Did you know you may be part of a militia? It’s true, the government says so. A murky government entity know as a fusion center has the power to gather information and disseminate that information, apparently as they see fit, and one of those centers has released a report that should have mainstream Americans and Obamabots alike in an uproar.
Although the program wasn’t started by Barack Obama (it’s apparently a George Bush Homeland Security/Department of Justice program), he now has the ability to stock those centers with whomever he sees fit. The Missouri Information Analysis Center, one of those datamining centers, released a report and sent it out to various law enforcement agencies, much to the outrage of anyone who actually read it. The report cites the Southern Poverty Law Center as one of their sources. This is a bunch who classifies any group that has a philosophy different from theirs as a hate group, even lumping them in with real hate groups for maximum effect. Using information from that crowd, the report targets everyone from Ron Paul supporters to those concerned about the economy. Yes, if you’re concerned about where the U.S. economy is headed, you may have been targeted by this center as a potential subversive militia member. Their report targets a huge swath of Americans, and it’s doubtful the anyone has escaped what they are classifying as “suspicious” behavior. This particular report was pulled after actually being read, but there is no information currently on whether the authors of the report are still on the job. We have to assume that they are.
If you’ve ever made a public comment that can be traced back to you, and it fell within the fusion centers profiling guidelines, then they in all likelihood have your name. Comforting that government is looking out for you, isn’t it?
rjjrdq's America 
I’m no fan of fusion centers as they’re currently set up but they aren’t as sinister as you suspect.
First, they aren’t all that murky. There’s been plenty written about them that you can find with a simple google search. I’d recommend the reports by the Congressional Research Service and the ACLU if you’re looking for a critical evaluation of them.
Second, the fusion centers are almost always state entities meaning the federal government doesn’t have the ability to stack them with political appointees. Additionally, state employees at these centers are usually in the state civil service and therefore are not easily removed from their jobs for political reasons. I suspect you’d find the vast majority of fusion center personnel were hired during the Bush administration and will still be working there long after President Obama leaves office.
Such agencies are bound by federal regulation 28 crf part 23 (http://www.iir.com/28CFR/) which governs what sort of information can be stored by domestic agencies in intelligence systems. Storing the names of citizens for non-criminal activities results in serious criminal charges for the individuals and agencies involved.
The MIAC report’s citing of Ron Paul was an example of shoddy intelligence work and not necessarily any attempt to target law abiding citizens. Rather I suspect they (along with the recent DHS report) were only trying to identify the environmental factors that could function to incite groups that identify with extreme right wing ideologies.
This is, after all, what everyone wanted our intelligence, public safety organizations to do in the wake of 9/11. Identify potential threats (whether from Islamists flying planes into buildings or radicals blowing up federal buildings) before they actually launch an attack so that our law enforcement personnel can try to prevent further attacks.
I don’t know any specifics but I suspect you won’t be labeled as a “a potential subversive militia member” unless you’ve made public statements advocating the violent overthrow of the government AND are a member of an organization which also advocates the violent overthrow of the government AND the organization (or you) has been involved in criminal activity related to those threats.
This is really a story about poor standards within homeland security circles and not one of some sort of sinister Orwellian plan.
Well, I’m sure you agree that the criteria used to identify potential domestic terrorists go beyond ridiculous. The disturbing part is that Janet Napolitano felt that the report was legitimate enough to hand out to law enforcement and even reiterated her position after the outcry.
Secondy, you mentioned restrictions as far as stacking the fusion centers with political appointees, and the storing of citizen’s info. That’s assuming everyone is playing by the rules. Can we assume everyone is doing that? This is a government for the people, not the other way around. To have the people speak out when they see something they don’t like is democracy at work. Thanks for stopping by.
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