Ok, so let's talk about this Politico report claiming the DHS is warning of increased antifa attacks.
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That's a lot of fucking scary words unless you've been a government contractor for almost a decade. What's the Virginia Fusion Center?
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Well, it's geocities-era webpage is here: http://www.vsp.state.va.us/FusionCenter/
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And more generally, info on Fusion Centers is available from the DHS here:https://www.dhs.gov/state-and-major-urban-area-fusion-centers …
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Basically, these are information-exchange partnerships to pass info between federal, state, and local authorities. That's it.
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The have no investigative authority. And they don't appear well-funded or well-equipped. VA's receives about a million in grants yearly.
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That's not intel gathering money. And largely fusion centers don't seem well-supported from the DHS. Their big brag is... a VPN.pic.twitter.com/52r4EYHIuI
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But more importantly, how are FCs staffed? Through the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis.pic.twitter.com/nE8EV3njUa
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So that "intelligence report" provided to the city is likely nothing more than info already published in the newspaper and not much else.
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What it looks like to me is local authorities trying to legitimize a nothingburger by funneling it through an agency that can DHS stamp it.
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Fusion centers appear to have no authority to classify people or groups as "domestic extremists." It's simply IC speak to make things scary.
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I used to write shit like this *all the time.* "The information synthesis will provide real-time tactical knowledge to the warfighter."
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That report probably came from VFC Division 3, which is funded by about $150k/yr in grants. Not really CIA shit here.
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But good on Politico for stoking the flames.
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More info: 5 years ago EPIC successfully sued the VFC for trying to infringe on privacy rights.pic.twitter.com/oKQy96SmKK
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Trying to find operating budget from non-DHS sources for the Virginia Fusion Center. Looks to be ~$10m/annually as a guess.
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With that budget, they once dropped a hard-hitting report sourced from... reddithttps://publicintelligence.net/vfc-violent-protesters-reddit/ …
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Fusion centers are not, uh, very useful nor do they represent the will of the DHS. https://www.google.is/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://publicsurveillance.com/papers/FC-Regan_Monahan_Publius.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwjw_Ny4lIfWAhVEUlAKHUIhAeQ4ChAWCDQwAw&usg=AFQjCNE5RzHHWEG0vzsduHoYEUqJqILOew …pic.twitter.com/12rR2nP43y
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If I could pull this shit up in an hour in my spare time, imagine what a Politico reported could have pulled up as part of his job.
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End of conversation
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