http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/09/26/fusion_center_takes_aim _at_terror?mode=PF
Fusion Center takes aim at terror But secrecy alarms civil libertarians By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff | September 26, 2005 FRAMINGHAM -- Three miles down the road from Shoppers World, in a nondescript office inside State Police headquarters, a team of young intelligence analysts is launching a new front against terrorism. Called the Commonwealth Fusion Center, the operation was funded by the state last fall and officially opened in May with a mission: to provide statewide information sharing among local, state, and federal public-safety agencies and the private sector in coordinating intelligence against terrorism. In a secretive operation that is alarming civil-liberties advocates, 18 civilian analysts examine criminal data and 23 intelligence officers -- State Police troopers who have the power to arrest -- work in the field. Raytheon Co. won a $2.2 million contract to develop intelligence-sharing software for the state that aims to integrate databases and help analysts root out criminal trends. The Fusion Center received more than $3 million from the federal and state governments this year, excluding salaries for the 23 intelligence officers and Major Robert Smith, the center's leader, who are paid by the State Police, according to Katie Ford, spokeswoman for the state Executive Office of Public Safety. Another $1.7 million in state money has been allocated for 2006, and the Commonwealth is directing $10 million in federal funds to regional efforts to upgrade technology to communicate with the Fusion Center's. Fusion centers are an emerging trend nationwide, and at least a half-dozen states have established such centers in recent years. Last year Governor Mitt Romney, who chairs an intelligence-sharing group for the Homeland Security advisory council, called for a national network of state-based fusion centers. ''American law enforcement at the state and local levels have never done this kind of thing before," Smith said. But what politicians regard as a vital technological defense against possible terrorist threats, civil libertarians view as an expensive new Big Brother. The American Civil Liberties Union is raising concerns about the potential for the center to use the new database to gather and store information on private citizens. The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request in May seeking Fusion Center policies, some of which are still being developed, said Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. An advisory committee that will oversee the Fusion Center has not yet been appointed, Ford said. ''We need to have transparency," Rose said. ''There's all sorts of questions about whether this is good from a civil-liberties perspective or public-policy perspective. Is it going to create a new level of bureaucracy? Is that more effective or less effective?" Smith said the Fusion Center will hew to a privacy policy in federal regulations that prohibits criminal intelligence from being collected unless there is reasonable suspicion of a crime. According to those regulations, intelligence agencies cannot collect information on people's political, religious, or social views unless it is relevant to that crime. ''It's not a system that we're putting into place to spy on people. We really aren't," Smith said. Similarly, state Public Safety Secretary Edward Flynn insisted that the center is not overstepping its bounds. ''The Fusion Center analyzes criminal information already collected in the ordinary course of police business," Flynn said in a letter to the editor of the Globe this summer. Analysts will have rapid access to financial information about individuals suspected of a crime, Smith said, ''but we always have had access to it. If there's a predicated criminal offense, we can do searches." Last week, state officials allowed a Globe reporter to visit the center, which is accessible only to analysts who work there and three high-ranking members of the State Police. Inside, the 1,600-square-foot office is mundane, outfitted with 23 narrow work stations. Five flat-screen televisions monitoring local and national news cover one wall, and in the room are a conference table, mini-refrigerators, a microwave, and toaster oven. Someone brought in a bundt cake. Analysts' pods are tacked with snapshots of friends and children; there was a wall poster of a kitten. The State Police is looking to expand to a larger facility in Central Massachusetts that could house both a new crime lab and an expanded, 12,000-square-foot Fusion Center with rooms for interviews and training, Smith said. Last month, the center chased 27 tips from residents, police, or other Fusion centers; in July, there were 38 tips, Smith said. Smith declined to provide details about the nature of those tips or whether they were provided by people who have access to people's homes, like meter-readers, as the governor has suggested. (The terrorism tip line, advertised on the state public safety website and by local police departments, is 888-USA-5458.) Speaking generally, Smith said tips include reports of people photographing or videotaping critical infrastructure, flying over potential terrorist threats, or trespassing. Often analysts help debunk rumors of threats, saving authorities time and money, Smith said. After a series of manhole explosions in the North End in August, analysts at the Fusion Center quickly assured officials no terrorist link could be found. They also helped deflate a rumor about MS-13 gang members plotting to kill a law enforcement officer. ''Rumor control is a big thing for us," Smith said. ''After 9/11, everything like that takes on a real nefarious intent. . . .Without that ability to control that rumor, huge resources could be deployed." The center's staff members also help local authorities screen crime data for clues of criminal activity. ''The notion is that by investigating credit card fraud or cigarette smuggling, you might find a chain that goes overseas" and potentially funds terrorist activities, Flynn told the Globe in an interview earlier this month. Analysts also help local departments better assess criminal analysis. When the Springfield Police Department's computer system produced inaccurate crime statistics, a Fusion Center analyst helped work out the bugs and analyze the crime data for more targeted policing. The center is staffed 24-seven with employees taking turns as watch officer as well as phone and TV news monitors, said supervisory security analyst, Lisa Palmieri. Each analyst specializes in four areas. For example, Palmieri, 43, oversees Hezbollah, government facilities and airports, Eurasian organized crime, and human trafficking. The president of the International Association of Law Enforcement Analysts, Palmieri previously worked in Army intelligence and insurance investigations. She and several other Fusion Center analysts were recruited from the New England State Police Information Network, one of six regional centers funded by the US Department of Justice that shares intelligence on criminal networks and helps local police departments analyze crime. Boston and eight surrounding towns are also forming a regional fusion center. Critics say the fusion centers are unnecessary bureaucracy. Christopher H. Pyle, a former Army intelligence officer who exposed the military's surveillance of citizens during the 1960s and 1970s and who now is a professor of politics at Mount Holyoke College, said that the FBI's Boston office would be better suited for the job than the State Police. ''It creates the illusion that we're doing something. But it's only a illusion," Pyle said. ''What we're doing is wasting money. It's a justification for getting more grants from the Department of Homeland Security." <http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/File-Based_Image_Resource/dingbat_story_ end_icon.gif> <http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/File-Based_Image_Resource/spacer.gif> C Copyright <http://www.boston.com/help/bostoncom_info/copyright> 2005 The New York Times Company [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! 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