"We don’t spy on Americans, just anti-government Americans"

[Alan C.]

Fusion center director: We don’t spy on Americans, just anti-government Americans

Law enforcement intelligence-processing fusion centers have long come
under attack for spying on Americans. The Arkansas director wanted to
clarify the truth: centers only spies on some Americans – those who
appear to be a threat to the government.

In trying to clear up the ‘misconceptions’ about the conduct of
fusion centers, Arkansas State Fusion Center Director Richard Davis
simply confirmed Americans’ fears: the center does in fact
spy on Americans – but only on those who are suspected to be
‘anti-government’.

“The misconceptions are that we are conducting spying
operations on US citizens, which is of course not a fact. That is
absolutely not what we do,” he told the NWA Homepage, which
supports KNWA-TV and Fox 24.

After claiming that his office ‘absolutely’ does not spy on
Americans, he proceeded to explain that this does not apply to
those who could be interpreted as a ‘threat’ to national security.
Davis said his office places its focus on international plots,
“domestic terrorism and certain groups that are anti-government.
We want to kind of take a look at that and receive that
information.”

. . .

...with a record-high number of anti-government groups, fusion
centers may be spying on more Americans than ever before – or at
least, have the self-proclaimed right to do so.

“I do what I do because of what happened on 9/11,” Davis
said. “There’s this urge and this feeling inside that you want
to do something, and this is a perfect opportunity for me.”

But Davis’ argument is flawed: in order to determine whether or
not someone is considered a threat to national security, fusion
centers would first have to spy on Americans to weed out the
suspected individuals, and then proceed to spy on the
‘anti-government’ individuals further.

Across the US, fusion centers have reported on individuals who conducted ‘crimes’ like putting political stickers in public bathrooms or participating in movements against the death penalty. In October, the bipartisan Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations finished a two-year investigation on fusion centers, only to find that the centers had directly violated constitutionally protected civil liberties.

“In reality, the Subcommittee investigation found that the
fusion centers often produced irrelevant, useless or inappropriate
intelligence reporting to DHS, and many produced no intelligence
reporting whatsoever,” the report stated.

[Mick Bynes]

"Seems legit."

 

Yeah, it makes sense.  However, I do believe it is a lie.  They spy on Americans, not just anti-government Americans.  Besides, those anti-government Americans they speak of are anti-corrupt government.  Someone said that in one of the comments in the article.   Good article.

[Chisleu]

Well we know they spy on us because we are members of an anti-government online community! And we are godless to boot!

[RestoringGuy]

I am reminded of a quote "Snoop on to them as they snoop on to us."