In the above post, I refer to the FBI “fusion centers”. For those who went “Huh?” at the term, here’s a good background piece, framed inside an overall theme of the militarization of the police (which I’ve ranted about often before, as it happens). Here’s an excerpt:
Fusion Centers are hubs for local, state and federal police to share information. They’re effectively intelligence-gathering done by various police agencies who pool their resources. While this isn’t an uncommon practice, the Fusion Centers have virtually no oversight and are filled with zeal for the War on Terror. While its primary existence was to surveil in the fight against terrorism, Fusion Centers have quickly ballooned to gather intelligence on just about anything – and it’s not just the police. The military participates in Fusion Centers, as does the private sector, which means they’re a privacy nightmare.
The federal government has pushed Fusion Centers and largely bankrolled them. Hundreds of FBI agents work with Fusion Centers, with the federal government providing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid. In the case of the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center, the federal government created a Fusion Center at the state level, only eventually turning control of an ostensibly state agency to the state. 30 percent of these “state” agencies are physically located in federal office space.
Private sector companies collect, store and analyze data for Fusion Centers. This would be dangerous on its own, but the lack of any oversight makes it particularly troublesome. Even if a private sector has the best of intentions, malicious third-party actors could access some of your most sensitive data if it’s been datamined by a Fusion Center. A company without the best intentions can do all kinds of “government-approved” snooping into your personal affairs.
And there you have it, in a nutshell.
Read the whole thing, because while it may contain a whole bunch of stuff you already know about, there’s no harm in being reminded about it, as I was.
The FBI under Biden was an agency that was weaponized to go after those deemed dissidents by the ruling power Democrats.
I hope Kash Patel uses the info gathering to obtain info on actual criminals.
Is there a compilation of the various Fusion Centers broken down by State?