Analysis: Militia report unites ACLU, Republicans

BND.COM ^ | 04/05/2009 | DAVID A. LIEB

[NotQuiteCricket]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Republican Party and the American Civil Liberties Union finally have found common ground.

Both are outraged by a recently leaked report by the Missouri Information Analysis Center - an office that compiles and distributes homeland security information - that describes the characteristics of potential militia members.

Among other things, the report claims militia members usually are supporters of third-party political groups and "often subscribe to the ideology of other right-wing extremist movements."

[NotQuiteCricket]

This is from an AP writer, so I have excerpted his article. Now, this is the only article after a cursory search that is not from an avowed right wing ~snort website. It is even fairly balanced. As a Texan, I am heartened to hear that Texas identified left wing groups as possible terrorists.

The threat assessments have been done by FUSION centers (whatever that is, never heard of it before, apparently a post 9/11 fed/state department).

The Fusion centers are apparently gathering intelligence and analyzing it at the state level, and then disseminating the information among other fusion centers at the state level, with reports going to DHS.

This is just a guess.

[Lobbyist]

Most, if not all, of the MIAC report information came from the Southern Poverty Law Center. So I don’t understand why the ACLU doesn’t have a problem with them as well.

[Crim]

Ah....so the ACLU is only upset that LEFTIST groups were included...not that right wing gruops were...

[militant2]

Conservatives and the American Commie Lovers Union partnering up is like matches and gasoline....

Don’t believe it for a second!

Militant

[Star Traveler]

Well, the ACLU does fight against unwarranted searches, which should come in handy if Obama directs the government in that direction towards some conservatives.... :-)

[TYVets]

I fly The Marine Corps flag under Old Glory.

Take down my Marine Corps flag?

Only from my cold dead hands!

St Louis, Kansas City and Jeff City want to turn into Southwest Chicago.

[Smogger]

Intelligence Fusion Centers?

I'm not so sure I like the sound of that.

[HelloooClareece]

Is this the same report that maintains that if someone believes in the 10th amendment they might be a right-wing extremist militia member?

[Jonah Hex]

That's a military intelligence term. Intel fusion is where you take information gathered from various sources (signals intel, imagery intel, photo intel, human intel, open-source intel, etc.), throw it against a wall, and try to fuse together a picture of what sticks.

The art is, separating the wheat from the dross. A good intel weenie can pick out one factoid from a pile of sources, and chase it down to make an operational picture.

On the other hand, a good intel weenie can spoof the other side by doing the same. As an example, consider John Magruder's amateur theatrics (Quaker guns, extra campfires, mock regimental parades, etc.) at Yorktown and the impact on McClellans's decision to delay his attack.