Fusion Centers: Domestic Spying or Sensible Surveillance? *POLICY FORUM Thursday, June 11, 2009 12:00 PM (Luncheon to Follow)*
Featuring *Bruce Fein*, Constitutional Attorney, The Lichfield Group; *Harvey Eisenberg*, Chief, National Security Section, Office of United States Attorney, District of Maryland; and *Michael German*, Policy Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union. Moderated by *Tim Lynch*, Director, Project on Criminal Justice, Cato Institute. The Cato Institute 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20001 Come back to this page to watch the event live. Police departments across the country are starting to create networks of databases called "fusion centers" in an effort to detect and prevent acts of terrorism. The ultimate objective is to create a nationwide reporting system of suspicious behaviors so that the authorities can "connect the dots" before an attack can occur. Civil liberties groups claim these fusion centers are beset with legal and practical problems. One legal problem is that the police should not be opening files on people because they exercised their right to free speech, such as demonstrating against the foreign policies of the United States. One practical problem is that the police are gathering so much mundane information that practically anyone could end up on a list of "suspicious" persons because some official arbitrarily decided to fill out a tip sheet. Join us for a discussion of the pros and cons of this newly proposed system of policing. On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 10:26 PM, VT Sean Lewis <[email protected]>wrote: > > I thought the war against Radical Terrorists > was in Afghanistan, NOT the US > > Sean Lewis > June 10. 2009 > > The Radical Religious Right and Radical Republican Right > are now turning violent like their brethren in the Taliban. > > Like the Taliban the Radical Right feel > law only matters when it works FOR them to > use against their enemies, but to be ignored when > they feel they are being wronged. > > These extremists feel their beliefs are legitimate > because of the extreme voices of talk radio and > TV who fall just LEGALLY short of calling for > violence and death against those who do not > believe in the far Radical Right ideology. > > The KKK, White Supremest, Nazis and skin > heads as well as the Radical Religious Right is > becoming a larger and more vocal force in the > dwindling GOP party. > > If no one begins to challenge the talk media > Right extremists and their ilk from inciting violence > under the false belief they have a constitutional > right to call for violent action against their 'enemies' > the level of violence will only increase, > just like it does all over the world with other radical > and religious extremists. > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
