In the wake of concerns over the Missouri Information Analysis Center's strategic report on The Modern Militia Movement , Libertarians and other Americans concerned with increasing government are now discovering that there have been disquieting questions about the operations of such centers for years . The Libertarian Party of Missouri has demanded an immediate apology from the State of Missouri : “Not only is this assertion baseless, it is outrageous and very dangerous,” stated Missouri LP spokesman Mike Ferguson, who was also the national field director for the Barr presidential campaign in 2008. “It is also misleading. Libertarians oppose the violence, racism and extremism of the ‘militant militia’ that MIAC expresses concern about. Anyone who understands basic libertarian thought knows we adamantly oppose any violence for political purposes.” “The evidence is not offered because it is not there,” explained Ferguson, “the claims amount to political profiling. The Missouri Libert...

I get sick and tired of the repetitive nature of viral, repeating internet stories that fail to add anything new to a story besides innuendo and personal spin. This is particularly the case since all the MSM outlets and most of the blogs are now running with pretty much only the brief Columbia Daily Tribune story on the issue of that controverisal Missouri Information Analysis Center report on the Modern Militia Movement . Let's start there, however, because what interests me is the official response to the story: State law enforcement officials said the report is being misinterpreted. Lt. John Hotz of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said the report was compiled by the Missouri Information Analysis Center based in Jefferson City and comes purely from publically available, trend data on militias . Hotz said MIAC, which opened in 2005, is a “fusion center” that combines resources from the federal Department of Homeland Security and other agencies. It was set up to collect local...

Unlike the Missouri Information Anaylysis Center, the Delaware fusion center (Delaware Information Analysis Center) flies mostly below the public radar. Since opening in late 2005, news stories about DIAC have been sparse, partly because investigative reporting in the First State is a non sequiteur, and partly because Captain William Harris (who oversees the center) is a bright guy who understands that it is in his best interest to operate quietly. Harris did make one interesting comment in the only News Journal story to appear on DIAC, back in May 2007: The facility, known as the DIAC, opened in December 2005 with help from a $925,000 grant from the federal Department of Homeland Security to buy high-powered computers, software and other equipment. It is overseen by Delaware State Police Capt. Bill Harris, who asked that its exact location, somewhere between Dover and Smyrna, not be disclosed.... "The fusion process is to take law enforcement information and other information -...

In order to win anybody over to the notion that government at all levels from local to national can be made smaller through the political process you've got three primary hurdles to clear: 1. You've got to convince people that larger government impairs their ability to lead whatever kind of life they desire. 2. You've got to convince them that a smaller government could actually handle the critical, essential tasks of governing. 3. You've got to convince them that making the change will be worth the potential loss of government benefits that they might now be enjoying. I'm going to punt on Number 1 right now, because I'm working on a larger, strategic approach to that. So let's look at Number 2, first from the Federal perspective, and let's not take an easy one: begin with homeland security. I want you to think about this: in Al Qaeda we face a decentralized enemy that is as flexible in its tactics as it is inflexible in its religious/political be...

From The Pitch : Today, Missouri Department of Public Safety Director John Britt sent a letter to the candidates named in the memo [Chuck Baldwin, Ron Paul, and Bob Barr], acknowledging that references to specific political candidates or third party political organizations should not have been made and are unnecessary in the effort to stopping violent extremist groups. Director Britt states in the letter: "In recognition of the mistaken inclusion of this information by the MIAC in its February 20, 2009 report on the militia movement, I have ordered that the offending report be edited so as to excise all reference to Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin and to any third-party political organizations . Additionally, you may rest assured that the report is not posted on any website maintained by the State of Missouri. "The Missouri Department of Public Safety regrets any inconvenience or issues caused inadvertently by the unnecessary inclusion of certain components by MIAC in...

Sometimes we all laugh (a bit nervously perhaps) at the idea that Google eventually wants to have access to every piece of information on Earth. We should not be laughing, however, at the intention of the Delaware Information Analysis Center (1575 McKee Road, Dover) to eventually have access to every piece of information about Delaware. It is a lot closer to happening than you think. For example, as I have covered here before, the DIAC offered a mobile app available for you to download that would allow you to report the "suspicious" behavior of your friends and neighbors in realtime, but which also did oh so much more : After installation of the app, the fusion center can manipulate the camera application on a phone whenever it is running, allowing it "at any time to collect images the camera is seeing." The app can also tell the fusion center exactly where you are at all times, because by downloading it you've given it permission to monitor your GPS l...

I really hate to keep following this issue, but it's not going to die by itself. Some of our blogger friends have become--not to put too fine a point on it--somewhat unhinged by the idea of nefarious sleeper cells of gun-owning, bible-toting, constitution-quoting social conservatives organizing to oppose the current administration. Words like un-American , treason and sedition are getting thrown around in some places with great abandon, by people who are in turn feeling so threatened by Glenn Beck/Chuck Norris groupies that they're beginning to think that somebody ought to be doing something about these nuts ... Well, apparently somebody is. From PrisonPlanet : Alex Jones has received a secret report distributed by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) entitled “The Modern Militia Movement” and dated February 20, 2009. A footer on the document indicates it is “unclassified” but “law enforcement sensitive,” in other words not for public consumption. A copy of the re...

I started with what the MIAC fusion center report on the modern militia movement , which made me think about privacy issues with regard the fusion centers nationwide , which led me to thinking about the Delaware Information Analysis Center . A parallel train of thought that I have been running for a long time: the incestuous relationship between government and corporate elites and the problems with eliminating the $750m Delaware budget . I know, I know, this is a tangled web, so I'm going take a sort of connect-the-dots tour of the facts you need to know in order to get it. The subject: Lewis D. Schiliro, Delaware Secretary of Safety and Homeland Security Fact One : Schiliro was an FBI bigwig among FBI bigwigs. A classmate at the FBI Academy of Louis Freeh, Schiliro followed Freeh upward through the ranks until he became Director of the New York City Field Office. He had leadership roles in investigating such high-profile cases as the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the...

For all of our friends who placed so much immediate stock in the hopelessly flawed DHS report on Rightwing extremism , maybe it would be a cautionary suggestion to take a look at where else DHS and our Federally supported fusion centers are seeing potential domestic terrorism. The ACLU reports the following : A May 7, 2008 report entitled “Universal Adversary Dynamic Threat Assessment” authored by a private contractor that labeled environmental organizations like the Sierra Club, the Humane Society and the Audubon Society as “mainstream organizations with known or possible links to eco-terrorism” ; A potential abuse of authority by DHS officials who improperly monitored and disseminated the communications of peace activists affiliated with the DC Anti-War Network (DAWN) ; A report produced on February 19, 2009 by the North Central Texas Fusion System entitled “Prevention Awareness Bulletin” which described a purported conspiracy between Muslim civil rights organizations, lobbying gro...

Interesting in the light of current events: A law enforcement agency whose leaked report suggesting militia members tend to favor certain political candidates sparked outrage among conservatives has no immediate plans to compile other such intelligence reports, an official said Wednesday. Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. James Keathley told a special House committee that the intelligence assessments compiled by the Missouri Information Analysis Center, which is part of the Highway Patrol, contain valuable information but that there were no immediate plans to draft new reports. "I don't know if we will ever get back in the business of producing strategic reports to be very honest with you," Keathley told committee members. "This report created us a lot of harm, a lot of problems. I'm not going to stand here and say anything other than that, we all know that's why we're all here." I give Keathley a lot of credit here, even this late in the game. But...

Here. But we exposed the problem in detail three years ago.

Look, quite frankly I’m tired of people who are carefully calculated about their views, and who will not stand up and talk about exactly what they’d like to see happen. I’m also trying to clarify exactly what I do believe, thinking of myself as I do as a Pragmatic Libertarian. So while I could probably never be a winning candidate even for dog-catcher with this agenda, and while it conflicts in many places with the National Libertarian Party’s Platform (or, I think it will, once they get their heads out of their asses and adopt one), this is my work in progress. Feel free to criticize, add, suggest, laugh, vomit. . . . . As for you Libertarians, ask yourselves where Bob Barr or Mike Gravel stand on most of these issues.... National Issues Foreign and Military Policy: 1. Repudiate the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war. Our country survived the Cold War, with a nuclear arsenal aimed at us that was large enough to incinerate 100,000,000 Americans in a single evening, and we did not sink t...