Public Advocacy Is Not a Crime
By Mike German
Published 04/01/09

What do former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney have in common with former presidential candidates Ron Paul and Bob Barr? Not their politics, certainly. But they do share a commitment to public service and a willingness to challenge the political status quo with bold stands on controversial ideas. These honorable traits, which are essential to a functioning democracy, have helped them establish themselves as effective advocates for social reform both in and out of public office. But the courage to stand up and represent unique viewpoints also gave each of them a less-than-honorable distinction of being named in fusion center intelligence bulletins purporting to describe threats to our domestic security.

Fusion centers are state, local and regional intelligence centers, funded and staffed in part by the federal government, that represent the latest manifestation of a growing national surveillance apparatus. They were originally created to increase terrorism-related information sharing between state, local and federal law enforcement, the intelligence community, the military and the private sector. Over time the mission for these centers has expanded to encompass "all crimes and all hazards," an overbroad and ill-defined mandate. The analysts working in fusion centers have access to a vast amount of information about their fellow Americans, from criminal intelligence records complied at the state, local, and federal levels, to other government records and even data held by private data aggregators. These analysts might be sworn state and local law enforcement officers, FBI agents, Department of Homeland Security officials, National Guardsmen, active-duty military or even employees of private companies. The ACLU warned about the risks these new intelligence operations posed to privacy and civil liberties in a report issued in November 2007, and updated in July 2008.

One of the major problems we identified was the secrecy that shrouded fusion centers from public accountability. It's dangerous in a democracy for the government to know more about the citizenry than the citizenry knows about the government. But thanks to a few recent press leaks, we can now get a glimpse of the intelligence products being produced by fusion centers. In February 2009 the North Central Texas Fusion System issued a "Prevention Awareness Bulletin" that featured former Attorney General Clark and Representative McKinney as part of a conspiracy to spread "tolerance" in the United States, which would provide "an environment for terrorist organizations to flourish." The other conspirators included Muslim civil rights organizations, lobbyists, "international far Left groups," the U.S. Treasury Department and hip-hop bands.

On the other side of the political spectrum, the Missouri Fusion Center released a report the same month on "the modern militia movement" that claimed militia members are "usually supporters" of presidential candidates Ron Paul and Bob Barr. These reports would be laughable except that they come with the imprimatur of federally-sponsored intelligence operations. Implicit in these bulletins, which are disseminated to a multitude of law enforcement and non-law enforcement agencies, is that people who support these individuals, or the ideas they espouse, should be considered as potential threats to security. It's impossible to know if any action was taken in response to these reports, but it is clear that they were intended to influence law enforcement decisions. The Texas fusion center declared it "imperative" that law enforcement officers report the activities of lobbying groups to the fusion center. Reports like this don't just impinge on the rights of those falsely accused, they undermine democracy by chilling free speech and association and they actually harm security by wasting resources and misdirecting law enforcement efforts against real threats.

Public outrage over these reports has drawn a response. The Missouri Highway Patrol has reportedly ceased distribution of the Missouri militia document, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent officials to the Texas fusion center to provide remedial training. But closing the barn door after the horses are gone is not a sufficient solution. Domestic intelligence operations have a troubled history in the United States and no new intelligence apparatus should have been built without the proper guidelines and oversight necessary to prevent this type of abuse. The fact is we simply don't know how many other fusion center reports which have not yet become public published the same sort of misleading smears and innuendos. It is one thing for famous politicians but what about the other groups named in these reports, that can't possibly clear their names from the taint of being labeled a suspected terrorist? How do they recover their reputations and how do they continue their work to forward their ideas in an environment where the government has labeled them a potential threat? The network of fusion centers is more than just a sum of its parts. Someone has to take responsibility for policing their activities and ensuring the information they distribute is accurate, appropriately collected, and relevant to actually improving the security of our communities.

In its seminal decision on the limits of domestic surveillance for national security purposes in the Keith case, the Supreme Court warned that, "[h]istory abundantly documents the tendency of Government -- however benevolent and benign its motives -- to view with suspicion those who most fervently dispute its policies." Knowing this tendency we must tightly restrict law enforcement's authority to gather and disseminate information about our political and religious beliefs. Liberty cannot exist without the freedom to dissent, and any suppression of dissent must be confronted as an attempt to suppress liberty. While we don't all have to agree with what Ramsey Clark, Cynthia McKinney, Ron Paul, or Bob Barr have to say, we must stand together to defend their right to say it and we should applaud them along with all the other courageous souls who dare to speak truth to power.


Mike German is a Policy Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington Legislative Office. Prior to joining the ACLU German served sixteen-years as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where he specialized in domestic terrorism and covert operations. German currently serves as an adjunct professor for Law Enforcement and Terrorism at the National Defense University and is a Senior Fellow with GlobalSecurity.org. German is the author of Thinking Like a Terrorist, which was published in January 2007. German has a B.A. in Philosophy from Wake Forest University and a J.D. from Northwestern University Law School.


http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=38

( Uh oh, I linked to Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty website...)