The American Civil Liberties Union is not happy.
Late yesterday, they issued a statement blasting a law enforcement intelligence bulletin that they say, basically, encourages police to unnecessarily hassle pro-Muslim lobbying groups and anti-war activists.
So what's all the fuss about?
At issue is an item in the Feb. 19 "Prevention Awareness Bulletin," created by the North Central Texas Fusion System, warning law enforcement about Islamic infiltration in the U.S.
Our local fusion system, located in the Collin County Justice Center in McKinney, is one of 58 such operations around the country. Overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, it is a product of the post-9/11 push to have more inter-agency cooperation and information sharing -- all of which was sorely lacking in the runup to the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The center's massive computers inhale bits of data and intelligence, then analysts package it and pass it along to up to 125 local participating police agencies. More than 3,000 people receive the weekly awareness bulletins, according to the fusion system's site.
The intelligence can range from urgent tips about potential terrorist plots to, for example, an analysis of one county's "animal-agriculture disaster response plan." Bulletins can also include analysis that is basically nothing more than a clip job using open source, or publicly available, Internet articles, which is basically what was included in the Feb. 19 missive.
The bulletin, labeled "for official use only" but leaked on this site, says that "Middle Eastern terrorist groups and their supporting organizations have been successful in gaining support for Islamic goals in the United States and providing an environment for terrorist organizations to flourish."
It cites as an example the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, which is often criticized by conservative and pro-Israel counterterrorism bloggers. Read more ...
Late yesterday, they issued a statement blasting a law enforcement intelligence bulletin that they say, basically, encourages police to unnecessarily hassle pro-Muslim lobbying groups and anti-war activists.
So what's all the fuss about?
At issue is an item in the Feb. 19 "Prevention Awareness Bulletin," created by the North Central Texas Fusion System, warning law enforcement about Islamic infiltration in the U.S.
Our local fusion system, located in the Collin County Justice Center in McKinney, is one of 58 such operations around the country. Overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, it is a product of the post-9/11 push to have more inter-agency cooperation and information sharing -- all of which was sorely lacking in the runup to the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The center's massive computers inhale bits of data and intelligence, then analysts package it and pass it along to up to 125 local participating police agencies. More than 3,000 people receive the weekly awareness bulletins, according to the fusion system's site.
The intelligence can range from urgent tips about potential terrorist plots to, for example, an analysis of one county's "animal-agriculture disaster response plan." Bulletins can also include analysis that is basically nothing more than a clip job using open source, or publicly available, Internet articles, which is basically what was included in the Feb. 19 missive.
The bulletin, labeled "for official use only" but leaked on this site, says that "Middle Eastern terrorist groups and their supporting organizations have been successful in gaining support for Islamic goals in the United States and providing an environment for terrorist organizations to flourish."
It cites as an example the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, which is often criticized by conservative and pro-Israel counterterrorism bloggers. Read more ...
Source: ACLU
H/T: Weasel Zippers
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