Fusion center update, what we're heading for?

by: ACLU of WV

Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 14:14:36 PM EDT

The Washington Post has an article out today getting into the details about Marylanders who were illegally spied upon by the Maryland State Police. From the article:

Police Superintendent Terrence B. Sheridan revealed at a legislative hearing that the surveillance operation, which targeted opponents of the death penalty and the Iraq war, was far more extensive than was known when its existence was disclosed in July. The department started sending letters of notification Saturday to the activists, inviting them to review their files before they are purged from the databases, Sheridan said.

The Maryland Affiliate and National ACLU have been all over this and have also shed a great deal of light on how "lists," Fusion Centers, and other mechanisms of domestic spying more often than not provide nothing more than the opposite of what they are supposed to. You should really read the article. The unapologetic nature of the Authorities is astounding:

Sheridan said protest groups were also entered as terrorist organizations in the databases, but his staff has not identified which ones. Stunned senators pressed Sheridan to apologize to the activists for the spying, assailed in an independent review last week as "overreaching" by law enforcement officials who were oblivious to their violation of the activists' rights of free expression and association. The letter, obtained by The Washington Post, does not apologize but admits that the state police have "no evidence whatsoever of any involvement in violent crime" by those classified as terrorists.

This is the kind of stuff "Fusion Centers" can lead to. Essentially, what you had here was nothing short of domestic intelligence gathering of anti-war advocates and those opposed to the Death Penalty. There seems as if there is an obvious level of Federal coordination and cooperation to is as well. 

It really is outrageous and the scary thing is, the same mechanisms that allowed this to happen in Maryland have a foothold here in West Virginia  (i.e. There is a Fusion Center in West Virginia, and despite two Freedom of Information Act requests, we have not been able to get any information into what it is they are doing).