:
Hamilton eats Findu Horsemeat Lasagna.
And liked it
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9th February 2013 at 11:53 am
AKAnon says:
FWIW, DHS is now concerned about threats to critical infrastructure from climate change. No, I am not making this up. Maybe everyone driving a pickup or SUV will be determined an environmental terrorist. No sense wasting all those drones.
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9th February 2013 at 11:58 am
Administrator says:
AKAnon
I got your letter. Thank you very much.
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9th February 2013 at 12:04 pm
AKAnon says:
Cool-I am surprised the USPS is still delivering back there. Thank you, Admin.
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9th February 2013 at 12:48 pm
ragman says:
To all: Big Sis is considering a run for president in ’16. Wouldn’t that be special?
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9th February 2013 at 2:33 pm
Kill Bill says:
Great, Bill can be first lady.
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9th February 2013 at 2:38 pm
eugend66 says:
Guys, In my country there was an public, nation-wide rebellion in 1989. When the Army joined the uprising it was all over for the contested rulers.
I worked in a state owned factory back then and while we get “organized” by some idiot, he lined a group on a two lane street, about 30 ft. on both sides of the street facing eachother. And we were told if a car, any car passesby, shoot.
On purpose to shoot eachother of course. The guy ordering us this then vanished. Things like this will happen everywere if riots errupt.
Peace.
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9th February 2013 at 7:24 am