Philadelphia's Fusion Center wasted $20 million in taxpayer dollars and it's still not operational.
A Philadelphia-based anti-terror hub is now six years in the making, having already costs tens of millions of dollars, but isn't even operating yet. (City Of Philadelphia Bill # 10046)
The building in South Philadelphia has been singled out as a prime example of questionable homeland security spending.
"Maybe we're just spending too much money and not getting the return on investment," Edward Turzanski, Assistant Vice President for Government and Community Relations at LaSalle University, said.
The most disturbing aspect of this is that even if it was operational, it would likely still be churning out garbage data (improperly labeled “intelligence”), as was found by a Senate panel earlier this year which concluded that these types of fusion centers produce “predominantly useless information” and “a bunch of crap.”
This conclusion was hardly surprising since previous reports indicated that fusion centers produce largely useless intelligence.
The official name for the yet-to-be-operational fusion center in Philadelphia is the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center (DVIC) which, according to WPVI, would “bring local, state and federal agencies, along with private industry, under one roof to gather and share intelligence.”
The mention of private industry is interesting, since it's often ignored by most mainstream media outlets.
The DVIC will perform the role of a regional Fusion Center. The Center will support and enhance the activities of the numerous investigative and operational bodies currently functioning in these states by enabling them to have the best available information and assessments of that information.
Using an “All Crimes Model” that supports the migration, processing and integration of data from a myriad of loosely federated sources, the DVIC will develop actionable intelligence and get it to the right people in a timely fashion so that it can be used against designated adversaries with assurance. (Who are these adversaries? Do they mean activists, bloggers?)
Some legislators have begun to express concern about fusion centers like DVIC. One such individual is Congressman Pat Meehan, chair of the Subcommittee on Counter Terrorism and Intelligence.
“Does it start to become something that looks for a mission to justify itself?” Meehan asked. Unfortunately, it seems that the answer to Meehan’s question is a strong yes.
DVIC is slated to house 130 employees and WPVI rightly asks, “what exactly will those 130 employees be doing every day?”
They note that currently the much smaller DVIC unit churns out bulletins with one example being “warning of a hazard to children from swallowing detergent packs that look like candy,” something which obviously has nothing to do with terrorism.
“Not the kind of thing that should be justifying this kind of investment, no doubt,” Meehan said.
According to WPVI, last month’s bipartisan senate report singled out the DVIC as “a prime example of lax oversight and waste.”
The report said that the money is being improperly devoted to new construction and that Philadelphia is planning to use the DVIC for other police services, a use which is obviously not in line with the supposed purpose of such fusion centers.
The anti-terrorism hub was “supposed to be a state-of-the-art intelligence center, but some are calling it a wasteful white elephant,” according to David Henry of local ABC affiliate WPVI in PA.
Henry goes on to cite the tragic events of September 11, 2001 as the “9/11 was the wakeup call that government agencies need to share intelligence about possible terror activity.” The only problem is that fusion centers do nothing to actually produce or share intelligence about possible terror activity.
In fact, fusion centers more often than not simply churn out virulent disinformation like the so-called MIAC Report. It doesn’t help that State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training (SLATT) programs reinforce the nonsensical ideas in the MIAC Report by claiming that bumper stickers are an indicator of potential terrorist activity.
When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) puts out information claiming that pretty much all bodily movement is an indicator of potential terrorism, by comparison a bumper sticker looks almost reasonable.
Nowadays, just about everything you can possibly do can and perhaps will be considered an indicator of terrorism according to the DHS, FBI and the various fusion centers.
The Philadelphia fusion center was granted $11 million by the DHS, according to WPVI, and the city approved another $9 million for the lease, bringing the total to at least $20 million for a still non-operational fusion center.
http://endthelie.com/2012/11/28/six-years-tens-of-millions-of-dollars-and-philadelphias-fusion-center-still-isnt-operational/#axzz2Dc7A2YWX
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/special_reports&id=8891872