Erie Times News today released below article.
(A hagmanpi cookie is on my machine. It keeps coming back! Ahhh!)
Shortly after Sept 11, 2001, Erie private eye Douglas Hagmann took on the most daunting case of his career — trying to crack Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network. The work he has done since has made him an independent terrorism expert to some and a conspiracy-theory crackpot to others.
Doug Hagmann is a local private eye who has a web site that claims to track terrorist activity. (Janet B. Campbell)
For Hagmann's part, he says he's just trying to prevent more terrorist attacks against Americans at home and abroad.
Hagmann, 44, has established the Northeast Intelligence Network, a team of investigators and sources from around the globe who track terrorist activity.
"It's a labor of love," said Hagmann, who operates Hagmann Investigative Services in Erie. "We don't believe we are going to save the world, but every little bit does help."
The Northeast Intelligence Network has a Web site at www.homelandsecurityus.com that provides up-to-the-minute terrorism alerts.
The site is gaining exposure.
Hagmann has been a regular guest on the syndicated late-night radio show Coast-to-Coast and he claims the site is viewed daily by local, state, and federal law enforcement personnel.
Over the course of a week, the site gets between 660,000 and 1 million hits, Hagmann said.
"Thank you for this independent statement of evidence in a format that I can understand," Michael Ruhaak, a former Colorado police officer who now works as a retail fraud investigator, wrote in an e-mail to Hagmann. "What I read at times frightened me, but I really believe that if we know what's going on we are more empowered to stop future attacks against us."
In further e-mail correspondence with the Erie Times-News, Ruhaak said the Web site is a good alternative to the information about terrorism that is provided by the government.
Yet, others see Hagmann and his colleagues as conspiracy theorists whose efforts will only serve to feed the paranoia about further attacks.
"Ever wonder what happened to all those Y2K gloom-and-doom sayers?" wrote Detroit Free Press columnist Mike Wendland in a Nov. 17 column. "They're still at it, this time with a new cause."
Wendland singled out Hagmann's Northeast Intelligence Network as "among the most vocal" organizations forwarding conspiracy theories and grim predictions.
"It's like what happened during the height of the Y2K worries, when some predicted the world as we knew it would come to an end because the computers couldn't handle the turnover from 1999 to 2000," Wendland wrote. "Well, the computers didn't crash. The world didn't end. And after the terror attacks of 2001, the paranoia crowd adopted terrorism as their new cause."
Hagmann dismisses such criticism.
He claims he's not paranoid, but rather realistic. And he said he knows too much to remain silent about the possibility of future terrorism.
"People like (Wendland) suffer from reality-deficit disorder," Hagmann said. "After Sept. 11, I find it absurd that anyone could criticize our efforts or classify us as feeding into the paranoia crowd. ... The average person doesn't realize we are in a war currently. I don't think they realize what a huge threat is out there."
The seeds for the Northeast Intelligence Network were planted as Hagmann watched the television coverage of the World Trade Center towers toppling.
Eager to find some way to help, Hagmann started contacting some sources he knew within the military and intelligence community.
Since then, the core group of the Northeast Intelligence Network has grown to eight people scattered around the world.
About 15 others provide support and information on a regular basis.
Through monitoring Web sites, e-mail exchanges, chat rooms and gathering human intelligence, the team tries to wade through the rhetoric to glean what might be reliable information about impending attacks.
"Certainly we understand there is a lot of noise and misinformation out there," Hagmann said. "We try to trace things back to the source to find out where the information originates. If it's a cleric or sheik in London that carries a lot more weight than an anonymous poster spewing rhetoric."
Hagmann said information they deem credible is passed to local, state and federal law enforcement and intelligence officials.
"The things we submit are to the people on the streets — front-line law enforcement personnel," Hagmann said. "The upper-level personnel is less receptive to the information we turn over. We know for a fact that a lot of the stuff we turn over can be useless, but maybe one piece will stop an attack."
The Web site, which launched last spring, only includes information that will not compromise an ongoing investigation, Hagmann said.
Hagmann said the Northeast Intelligence Network correctly warned of an assassination attempt against Islamic cleric Al-Hakim about 48 hours before he was killed in a bomb attack in Iraq.
"I will admit that our information was not specific in terms of location and date, but it did happen," said Hagmann.
Currently, the group is warning that it has intercepted information that terrorists may try to destroy a Muslim shrine and blame it on the United States in hopes of increasing anger toward the U.S.
In addition to possibly thwarting attacks, Hagmann said his hope is that the Web site will raise awareness about the potential threats of terrorism.
"It's amazing to me the American public pays more attention to the Laci Peterson case in a voyeuristic sort of way when they don't seem to realize the continuing threat to the safety and welfare of the country," Hagmann said. "As long as there is a threat and we continue to prove ourselves useful, we'll continue doing this. Once we are no longer needed, then we will quit."
