Feds Tout New Domestic Intelligence Centers
from Wired
By Ryan Singel
Federal, state and local cops are huddling together in domestic intelligence dens around the nation to fuse anti-terror information and tips in ways they never have before, and they want the American people to know about it -- sort of.
Some of the nation's top law enforcement and anti-terror officials got together to hold press briefings Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at the second annual National Fusion Center conference held in San Francisco.
Homeland Security Under Secretary Charlie Allen, formerly of the CIA, described how sharing threat assessments, and even the occasional raw intel, with the new fusion centers marks a cultural shift from the Cold War era. Back then, spies treated everyone, other departments and agencies included, as suspicious.
"Things have changed remarkably in Washington. We are talking to each other," Allen said Tuesday. "I am from the shadows of the CIA where in the Cold War, we followed a different model. That model does not apply for the kinds of threats we have today that are borderless. The threats are so different and so remarkably dangerous for our citizens."
The fifty or so U.S. fusion centers are where the federal, state and local cops share intelligence, sift data for clues, run down reports of suspicious packages and connect dots in an effort to detect and thwart terrorism attacks, drug smuggling and gang fighting.
Privacy and civil liberties groups are increasingly suspicious of the fusion centers, but state and local officials have complained for years that the feds don't share any useful information. The 9/11 Commission agreed, blaming the CIA and FBI's lack of information-sharing for wasted chances to stop the airline hijackings. The commission strongly urged they change their ways and put holes in so-called "stove pipes." And in 2007, the Democrats boosted fusion centers' stature and funding in the first bill they passed after taking control of Congress.
More than $130 million federal dollars have fed the development of the fusion centers in locations as diverse as Kansas and Northern California.
On Tuesday, San Francisco police chief Heather Fong said the information flow was getting better, especially around big events being held in the city.
"When we get information, it's not how much can we amass and keep to ourselves," Fong said. "It's how much information can we obtain but appropriately share so that it positively assists others in doing their jobs around the country and the world."
(Continued here.)
By Ryan Singel
Federal, state and local cops are huddling together in domestic intelligence dens around the nation to fuse anti-terror information and tips in ways they never have before, and they want the American people to know about it -- sort of.
Some of the nation's top law enforcement and anti-terror officials got together to hold press briefings Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at the second annual National Fusion Center conference held in San Francisco.
Homeland Security Under Secretary Charlie Allen, formerly of the CIA, described how sharing threat assessments, and even the occasional raw intel, with the new fusion centers marks a cultural shift from the Cold War era. Back then, spies treated everyone, other departments and agencies included, as suspicious.
"Things have changed remarkably in Washington. We are talking to each other," Allen said Tuesday. "I am from the shadows of the CIA where in the Cold War, we followed a different model. That model does not apply for the kinds of threats we have today that are borderless. The threats are so different and so remarkably dangerous for our citizens."
The fifty or so U.S. fusion centers are where the federal, state and local cops share intelligence, sift data for clues, run down reports of suspicious packages and connect dots in an effort to detect and thwart terrorism attacks, drug smuggling and gang fighting.
Privacy and civil liberties groups are increasingly suspicious of the fusion centers, but state and local officials have complained for years that the feds don't share any useful information. The 9/11 Commission agreed, blaming the CIA and FBI's lack of information-sharing for wasted chances to stop the airline hijackings. The commission strongly urged they change their ways and put holes in so-called "stove pipes." And in 2007, the Democrats boosted fusion centers' stature and funding in the first bill they passed after taking control of Congress.
More than $130 million federal dollars have fed the development of the fusion centers in locations as diverse as Kansas and Northern California.
On Tuesday, San Francisco police chief Heather Fong said the information flow was getting better, especially around big events being held in the city.
"When we get information, it's not how much can we amass and keep to ourselves," Fong said. "It's how much information can we obtain but appropriately share so that it positively assists others in doing their jobs around the country and the world."
(Continued here.)
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