Washington Post sheds more light on Fusion Centers in Massachusetts, nationwide

Both here in Massachusetts and across the country, the ACLU has been working to tell more people about the Fusion Centers: massive government clearinghouses of data on all of us. The Washington Post has done a story which sheds more light on exactly what kinds of data the Fusion Centers are pulling together.

One quoted source in the story says, "There is never ever enough information when it comes to terrorism." But there can be. As ACLU Policy Counsel and former FBI Special Agent Mike German has said, when you're looking for a needle in a haystack, it doesn't help to make the haystack bigger. The 9/11 attacks didn't happen because we didn't have the information we needed -- it's that the information we had wasn't followed through on.

Counter-terrorism expert Mike German on Boston-area radio Saturday

As a 16-year federal law enforcement veteran, Mike German knows his stuff. As a former FBI Special Agent, he twice infiltrated neo-Nazi groups (using constitutionally sound methods) to prevent terrorist attacks. But he left the FBI to make Congress and the public aware of deficiencies in U.S. counterterrorism operations.

Today German serves as Policy Counsel for the ACLU and is the author of Thinking Like A Terrorist.

On Saturday, March 29, at 10am, he'll be on the Samantha Clemens Show, 91.5 WMFO Medford, to talk about Fusion Centers, the federally funded domestic intelligence centers that are collecting personal data about all of us, with little or no oversight.

I've heard Mike speak a couple of times, and he does a great job of puncturing the supposed need for the government to sweep away civil liberties in the name of the "War on Terror."

UPDATE:

Audio from the show is available here.

Security breach at the Pentagon

George Jenkins blogs in detail about a huge security breach at the Pentagon last year.

It makes you wonder: if data at the Pentagon, of all places, can't be kept secure, then how can anyone reasonably expect that information held in databases for the Real ID national identity card, or at the Fusion Centers, will be any less vulnerable?

Government Surveillance 101

The Wall Street Journal has provided this excellent overview of government surveillance efforts and the concerns they raise.

Meanwhile, DailyKos blogger mcjoan has just written about the ACLU's reponse to the WSJ article, including more on the scope of the program (at least as much as we know about it) and a Freedom of Information Act request to find out more about aspects of the WSJ story.

Press Release: ACLU of Massachusetts Raises Concern About Latest Demonstration of Personal Data Vulnerability

Reported hacking of MassHealth web site illustrates problems with Fusion Center, Real ID

BOSTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts today voiced concern over reported hacking of the state's MassHealth website. On Wednesday, a hacker reportedly infiltrated the site and put up an unauthorized message.

"Though in this case there seems to be no evidence that personal information has been compromised, the hacking of an important state website is yet another illustration of a serious problem," said Carol Rose, Executive Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts.

"We know that databases of personal information are a fact of modern life, but a long string of security breaches -- notably the TJX breach, as well as examples in both the private and public sector of missing laptops and storage media with thousands of people's personal information -- shows the extreme care that must be taken with personal data," said Rose.

The ACLU of Massachusetts remains highly concerned about security at the Commonwealth Fusion Center -- a massive government data-collection and sharing center in Maynard, Massachusetts -- as well as security for the proposed Real ID national identity card, which would create vast new databases of personal information, including Social Security numbers.

The Fusion Center, established by Governor Romney in 2005, has access to personal information about Massachusetts residents from both public and private sources, yet is subject to no regulation or oversight. Real ID has been criticized as a civil liberties nightmare that violates fundamental privacy rights, and as prohibitively expensive and unwieldy.

“These databases are treasure troves for identity thieves, they are vulnerable to misuse, and to date we have no reason to believe that appropriate safeguards exist or will be put into place," said Rose.

For more information about the Fusion Center, see:
http://www.aclum.org/news/ACLUM_12_12_07_Fusion_Centers.pdf

For more information about Real ID, see:
http://www.realnightmare.org/