| A network for local intelligence in the USA |
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| Wednesday, 10 January 2007 | ||||
 US cities and single states are adopting new policies that are supposed to be determining to detect and disrupt terrorist plots. After that cooperation at a federal level turned out to be quite uneffective, local administrations decided to autonomously develop their own networks of intelligence against terrorism. 37 states are involved in the project and a number of “Fusion centres” has been created. Fusion center" is a military coinage embraced by civilian homeland security authorities after Sept. 11. These organizations were developed to analyze information from local, state and federal law enforcement officials. Now, they are become part of local networks that are linked in a sort of “network of networks” and as White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend declared, they will be incorporated in a program named national Information Sharing Environment (ISE). The White House is also considering whether to increase funding for them in 2008 and to lift a ban on paying for personnel. In spite of its effectiveness , this model has also some negative aspect:s: first of all, each centre is quite independent from federal leadership and training and for this reason they are likely to be distrusted and associated to those independent organizations such as those police "red squads" that many years ago violated an impressive number of civil rights in the name of “homeland security”.The centres, faces another risk: their complete independence could bring about practical problems such as shortage of money or a problematic relationship with the FBI or the Homeland Security Department. The decision to create similar structures seems to come from a new need to involve police in counterterrorism activities. Local police have never had anything to do with such issues but after the attack to the Twin Towers US government realized that their country wasn’t safe and that terrorists could hide even in American cities, towns, villages… That’s why a form of control on a local basis was believed to be necessary . As reported by the Washington Post :Harvey Eisenberg, an assistant U.S. attorney who helps oversee the center, said police and other government employees are being trained to phone its 24-hour "watch section" when they spot suspicious activity. Calls to the terrorism hotline advertised on the Capital Beltway (800-492-TIPS) are also answered by officers in the watch section. "You need to educate cops, firefighters, health officials, transportation officials, sanitation workers, to understand the nature of the threat," Eisenberg said. "And not to become super-spies. . . . Constitutionally, they see something, they can report it." This last statement has a frightening implication.. and this is not just Zone-H opinion! Federal officials emphasize that the centers will be led from the grass roots. Charles E. Allen, chief intelligence officer for the Homeland Security Department, said the centers will be "all hazards, all crime, all threats," targeted not just at terrorism but also at gangs, immigrant smuggling and other threats.
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