Fusion Centers--A Choice Between Terrorism or Tyranny?

Recently CNN reported that the Director for Development for Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty, Steve Bierfeldt, was detained and questioned at an airport in Missouri concerning a large amount of cash he was carrying--despite the fact that it is perfectly legal to carry cash on an airplane. Suspicious behavior? Possibly a guy smuggling drugs? Bierfeldt had nothing to hide--he had gotten the money by selling Ron Paul T-shirts and posters--so why did he not cooperate? There is a definite answer, one which CNN does not give in its report.

The same week Bierfeldt was at a liberty rally in St. Louis, a curious document produced by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) was leaked to the press. Called "The Modern Militia Movement," this report read like a field guide to identify potential terrorists. Pages of illustrations identify the kind of bumper stickers and flags the police should watch out for. Among them? The yellow Gadsden "Don't Tread on Me" flag. Bumper stickers for third party presidential candidates Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin. Bumper stickers for Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul. Maybe Bierfeldt did have something to hide, after all. And maybe the TSA was using a fusion center report to profile Steve Bierfeldt.


Media on the right, now on the wrong side of law enforcement, were outraged. The three presidential candidates insisted on and received an apology on behalf of the people who voted for them. But this focus does not strike at the heart of the threat fusion centers pose to our civil liberties.


Fusion centers were established as an answer to the 9-11 Report. The terrorists were able to operate, it was asserted, because law enforcement on many levels simply lacked the means to communicate effectively with each other. Fusion centers became a means of sharing information among federal, state, and local law enforcement.

Typical federal partners of the fusion centers are the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. Other participating agencies might be military--such as the Army or the Coast Guard--and even be non law-enforcement agencies, such as a university. The ACLU has pointed out that military participation may be a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the military from serving in domestic law enforcement roles. Some fusion centers even engage in data mining; for example, using information from credit reporting agencies to determine who is a potential terrorist. Gathering information from private corporations raises serious questions about who might also have access to information and if it will be used in a secure way.

Finally, because these centers share information from federal, state, and local agencies, it is unclear what laws or oversight apply to these centers. According to a Congressional Research Service report on fusion centers, a part of the federal code (28 CFR part 23) applies to the way fusion centers can collect and then share data. However, the workings of fusion centers are by their very nature secret, and it is difficult for a citizen or lawmaker to determine if in fact these regulations are being followed.

This same part of the Federal Code makes it clear that persons engaged in political or religious activity cannot be monitored by law enforcement unless there is "reasonable cause" that they may be involved in criminal activity. Yet in one state, Maryland, this standard was ignored by the State Police and peace and anti-death penalty activists were covertly monitored. The information was given to one of the Maryland fusion center's partners, the federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area database. The ACLU discovered over fifty activists had been listed as potential terrorists. Worse yet, they also discovered that the Baltimore City Police had been monitoring these activists and sharing the information directly with the National Security Agency.


The MIAC report gives us a new level of concern with fusion centers. The idea of profiling entire groups of dissidents, then giving the information to be shared with fusion centers across the country, is indeed chilling. Will we all be taking our flags down and peeling bumper stickers off our cars, afraid of being labeled as terrorists? Will we stop attending political meetings, protests, or our churches because we fear government harassment?


The Missouri Information and Analysis Center eventually agreed to rescind the entire report, but others have taken their place. DHS has released at least two reports profiling rightwing extremists (and, to be fair, has also released at least one report profiling leftwing dissidents). It is unlikely that DHS will stop this practice of profiling persons according to their political beliefs, given the von Brunn shooting at the United States Holocaust Museum and the shooting of an abortion doctor. And once the information from these reports are fed into these vast, secretive government databases, it will be difficult to tell whether people like Steve Bierfeldt was questioned by TSA just because he had a lot of cash...or because of his political beliefs.

Even in a world endangered by terrorism, is it worth the cost of our freedoms of speech and assembly to achieve security?

Sources:

CNN Report on Steve Bierfeldt
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/20/tsa.lawsuit/index.html

MIAC Report, "The Modern Militia Movement"
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13290698/The-Modern-Militia-MovementMissouri-MIAC-Strategic-Report-20Feb09-

ACLU: "What's Wrong with Fusion Centers"
http://www.aclu.org/privacy/gen/32966pub20071205.html

Congressional Research Service, "Fusion Centers: Issues and Options for Congress"
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/RL34070.pdf

ACLU of Maryland Lawsuit Uncovers Maryland State Police Spying
http://www.aclu.org/police/spying/36025prs20080717.html

DHS Report: Rightwing Extremism: Current
Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment
http://api.ning.com/files/UNNlkOVukw8cXztJc4bDEq2ztrm9owekwvHofmLwYgxLlpwX8*h1av8amHehbYkmt3Qvxny16Gh1ob8gFYeRrw2HVq-joU7Y/hsarightwingextremism0904071.pdf