Vol. 73/No. 31      August 17, 2009

Napolitano stressed the importance of getting more individuals on the lookout for “suspicious” packages and “unusual activities,” and promptly reporting them to government authorities. The administration’s approach also calls for a more coordinated sharing of “intelligence” data among federal, state, and local cop agencies.

She denied that the plan was essentially an appeal for everyone to become snitches. There’s a “balance to be struck,” Napolitano said, between identifying “suspicious activities” and creating “a culture of everybody spying on one another.” However, the goal, she emphasized, is to get “in a constant state of preparedness and not a constant state of fear.”

“The place we start is the work of engaging the American people in our collective effort,” said Napolitano. “For too long we’ve treated the public as a liability to be protected rather than an asset in our nation’s collective security.”

She held up several well known frame-up cases as examples. In one case she claimed “an attentive store clerk” told authorities about men trying to duplicate “extremist DVDs.” This led federal agents to round up five young men who were convicted last December of “conspiring” to attack soldiers at Ft. Dix, New Jersey, she said.

In fact, the trial of the Ft. Dix Five, as they became known by supporters of their defense, revealed that the government’s entire case was built on entrapment by paid informants.

The “breadth of the threat” should not just be focused on New York City, Washington, D.C., or a few other urban areas, she said, pointing to recent arrests in Minneapolis and North Carolina.

The grand jury indictments of Somalis from Minneapolis and Seattle for “conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure” people in foreign countries was recently made public. In North Carolina, seven men were arrested July 27 and charged with “plotting” terrorism abroad.  
 
Intelligence ‘fusion centers’
The Homeland Security secretary pointed to the 70 state-run intelligence “fusion centers,” which began under the Bush administration, as “critical” to fighting “terrorism.” The centers allow cops from federal agencies such as the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to share information through common databases with the 780,000 cops spread out across 18,000 state, local, and tribal agencies nationwide.

In addition to these “fusion centers,” Homeland Security “will be collaborating with the Department of Justice and the FBI in more than 100 joint terrorism task forces across the country,” said Napolitano.

Also being expanded is 287(g), a program initiated in 1996 under the Clinton administration. It gives local police authority to check immigration status of those they arrest. Since 2006 deputized officers have identified more than 120,000 undocumented workers nationwide, reported the Los Angeles Times.

While in New York Napolitano visited “Ground Zero” and took a ride in a subway car with Mayor Michael Bloomberg. She announced that $35 million in federal stimulus funds is being granted to hire 120 more cops to be deployed in the city’s subways.
 
 
Related articles:
Frame-up case against Cuban 5: A travesty of justice
Army spied on group in Washington State  
 
 
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