October 28, 2016


News and Views


1https://www.yahoo.com/news/adopted-3-brought-us-korean-man-deported-222504748.html

Adopted and brought to US, South Korean man to be deported
ANDREW SELSKY, Associated Press
October 27, 2016

Photograph -- FILE - In this March 19, 2015, file photo, Korean adoptee Adam Crapser, left, poses with daughters, Christal, 1, Christina, 5, and his wife, Anh Nguyen, in the family's living room in Vancouver, Wash. After struggling with joblessness because of his lack of immigration papers, homelessness and crime, Crapser, a South Korean man who was flown to the U.S. 37 years ago and adopted by an American couple at age 3 has been ordered deported back to a country that is completely alien to him,
Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Gosia Wozniacka, File)


SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A South Korean man flown to the U.S. 37 years ago and adopted by an American couple at age 3 has been ordered deported back to a country that is completely alien to him.

"It is heartbreaking news," said Dae Joong (DJ) Yoon, executive director of the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium, who had been in contact with Adam Crapser.

Crapser remains confined in an immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington, pending his deportation.

Crapser waived an appeal during the hearing Monday because he is desperate to get out of detention, his Seattle attorney, Lori Walls, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

"I'm sure he doesn't have any idea what he can do in Korea," Yoon said in a phone interview from his group's offices in Annandale, Va.

Crapser's plight mirrors those of thousands of others. Yoon's group says an estimated 35,000 intercountry adoptees lack U. S. citizenship. It is backing legislation in Congress to address that.

Seven years after Crapser and his older sister were adopted, their parents abandoned them. The foster care system separated Crapser when he was 10 from his sister.

He was housed at several foster and group homes. When Crapser was 12, he moved in with Thomas and Dolly Crapser, their biological son, two other adoptees and several foster children.

There, he was physically abused, Crapser has said. In 1991, the couple was arrested on charges of physical child abuse, sexual abuse and rape. They denied the charges. Thomas Crapser's sentence included 90 days in jail, and Dolly Crasper's included three years of probation.

Adam Crapser got into trouble with the law after he broke into his parents' home — it was, he said, to retrieve the Korean Bible and rubber shoes that came with him from the orphanage — and later it was for stealing cars and assaulting a roommate.

Federal immigration officials say they became aware of Crapser after he applied for a green card. His criminal convictions made him deportable.

Becky Belcore, who was adopted at age 1 and brought to the United States from South Korea, said she was with Crapser in the courtroom, located inside the detention center. She said the facility seems worse than jail because visitors cannot touch or hug detainees and must talk to them on a telephone.

"He has been in detention for almost nine months," Belcore said in a phone interview from her home in Chicago. "He's been separated from his children. It is really hard for him." Walls said Crapser is married and has four children.

Belcore said Crapser was wearing what looked like hospital scrubs, the uniform for detainees, and that Immigration Judge John C. O'Dell appeared matter-of-fact as he announced his deportation verdict.

In an email, Walls said Adam was eligible for a deportation reprieve called "cancellation of removal," but the "judge decided he did not deserve this relief."

"He will be deported as soon as Immigration and Customs Enforcement makes the necessary arrangements," Walls said. "Adam, his family, and advocates are heartbroken at the outcome."

Kathryn Mattingly, a spokeswoman with the Executive Office for Immigration Review of the U.S. Department of Justice, said in an email that she could not provide confirmation or details of the hearing without an alien registration number for Crapser and possibly a privacy waiver. Walls said she would seek permission from Crapser later to provide that information.

Belcore said she feels lucky that her adoptive parents obtained her U.S. citizenship.

"A lot of times, parents simply didn't know that they were supposed to do it," she said.

"It seems so wrong and so inhumane" for Crapser to be sent to South Korea, Belcore said. "Without knowing the language and the culture, it will be so difficult to survive."
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Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at http://twitter.com/andrewselsky



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dakota-access-pipeline-protesters-face-off-with-authorities/

Dakota Access pipeline protesters face off with authorities
CBS/AP
October 27, 2016, 3:15 PM

Play VIDEO -- North Dakota tribe's request to stop oil pipeline work denied
Photograph -- ap-16300620730745.jpg, Protesters against the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline block a highway in near Cannon Ball, N.D., on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016. AP
Photograph -- 2016-10-24t053857z-496186665-s1aeuitkplaa-rtrmadp-3-usa-pipeline-climatechange.jpg, Actor Shailene Woodley speaks to the media with Kendrick Sampson (L) and director Josh Fox (R) backstage at a climate change rally in solidarity with protests of the pipeline in North Dakota at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, California October 23, 2016. REUTERS


CANNON BALL, N.D. -- Armed soldiers and law enforcement officers dressed in riot gear on Thursday began arresting protesters who had set up a camp on private land to block construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

State Emergency Services spokeswoman Cecily Fong says officers are responding to “aggressive” tactics by protesters, including some throwing rocks at officers and threatening them.

Fong said she wasn’t aware of any serious injuries to either officers or protesters.

A male protester was seen holding his leg after what an Associated Press reporter described as a loud boom. A protester with a medic bag tended to the man’s leg, and he was up and walking a short time later.

Fong said she wasn’t aware of any serious injuries to either officers or protesters.

Fong didn’t immediately have details of what happened.

About 200 activists supporting the Standing Sioux Tribe moved onto the site last weekend, setting up teepees and tents and saying the land is rightfully theirs under a more than century-old treaty, CBS affiliate KXMB reported.

Several protesters were led away and put in trucks, including at least one handcuffed, as authorities converged on the camp in North Dakota.

Sirens blared and officials told protesters over a loudspeaker to move out. Two helicopters and an airplane monitored the operation from the air.

The majority of the protesters were retreating from the confrontation on a highway outside the camp but still not leaving the area on private land.

Protesters tried to slow the authorities by parking cars on the highway near the camp in North Dakota and slashing vehicle tires. They also set a small fire at one of two blockades they set up on the highway.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene said there were no clashes between authorities and protesters as the operation began about midday, but some scuffles broke out between protesters who wanted to stay put and those willing to leave.

The operation to push out about 200 protesters began a day after they had refused to leave voluntarily.

In the middle of it all, activist Wikaya Eagleman struggled to keep the peace.

“You can win against all this?” CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen asked him.

“Not saying we can’t win, but we’ll keep fighting,” he said.

A spokesman for protesters opposing the Dakota Access oil pipeline said they will continue efforts to block the project despite being forced from a camp they set up on land owned by the pipeline developer.

Cody Hall said protesters likely will set up a new camp to the east, on federally owned land that’s also in the path of construction.

The main camp of the protesters is on land owned by the Army Corps of Engineers. The agency has taken no steps to evict protesters from that camp, citing free speech reasons.

Authorities did evict the protesters from the camp on private land, arresting several in the process. Hall said it won’t be so easy to move the protesters off a new camp on the pipeline path if it’s on federal land.

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said in a statement that the protesters’ actions “forced law enforcement to respond.”

“I can’t stress it enough, this is a public safety issue,” he said. “We cannot have protesters blocking county roads, blocking state highways or trespassing on private property.”

Robert Eder, a 64-year-old Vietnam War veteran from the Standing Rock Reservation, said protesters weren’t scared.

“If they take everybody to jail, there will be twice as many tomorrow, and every day that passes more will come,” he said. “If they raze these teepees, tomorrow we will be back.”

The months-long dispute over the four-state, $3.8 billion pipeline reached a crisis point when the protesters set up camp on land owned by pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners. The disputed area is just to the north of a more permanent and larger encampment on federally-owned land where hundreds of protesters have camped for months.

Law enforcement officials demanded that the protesters leave the private land on Wednesday, but they refused. Thick fog and cloudy skies on Wednesday appeared to stall the law enforcement effort, but the sun came out on Thursday with scattered clouds and a light breeze. Officials have frequently monitored protesters by air.

The Federal Aviation Administration is restricting flights over the Cannon Ball area until Nov. 5, allowing only aircraft affiliated with the North Dakota Tactical Operation Center and banning drones.

The activists fear the pipeline could harm cultural sites and drinking water for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. The company and the state of North Dakota say no sensitive cultural sites have been found.

Protests supporting the Standing Rock Sioux have been ongoing for months, with more than 260 people arrested before Thursday’s operation.

The pipeline is to carry oil from western North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois, where shippers can send it on to Midwest and Gulf Coast markets. Energy Transfer Partners has said the pipeline is nearly complete other than the work in south central North Dakota.

The protests have been garnering widespread attention, including several celebrities. Actress Shailene Woodley recently pleaded not guilty in a North Dakota court to criminal trespass and riot charges after her arrest in a protest against the pipeline. Woodley and 26 other activists were arrested Oct. 10. She livestreamed her protest on Facebook.

The protest has also drawn the attention of Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson and actor Mark Ruffalo were at the protest camp Wednesday but departed later in the day.



American Indians, Hispanics and Blacks have had terribly unfair and abusive treatment from all levels of government in the US for the whole time they have been here. The Native Americans did wage wars against the Whites, but after all, we were the interlopers on their land and not the other way around. The Europeans who settled here made little effort to make and keep fair deals with them over land and resources. We simply took land and moved them off. There are still some groups of Indians in the Eastern part of the country, but they are remnants, left over from the forced removal to Western parts.

All they want now is for their burial places and other sacred sites to be protected and their ground water to remain drinkable. “The company and the state of North Dakota say no sensitive cultural sites have been found.” An American Indian “cultural site” is often a place which is involved in their spiritualism or a site of regular meetings of tribal members. To a Caucasian it will look like a mountain, with no monuments visible. Americans don’t recognize such places as being “sacred,” because there is no church, synagogue or mosque there. We need to be consulting with Native Americans as to what, in their estimation, is a “sensitive cultural site.” As with all interracial or religious conflicts, there is very little real communication going on. I’m glad to see Jesse Jackson participating because in relatively few instances have I see Black people fight for someone else’s rights. We do all need to pitch in to back those groups who are the scapegoats of society.

I'm behind the activists of all races who are fighting for an unpolluted environment and civil rights, at the pipeline and at the wildlife refuge which the Bundys took over with their guns. Unfortunately, they got away with it, so they will surely keep doing such things.

I certainly wouldn’t go out there, but I will continue to feature news articles and speak up for their causes. Some “troll” got on my Facebook account and made one comment: “You are a traitor to your race.” I don’t know how to inform him of this, but I am not a partisan in some war between Whites and other races. I’m not a passivist, but I do believe in right and wrong, and the Rightists in this country are doing things which are profoundly unethical and in my view “evil.” Abusing people “because you can,” is evil.



ONE OF MY FAVORITE TV SHOWS:

https://www.yahoo.com/celebrity/why-angus-t-jones-left-185057985.html

Two And A Half Men
Why Angus T. Jones Has Left Faith-Based Organizations – and Is ‘Slowly’ Returning to Acting
Patrick Gomez
October 26, 2016

Photograph -- Two and a Half Men’s Angus T. Jones Admits ‘I Got Pretty Doomsday with My Thinking’


Angus T. Jones had a hard time reconciling his devout Christian faith with his bawdy CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, so he left the show. But now the former child star has seemingly left organized religion and is reconsidering his decision to say goodbye to stardom.

“I was very confident at that time,” Jones, 23, says in the current issue of PEOPLE of his decision to leave Men in 2013 after telling Seventh-Day Adventist filmmaker Christopher Hudson, “You cannot be a true God-fearing person and be on a television show like that.”

Walking away from Hollywood, Jones enrolled at the University of Colorado at Boulder as an environmental studies major. But at the end of his freshman year, he switched majors to Jewish studies, a sign of his evolving relationship with organized religion.

“Over the last three years I’ve been involved with various faith-based organizations,” says Jones. “Right now, I’m stepping away from the organizational business-model programs. I’m interested in seeing where I go without an organization putting a stamp of approval on if I’m good or bad or whatever.”

When he’d departed from Men after season 10, there were reports Jones would guest star on season 11 of the sitcom. But he did not return to the show until the series finale in 2015.

“Getting to be back on the set with everyone again kind of showed me how much I did like it and how much a part of me acting,” he says.

For more from Angus T. Jones — including what his life is like now — pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday

Jones plans on getting his degree but is currently “on a break” from college and is serving as president of entertainment at Tonite, an events company cofounded by Sean “Diddy” Combs’s son Justin. But he admits he’s open to the idea of returning to acting.

“The door is definitely still open for me to do that, but I’m taking things slowly,” says Jones, who recently starred in his former college roommate’s short film and still has an agent. “But I’m kind of liking the ability to travel and to move around at a moment’s notice and not have to be in one spot for years at a time.”

Regardless of his future, Jones refuses to second-guess his decision to step away from the spotlight.

“In terms of regrets, I try to avoid those completely,” he says. “There’s no changing anything. There’s only moving forward.”



Religions do tend to become “corporate models” and I personally hate that. There’s little room for human beings in that way of thinking. When Christianity consisted of people meeting in the catacombs of Rome or living in their eremitic (now usually called hermit”) manner from the Dark Ages on through the Middle Ages, that to me showed devotion and contemplation.

Modern religion often nowadays tends to be about being in a “movement” which sometimes amounts to a highly political type of activity. To me that is antithetical to spiritual development. It’s also truly dangerous. These Tea Partiers are largely overly “religious,” and not simply loving enough. Jesus spoke directly against that. The Tea Partiers are against other groups of all kinds and into harshly criticizing “sinners,” especially sexual sinners, and not about helping people who need help.

This story is true. I was sitting at a lunch table with a group of coworkers four or five years ago, when talk of the Lotto came up. I said that I would like to help the homeless if I won millions of dollars, and a woman who had been friendly to me before literally shouted, “You would help the homeless???” It seems that at her beach front condo there were homeless people walking on the property and she hated them. She was a self-identifying “Christian” who believed that their unfortunate condition was all because of their “sin,” and they shouldn’t be fed or given shelter. It isn’t just today, either. Mother said that in her experience she had heard “good” church people talk about helping “the deserving poor.” Pardon me, but to me that kind of thing is purest evil. For lots of good information on the lives of hermits, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermit.

As for Two and a Half Men, that show was chock full of sexual content, but it explored sex as a part of life in some depth besides merely being funny. I personally didn’t find it sexually stimulating, probably because I’m not a man, but pure satire. When I saw on the news that Angus Jones repudiated the exploration of those particular human foibles due to his having joined a doctrinaire religious group, I was sad. I’m glad to see this article showing that he is viewing life more as a personal journey and not as becoming a perfect person. I do think that such a view of things is much more mentally healthy and "spiritual.” I’ve never believed that humans are ever totally virtuous, though the current Pope seems to me to be on the right track. Empathy for life forms including other people of whatever race or religion, and being a good citizen are key to me. That means, honest, as kind as we can be, good stewards of the environment, involved with humanitarian work on some level, at least in our thoughts, and a potential friend to all of any personal background. The sheer thoughtlessness of many Americans worries me. We have had it too easy in my view, and are therefore spoiled and greedy. Who cares if people are starving as long as I can afford my “big screen TV.”



https://www.yahoo.com/celebrity/charlie-sheen-turns-51-ex-000600815.html

Charlie Sheen Turns 51 With Ex-Wife Denise Richards, His Daughters, and Macklemore
ET September 5, 2016

Charlie Sheen is keeping the cute family pics coming!

Days earlier Sheen shared an adorable shot from a night out with his ex-wife, Denise Richards, and their two daughters, 12-year-old Sam and 11-year-old Lola, despite a child support battle earlier this year. Now, the family has come together once again to celebrate the actor’s 51st birthday on Saturday with a whole lot of Macklemore.

Joined by Sheen’s friend Tony Todd, the squad posed in front of a private jet. “Birthday bunch,” the birthday boy captioned the pic.

NEWS: Charlie Sheen’s Doctor Gives HIV Health Update: ‘He’s on a New Experimental Medication’

Todd tweeted the same pic and shared what the group was up to, “Epic night celebrating [Sheen’s] birthday with the family at Macklemore concert.”

Sheen hit up Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ show at the Bumbershoot festival in Seattle, Washington, on Saturday night, where the actor was brought up on stage to the delight of many concertgoers.

He kept the party going in Las Vegas where the GRAMMY Award-winning duo took the stage for Kevin Hart’s HartBeat Weekend at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on Sunday. This time, the crowd even sang “Happy Birthday” to the actor.

WATCH: Charlie Sheen Claims Donald Trump Lied to Him About a Cheap Wedding Gift

And this isn’t the first time Sheen has supported Macklemore, he joined the duo at an L.A. show earlier this summer and got the crowd hyped with his dance moves.

After revealing he is HIV-positive last year, Sheen declared, “My partying days are behind me. My philanthropic days are ahead of me,” in an open letter. But we’re sure a little birthday partying with his family is just fine!

For more about his health, watch the video below.



I’m very sorry that Sheen has gone down a path that has ended in his being HIV positive. The good news is that modern medicine does have useful treatments now if not a “cure.” It’s expensive, but maybe Sheen has the money to finance it. He is a very creative and funny actor who managed to show the shallowness and craziness behind the hard core “bachelor” life.

I saw no true hostility against women in his humor, and an acknowledgement (from time to time at least) of the human desire for a committed relationship instead. I’m glad to see from this article that he is emotionally pretty level now, which was strongly questioned at the time he left the show, and with cheerfulness and hope proceeding forward. I think that’s the way we should take life, learning as we go.

I’m so out of the loop with pop music today that I had no clue as to who or what Macklemore was. It’s very interesting. See below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macklemore

Macklemore
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ben Haggerty (born June 19, 1983),[1] known by his stage name Macklemore (/ˈmæk.ləmɔːr/ mak-lə-mor)[2][3] and formerly Professor Mack Lemore, is an American hip hop recording artist from Kent, Washington. His stage name originated from his childhood; it was the name of his made-up superhero. Since 2000, he has independently released one mixtape, three EPs, and four albums. He has significantly collaborated with producer Ryan Lewis as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. . . . . Macklemore and Lewis released their debut studio album The Heist on October 9, 2012, which charted at number 2 on the U.S. Billboard 200. The pair won four Grammy Awards at the 2014 ceremony, including Best New Artist, Best Rap Album (The Heist), Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance ("Thrift Shop"). Their second album, This Unruly Mess I've Made, was released on February 26, 2016.

Haggerty was born to Bill Haggerty and Julie Schott. Haggerty is one of two boys and was raised with his brother Tim in Kent, Washington.[8] His ethnicity is primarily Irish.[9] Haggerty was six years old when hip hop first came into his life by way of Digital Underground.[10][11] According to a YouTube interview with Macklemore, he listened to "parental advisory" music from the radio when he was an underage youth.[12]

Macklemore was 15 when he started writing lyrics.[10][11] When he started to sing, Macklemore listened to "a lot of East Coast underground hip hop", with Hieroglyphics, Freestyle Fellowship, Aceyalone, Living Legends, Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep, Nas, and Talib Kweli being big influences on him.[12][13] Interested in reaching a younger generation through his music, he was a part of a program focusing on education and cultural identity called "Gateways for Incarcerated Youth" where he facilitated music workshops.[14] At Garfield High School, Macklemore and other students started a hip-hop group called Elevated Elements and released an album with them in 2000 called "Progress".[15] He earned a bachelor's degree from The Evergreen State College in 2009.[14][16]



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-slams-att-time-warner-merger_us_5811e66de4b0990edc2f45ab?

Bernie Sanders Slams AT&T-Time Warner Merger
It eliminates competition and threatens democracy, he said.
Willa Frej
Reporter, The Huffington Post
10/27/2016 08:48 am ET | Updated 11 hours ago

Photograph -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) laid out his disapproval of the merger between AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Inc. in a feisty letter addressed to Acting Assistant Attorney General Renata B. Hesse on Wednesday.

“This proposed merger is just the latest effort to shrink our media landscape, stifle competition and diversity of content, and provide consumers with less while charging them more,” he wrote in Medium. He asked Hesse to enforce antitrust laws and block the merger.

AT&T announced over the weekend that it had agreed to buy Time Warner for $85.4 billion ― the biggest deal in the world this year ― in an effort to combine the former’s high-speed network with the latter’s viewing content.

The deal has major consequences for democracy, Sanders added, since one company will now have control over a wide range of brands.

“Our democracy thrives when there is a diversity of viewpoints, and when citizens have unlimited access to information,” he wrote. “This merger represents a gross concentration of power that runs counter to the public good and should be blocked.”

Sanders quoted critics, like nonprofit Public Citizen, to bolster his claim that one company controlling so much power is never a good thing. Competition is stifled, he argued, and it becomes more challenging for new players to enter the market.

Other major telecommunications companies have already made similar moves. Comcast purchased NBCUniversal in 2011. Verizon Communications Inc. bought AOL, The Huffington Post’s parent company, in 2015 and is in the process of acquiring Yahoo Inc. for about $4.8 billion.

Sanders then explained how the merger would affect the average consumer. “This deal would almost certainly lead to price hikes and reduced choice,” he wrote.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also has demanded that the merger be blocked.

“It’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few,” he said at a rally on Saturday.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton took a much more muted position on the merger. “I am going to follow it closely, and obviously if I am fortunate enough to be president, I will expect the government to conduct a very thorough analysis before making a decision,” she said.

This post has been updated with comment from Clinton.

Also on HuffPost
Bernie Sanders On The Campaign Trail


The regulations that we had wisely placed in the past on how companies, especially corporate giants, do business are no longer in effect for a couple of reasons: Citizens United, especially. If Hillary is elected, I hope she will work toward a new balance of legal and economic power so that the individual citizen will again have a larger voice than a "corporate individual."


SAD AND SCARY

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/feds-concerned-about-risk-violence-election-day-nears-n672821

Feds Concerned About Risk of Violence as Election Day Nears
by JOSH MEYER
NEWS OCT 26 2016, 11:08 AM ET

Photograph -- Trump Supporters Bring Anti-Clinton Displays to Rally 0:37
Photograph --- A supporter of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a shooting target with image of Hillary Clinton at a campaign rally in Virginia Beach on Oct. 22. JONATHAN ERNST / Reuters


Trump supporters held up Clinton "target practice" posters at a rally in Florida Monday, with a bulls-eye framing her face.

Two days earlier in Virginia Beach, one Trump backer hoisted a plastic Hillary Clinton head on a stick, while others waved target signs. And, several weeks ago, two armed Trump supporters protested outside the congressional campaign office of a rural Virginia Democrat, in what they said was a gesture of solidarity with closet supporters of Trump.

Federal and state law enforcement officials say such incidents have heightened their concerns about violence in the final two weeks of the long and bitter Presidential campaign, and well beyond that if Donald Trump loses and refuses to accept the vote as legitimate.

"There is a motivated army of 'fingers in their ears' supporters of his who believe he's giving them license to behave badly, and license not to except the findings of the 9,000 bipartisan polling jurisdictions around the country," one senior federal law enforcement official told NBC News.

"It gives me concerns about violence," that official said, not just on Election Day but before and afterward. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, he confirmed that local, state and federal authorities and even multi-agency Fusion Centers are on the lookout for signs of trouble.

The senior official said authorities have been concerned for months about violence, especially after one Trump surrogate talked in August of a post-Election "bloodbath" if supporters sensed any kind of voter fraud, and another said Clinton "should be put in the firing line and shot for treason." Trump himself ignited a controversy Aug. 9 when he hinted that pro-gun activists might take into their own hands the issue of Clinton appointing pro-gun control justices to the Supreme Court.

Those fears increased exponentially last week, the official said, when Trump refused to support the election results during the final Presidential debate, and then doubled down on his calls for his supporters to act as freelance election monitors at the polls.

Trump has insisted his remark about Second Amendment supporters was taken out of context, and his campaign has denied that he is intentionally trying to incite violence of any kind.

Local law enforcement officials in several swing states told NBC News they did not yet have plans to alter their usual Election Day security procedures.

But the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are monitoring the situation, officials say, going so far as to talk to certain individuals who have somehow risen above the din of those espousing violence. They say that there is significantly more concern about violence than in past campaigns, as Trump -- dropping in many polls -- has issued increasingly strident accusations about dead and illegal voters and a "Crooked Hillary" rigging the election.

A second senior federal law enforcement official told NBC News on Tuesday that while authorities so far have not picked up "anything of substance, we're watching very closely."

"It's a genuine concern," that official said, "but we haven't seen anything that goes beyond rhetoric."

One internal Virginia state "Joint Special Event Assessment" issued Oct. 24 warned of a wide array of potential threats, including U.S.-based supporters of the Islamic State terror group attacking "soft targets, including polling places and other election-related venues … because they are vulnerable, are easy to exploit, and involve mass gatherings of people."

The assessment cited a recent ISIS propaganda video that included what appeared to be media footage of a polling site in Berryville, Virginia.

But that assessment, obtained by NBC News, also cited concerns about violence sparked by one of the most rancorous election campaigns in recent history.

"Voter fraud concerns may cause intimidation, tension, and violent confrontations among voters, poll workers, and poll watchers at or near polling places," the Virginia assessment said.

The assessment didn't cite Trump's calls for his supporters to monitor voting on Election Day. But it noted that, "Some poll watchers' presence may intimidate voters and poll workers," and that changes in federal election law have reduced the number of federal election observers stationed inside polling places to guard against voter intimidation.

The Virginia Fusion Center cited a two-person armed protest in front of a Fluvanna County, Virginia campaign office, reports of campaign signs being set on fire in Fredericksburg and reports of campaign sign thefts in Prince William County, as well as a firebomb attack on a Hillsborough, N.C. campaign office "and similar incidents that have occurred in the United States in recent days."

Media reports say two Trump supporters protested outside the Fluvanna County campaign office of Democrat Jane Dittmar two weeks ago to protest Clinton, unite like-minded Trump supporters and to make a statement after the Trump campaign's reported decision to write off Virginia. "He might be pulling out, but we're not pulling out, and I'm gonna stand my ground and speak out for what I believe in," protester Daniel Parks told the Huffington Post. Both men were carrying lawful sidearms but witnesses said they exposed them in an intimidating manner.

"I'M NOT A VIOLENT PERSON ... IT'S A HUMOR THING."

The Virginia Fusion Center report also warned about possible trouble by the New Black Panther Party. During the 2008 Presidential election, NBPP members were observed standing outside a Philadelphia polling place wearing military clothing with batons on their belts. In 2012, members were observed "guarding" polling places in Philadelphia and Cleveland, and prior to the 2016 Republican National Convention, the group's chairman said, "If it is an open state to carry, we will exercise our Second Amendment rights."

The senior federal law enforcement official would not discuss specifics about how authorities are on the lookout for signs of trouble, but confirmed that said some local, state and federal authorities are quietly watching known agitators to try to anticipate potential problems. He stressed that authorities also worry that being too aggressive would create the perception of undue interference and violations of individuals' right to Free Speech.

Authorities are especially concerned about the "I'm a patriot and if it comes to it, I'll grab my weapons and defend my flag" Trump supporters, the official said. But they are also worried about the unpredictability of "the rise of the unsettled masses. It is really disturbing."

The senior official said authorities have been concerned for months about violence, especially after one Trump surrogate talked in August of a post-Election "bloodbath" if supporters sensed any kind of voter fraud, and another said Clinton "should be put in the firing line and shot for treason." Trump himself ignited a controversy Aug. 9 when he hinted that pro-gun activists might take into their own hands the issue of Clinton appointing pro-gun control justices to the Supreme Court.

Branden Belloni, a Trump supporter at the Florida rally, told NBC News' Hallie Jackson that he didn't think his Hillary bulls-eye poster was threatening, or sent the wrong message to his 8-year-old son, who was standing next to him. He had pulled the third-grader out of school to attend the event.

"I'm not a violent person," he said, "I don't teach my son to be violent. You know … it's a humor thing."



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/armed-donald-trump-supporters_us_580120b7e4b0e8c198a7f139

Armed Trump Supporters Protest In Front Of Democrat’s Campaign Office
The protesters were legally carrying the weapons, but some felt they displayed them as an intimidation tactic.

Emily Tate
Politics Intern, The Huffington Post
10/14/2016 04:34 pm ET | Updated 3 days ago

Video – Guns in campaign ads


Two Donald Trump supporters flashed their firearms outside a campaign office in Virginia on Thursday night, in what they said was an effort to protest Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and unite likeminded voters.

For nearly 12 hours, the men lingered in front of the Palmyra-based congressional campaign office of Jane Dittmar, Democratic nominee for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, according to Newsplex, a CBS affiliate in Charlottesville. Both men reportedly openly displayed handguns, which is legal in Virginia.

Daniel Parks, one of the protesters, said he was peacefully protesting and legally carrying the gun. His intentions were good, he said.

“I’m just trying to provide a voice for someone who might be a closet supporter of Trump,” Parks told Newsplex. “We’re not a threat to anybody, the only threat is ignorance, and ignorance breeds fear.”

But some who observed the men, like Dittmar’s volunteers working nearby, did find their presence threatening.

“He turned sideways to be sure that we would see that he has an open carry gun, which is legal and is fine, but it’s intimidating,” said Dittmar volunteer Su Wolff of Parks. “If he wants to support his candidate, that’s fine, but don’t come here and stare into the office all day.”

The Trump campaign’s recent decision to “pull out” of Virginia — effectively admitting defeat in the battleground state — motivated Park’s protest.

“He might be pulling out, but we’re not pulling out, and I’m gonna stand my ground and speak out for what I believe in,” he said.

Parks said he will consider holding a similar protest again in the state, including a possible appearance in Richmond later this month.

With fewer than 25 days to go until the election, many have expressed concerns about the increasingly hostile tone of the campaign. At Trump rallies this week, reporters and media personnel have been booed and heckled by the nominee’s supporters. One reporter found a sign featuring a swastika left on his desk.

As Trump tries to salvage his floundering campaign and push back against mounting sexual assault allegations, his rhetoric has become increasingly unhinged. To hear Trump tell it, there’s a massive conspiracy to rig this election in favor of Clinton. It should go without saying that this kind of speech has people worried.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.


EXCERPTS – NBC NEWS -- "There is a motivated army of 'fingers in their ears' supporters of his who believe he's giving them license to behave badly, and license not to except [sic] the findings of the 9,000 bipartisan polling jurisdictions around the country," one senior federal law enforcement official told NBC News.” …. The senior official said authorities have been concerned for months about violence, especially after one Trump surrogate talked in August of a post-Election "bloodbath" if supporters sensed any kind of voter fraud, and another said Clinton "should be put in the firing line and shot for treason." Trump himself ignited a controversy Aug. 9 when he hinted that pro-gun activists might take into their own hands the issue of Clinton appointing pro-gun control justices to the Supreme Court. …. For nearly 12 hours, the men lingered in front of the Palmyra-based congressional campaign office of Jane Dittmar, Democratic nominee for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, according to Newsplex, a CBS affiliate in Charlottesville. Both men reportedly openly displayed handguns, which is legal in Virginia. Daniel Parks, one of the protesters, said he was peacefully protesting and legally carrying the gun. His intentions were good, he said.”


If this is legal, we need to update our laws! Alcohol or drinking at a polling place is already illegal, I think, and guns certainly should be. The bans should also include ANY politically related place or gathering at all. Intimidation doesn’t come just from the top down, as these “Trumpites” show. This whole “open carry” thing is crazy in my view. We’ve lost all common sense since the Far Right began to do more than just grumble about Hillary and Obama, sitting around together in their local filling stations, bars, pool halls and street corners.

Something all too real is going on now that is getting beyond rhetoric. See Wikiquote on the web on the basic nature of democracy. It may actually be true, but I refuse to believe that it is an unchangeable truth. And even if I am being a gullible fool, I’d rather it should be in the pursuit of something that is really good, rather than some heartless, soulless compromise. I’m one of those who believes that life without honor, beauty and courage isn’t worth living.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexander_Fraser_Tytler:

Wikiquote

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public ... The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years.” ... This page was last modified on 25 September 2015, at 02:15.”

It interests me that most Republicans are not supporting Trump, but Gingrich is. He’s one of those who strikes me as being basically clever, but vicious. I’ve always despised and totally distrusted him. Just look at his facial expression. Hillary just has to win, and then we can look at putting some controls on the radical and racist groups that are so active now in the form of closely watching them and identifying those who are violent or “advocating the overthrow of the US government.” Civil rights don’t include the right of mayhem.

On “Fusion centers,” see the article below. Another article I saw today expresses serious doubts about them, based on the danger to our freedoms of speech, activity and association. I know why they started closer aggregations of information, though. Within a week or so of the 9/11 attack, those in charge of our national defense admitted that the attackers were known to the government before it occurred, as well as some dangerous and suspicious facts against them, but that the FBI, CIA and NSA and other such departments just didn’t “connect the dots.” Well, I do want them to connect the dots. If our government isn’t capable of spotting and neutralizing such people we are due for a radical right shift from all levels of society, I’m afraid, and I do want to avoid that.

I’m willing to put up with things like surveillance cameras placed in public places in order to identify dangerous individuals for detention, with legal controls on their use to prevent the arrest of decent citizens over their personal views or ethnicity. At the same time, if actions indicate a group or “lone wolf’s” stockpiling of weapons, making bombs or other dangerous things to be used against the general public, or showing signs of violent psychosis, that needs to be grounds to either imprison such a person or put him/her into a locked mental ward until they are no longer a danger “to themselves or others.”

David Rittgers of the Cato Institute, warns of the possibilities of Fusion centers as a danger rather than a help to our country. See the Wikipedia article below. To have something that powerful in our nation or not is certainly debatable. I saw at least one other article today on the same lines. Take a look for yourselves.

Finally, please do read at least the basics of the two articles below on www.citizen.org/TPP-investment-map, which shows shocking details in my viewpoint, and Wikipedia on Fusion centers across the country. After having read all that I’m feeling inclined to go with those who fight federal intrusiveness in general rather than going for the greater security of those Fusion Centers.

That’s enough emotional disturbance for one day. Disturbing though it is, though, not to know the truth of what is going on is worse. Complacency among the rather self-satisfied Middle Class or wealthy Americans is the cause of our scary mix of political events these days.

Some people believe that a benign and all powerful being will take care of everything, which is exactly what I was taught when I was young, but given what I have seen in my lifetime, it just clearly isn’t true. Perhaps if we are to have Fusion Centers watching all of us who are non-conformists in some way, we should also form “Committees of Correspondence” as Ben Franklin and his compatriots did so many years ago. I for one will soldier on as a modern-day “muckraker,” which is basically what I do with this blog, and maintain contact with my UU friends at Church and on the Net.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_center

Fusion center
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A fusion center is an information sharing center, many of which were jointly created between 2003 and 2007 under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice.

They are designed to promote information sharing at the federal level between agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. military, and state- and local-level government. As of July 2009, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recognized at least 72 fusion centers. Fusion centers may also be affiliated with an Emergency Operations Center that responds in the event of a disaster.

The fusion process is an overarching method of managing the flow of information and intelligence across levels and sectors of government to integrate information for analysis.[1] That is, the process relies on the active involvement of state, local, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies—and sometimes on non-law enforcement agencies (e.g., private sector)—to provide the input of raw information for intelligence analysis. As the array of diverse information sources increases, there will be more accurate and robust analysis that can be disseminated as intelligence.

A two-year senate investigation found that "the fusion centers often produced irrelevant, useless or inappropriate intelligence reporting to DHS, and many produced no intelligence reporting whatsoever."[2][3] The report also said that in some cases the fusion centers violated civil liberties or privacy.[4]

Common misconceptions[edit]

Although the phrase has been widely used, there are often misconceptions about the function of fusion centers. Perhaps the most common is that the center is a large room full of work stations where the staff are constantly responding to inquiries from officers, investigators, and agents. This vision is more accurately a watch center or an investigative support center—not an intelligence fusion center.

Another common misconception is that the fusion center is minimally staffed until there is some type of crisis whereupon representatives from different public safety agencies converge in staff workstations to manage the crisis. This staffing model more accurately describes an emergency operations center, not an intelligence fusion center. The fusion center is not an operational center but a support center driven by analysis.[1]

Fusion process[edit]

The fusion process proactively seeks to identify perceived threats and stop them before they occur. A fusion center is typically organized by amalgamating representatives from different federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies into one physical location. However, some fusion centers gather information not only from government sources, but also from their partners in the private sector.[5][6] Each representative is intended to be a conduit of raw information from his or her agency, a representative who can infuse that agency-specific information into the collective body of information for analysis. Conversely, when the fusion center needs intelligence requirements the representative is the conduit back to the agency to communicate, monitor, and process the new information needs.[1] Similarly, the agency representative ensures that analytic products and threat information are directed back to one’s home agency for proper dissemination. According to the fusion center guidelines, a fusion center is defined as “a collaborative effort of two or more agencies that provide resources, expertise, and/or information to the center with the goal of maximizing the ability to detect, prevent, apprehend, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity. The intelligence component of a fusion center focuses on the intelligence process, where information is collected, integrated, evaluated, analyzed, and disseminated. Nontraditional collectors of intelligence, such as public safety entities and private sector organizations, possess important information that can be fused' with law enforcement data to provide meaningful information and intelligence about threats and criminal activity.”[7]

State and local police departments provide both space and resources for the majority of fusion centers. The analysts working there can be drawn from a range of agencies and organizations, including DHS, FBI, Customs and Border Protection, Drug Enforcement Agency, Coast Guard, National Guard, Highway Patrol, state-level Departments of Corrections, local police, and the private sector.[8] A number of fusion centers operate tip hotlines and also invite relevant information from public employees, such as sanitation workers or firefighters.[9]

Criticism[edit]

There are a number of documented criticisms of fusion centers, including relative ineffectiveness at counterterrorism activities, the potential to be used for secondary purposes unrelated to counterterrorism, and their links to violations of civil liberties of American citizens and others.[9] One such fusion center has been involved with spying on anti-war and peace activists as well as anarchists in Washington state.[10]


David Rittgers of the Cato Institute has noted:

“... a long line of fusion center and DHS reports labeling broad swaths of the public as a threat to national security. The North Texas Fusion System labeled Muslim lobbyists as a potential threat; a DHS analyst in Wisconsin thought both pro- and anti-abortion activists were worrisome; a Pennsylvania homeland security contractor watched environmental activists, Tea Party groups, and a Second Amendment rally; the Maryland State Police put anti-death penalty and anti-war activists in a federal terrorism database; a fusion center in Missouri thought that all third-party voters and Ron Paul supporters were a threat; and the Department of Homeland Security described half of the American political spectrum as "right wing extremists." [11]

A 2007 ACLU report raised concerns with four areas of fusion center aspects, the first of which was that they suffered from "ambiguous lines of authority", meaning that the fusion process "allows the authorities to manipulate differences in federal, state and local laws to maximize information collection while evading accountability and oversight through the practice of 'policy shopping'." The ACLU was also concerned with the private sector and military participation in the surveillance of US citizens through these fusion centers. Finally, the ACLU report argued that fusion centers were likely to engage in poorly contained data mining because the "Federal fusion center guidelines encourage wholesale data collection and manipulation processes that threaten privacy" and that the centers were "hobbled by excessive secrecy".[12] An updated ACLU report in 2008 argued that the fusion centers were creating a "total surveillance society" in the US.[13] An ACLU spokesperson compared the fusion centers initiative with Operation TIPS because of the involvement of private Terrorism Liaison Officers.[14]

MIAC report[edit]

Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) made news in 2009 for targeting supporters of third party candidates, Ron Paul supporters, pro-life activists, and conspiracy theorists as potential militia members.[15] Anti-war activists and Islamic lobby groups were targeted in Texas, drawing criticism from the ACLU.[16]
According to the Department of Homeland Security:[17]

[T]he Privacy Office has identified a number of risks to privacy presented by the fusion center program:

Justification for fusion centers
Ambiguous Lines of Authority, Rules, and Oversight
Participation of the Military and the Private Sector
Data Mining
Excessive Secrecy
Inaccurate or Incomplete Information
Mission Creep
Senate report[edit]

The United States Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report said:[4]
Despite reviewing 13 months' worth of reporting originating from fusion centers from April 1, 2009 to April 30, 2010, the Subcommittee investigation could identify no reporting which uncovered a terrorist threat, nor could it identify a contribution such fusion center reporting made to disrupt an active terrorist plot.

An example of useless intelligence highlighted by the committee was a report on a foreigner with an expired visa who had been caught speeding and shoplifting; his name was promptly added to the list of “known or appropriately suspected” terrorists. A reviewer of that report intimated: “I am actually stunned this report got as far as it did,” because “the entire total knowledge about the subject” was that he “tried to steal a pair of shoes from Neiman Marcus” with everything else in the report being commentary. The reviewer concluded: “I have no idea what value this would be adding to the IC [Intelligence Community].”[18]

Another example highlighted in the Senate report was entitled “Possible Drug Smuggling Activity”. It detailed how two state wildlife officials saw two fishermen in a bass boat “operating suspiciously” in waters off the US–Mexico border. The fusion center report listed as suspicions activities the fact that the two suspects “avoided eye contact” and that their boat was low in the water, “as if it were laden with cargo”. The DHS reviewer wrote that: “The fact that some guys were hanging out in a boat where people normally do not fish MIGHT be an indicator of something abnormal, but does not reach the threshold of something we should be reporting,” and “that this should never have been nominated for production, nor passed through three reviews.”[19]

Yet another example was a California fusion center report on the Mongols Motorcycle Club's distribution of leaflets to its members instructing them how to behave when stopped by police. According to the Senate report, the leaflet suggested to the Club members that they should be courteous, control their emotions and, if drinking, have a designated driver. One supervisor eventually killed the fusion center report, noting that “There is nothing illegal or even remotely objectionable [described] in this report,” and that “The advice given to the groups’ members is protected by the First Amendment.”[20]

Part of the problems identified by the Senate report is that the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis imposed a quota of reports to be filed by the fusion centers, leading to diminished quality.[20] The Senate committee estimated that about $1.4 billion had been spent on the fusion centers.[18] It also estimated that:[18]

Of the 386 unclassified HIRs that DHS eventually published over the 13-month period reviewed by the Subcommittee investigation, a review found close to 300 of them had no discernable connection to terrorists, terrorist plots or threats.

Matthew Chandler, a spokesperson for the DHS, immediately denounced the Senate report in an interview with Fox News, in which he said that "In preparing the report, the committee refused to review relevant data, including important intelligence information pertinent to their findings," and that the "report fundamentally misunderstands the role of the federal government in supporting fusion centers and overlooks the significant benefits of this relationship to both state and local law enforcement and the federal government."[18]

Interviewed about the Senate report, Michael Leiter, former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, stated that: "Since 9/11, the growth of state and local fusion centers has been exponential and regrettably in many instances it has produced an ill-planned mishmash rather than a true national system that is well-integrated with existing organizations like the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Forces."[19]

2009 Virginia terrorism threat assessment[edit]

In early April 2009, the Virginia Fusion Center came under criticism for publishing a terrorism threat assessment which stated that certain universities are potential hubs for terror related activity.[21] The report targeted historically black colleges and identified hacktivism as a form of terrorism.[22]

2011 Illinois fusion center finds water pump was "hacked"; the FBI disagrees[edit]

[icon] This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2013)

A November 2011 report by the Illinois fusion center was criticized for alleging that Russia hacked and deliberately disabled a water pump of the municipal water system in Illinois. The Senate report writes: "Apparently aware of how important such an event could have been had it been real, DHS intelligence officials included the false allegations—stated as fact—in a daily intelligence briefing that went to Congress and the intelligence community." A subsequent FBI investigation found however that: "The only fact that they got right was that a water pump in a small Illinois water district had burned out."[4][23]

Washington State Fusion Center[edit]
[icon]This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2013)

A lawsuit alleges that a WSFC employee added members of the Port Militarization Resistance to the domestic terrorists list on unsubstantiated grounds.[24][25]

See also[edit]
ADVISE
COINTELPRO
Council of Governors
Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007
Investigative Data Warehouse
Laird v. Tatum
Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative
Open-source intelligence
PRISM (surveillance program)
Surveillance
TALON (database)
Terrorism Liaison Officer
Total Information Awareness
USA PATRIOT Act



https://www.aclu.org/other/more-about-fusion-centers

MORE ABOUT FUSION CENTERS

Fusion centers were designed to organize localized domestic intelligence gathering into an integrated system that can distribute data both horizontally across a network of fusion centers and vertically, down to local law enforcement and up to the federal intelligence community. These centers can employ officials from federal, state and local law enforcement and homeland security agencies, as well as other state and local government entities, the federal intelligence community, the military and even private companies, to spy on Americans in virtually complete secrecy.

We found that while fusion centers vary widely in what they do, but five overarching problems with these domestic intelligence operations put Americans' privacy and civil liberties at risk:

Ambiguous Lines of Authority. In a multi-jurisdictional environment it is unclear what rules apply, and which agency is ultimately responsible for the activities of the fusion center participants.
Private Sector Participation. Some fusion centers incorporate private-sector corporations into the intelligence process, potentially undermining privacy laws designed to protect the privacy of innocent Americans, and increasing the risk of a data breach.
Military Participation.Some fusion centers include military personnel in law enforcement activities in troubling ways.
Data Mining. Federal fusion center guidelines encourage wholesale data collection and data manipulation processes that threaten privacy.
Excessive Secrecy. Fusion centers are characterized by excessive secrecy, which limits public oversight, impairs their ability to acquire essential information and impedes their ability to fulfill their stated mission, bringing their ultimate value into doubt.
We urged policymakers to examine this emerging network of fusion centers closely and, at a minimum, to put rigorous safeguards in place to ensure that they would not become the means for a new era of police intelligence abuses. There were 40 fusion centers when the report was published. Six months later there were 58 fusion centers and a growing number of news reports illustrating the problems we identified, so in July 2008 we published a follow-up report. Today there are at least 77 fusion centers across the country receiving federal funding.

Since these ACLU reports were published, a number of troubling intelligence products produced by fusion centers have leaked to the public:

A Texas fusion center released an intelligence bulletin that described a purported conspiracy between Muslim civil rights organizations, lobbying groups, the anti-war movement, a former U.S. Congresswoman, the U.S. Treasury Department and hip hop bands to spread Sharia law in the U.S.
The same month, but on the other side of the political spectrum, a Missouri Fusion Center released a report on "the modern militia movement" that claimed militia members are "usually supporters" of third-party presidential candidates like Ron Paul and Bob Barr.
In March 2008 the Virginia Fusion Center issued a terrorism threat assessment that described the state's universities and colleges as "nodes for radicalization" and characterized the "diversity" surrounding a Virginia military base and the state's "historically black" colleges as possible threats.
A DHS analyst at a Wisconsin fusion center prepared a report about protesters on both sides of the abortion debate, despite the fact that no violence was expected.
These bulletins, which are widely distributed, would be laughable except that they come with the imprimatur of a federally backed intelligence operation, and they encourage law enforcement officers to monitor the activities of political activists and racial and religious minorities.

Fusion centers are also the focal point for growing suspicious activity reporting programs that encourage public reporting of innocuous everyday activities. The Colorado Information and Analysis Center even produced a fear-mongering public service announcement asking the public to report innocuous behaviors such as photography, note-taking, drawing and collecting money for charity as "warning signs" of terrorism. The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute published a survey of fusion center employees in September 2012, which characterized suspicious activity reports as “white noise” that impeded effective intelligence analysis.

There is some good news, however. The 2010 DHS Homeland Security Grant Program established a requirement that fusion centers certify that privacy and civil liberties protections are in place in order to use DHS grant funds. This is the first time DHS has acknowledged its authority to regulate fusion center activities and it coincides with the establishment of a new DHS Joint Fusion Center Program Management Office to oversee DHS support to fusion centers. While these are only small steps, they are important advances toward establishing an effective governance and oversight structure over fusion centers. But reforms are not taking place fast enough and fusion centers and the risks they pose only continue to grow.

In October 2012, the Senate Homeland Security Committee Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a highly critical report on fusion centers, revealing that public officials’ claims about their effectiveness were not accurate, that federal funds designated for fusion centers were not properly accounted for, and that intelligence analysts and reports officers lacked sufficient training and often produced reports that infringed on civil rights. In response, the conservative Heritage Foundation called for cutting back the number of fusion centers. With ample evidence of abuse, the time has come for Congress and your local government representatives to act by cutting off funds to fusion centers that do not have a narrowly-tailored law enforcement mission, strict guidelines to protect Americans’ privacy, and independent oversight to prevent abuse.

« Back to Fusion Centers | Go To Spy Files »
Related IssuesNational Security Privacy and Surveillance




http://www.citizen.org/TPP-investment-map

TPP Investment Map: New Privileges for 29,000 Companies

The controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would grant multinational corporations extraordinary new powers to attack the laws we rely on for a clean environment, essential services, and healthy communities. Corporations would be empowered to bypass domestic courts and directly "sue" the U.S. and other TPP governments before tribunals of three corporate lawyers that sit outside of any domestic legal system. These lawyers would be authorized to order governments to hand unlimited sums of taxpayer dollars to the corporations for laws they say violate their new TPP rights, including compensation for the loss of "expected future profits."

This extreme “investor-state” system already has been included in a series of U.S. "free trade" agreements, forcing taxpayers to hand more than $440 million to corporations for toxics bans, land-use rules, regulatory permits, water and timber policies and more. Just under U.S. pacts, more than $70 billion remains pending in corporate claims against medicine patent policies, pollution cleanup requirements, climate and energy laws, and other public interest polices.

The TPP would more than double the United States’ exposure to investor-state attacks against U.S. policies, spelling an unprecedented increase in U.S. investor-state liability. The TPP would newly empower more than 1,000 corporations in TPP countries, which own more than 10,000 additional subsidiaries in the United States, to launch investor-state cases against the U.S. government. No other U.S. pact has subjected the United States to such an increase in investor-state liability. Past ISDS-enforced agreements have been almost exclusively with developing countries with few investments here. The United States has already nearly lost ISDS cases to firms from Canada – the only major capital exporter among our past ISDS-enforced agreements - and we only dodged the ISDS bullet because cases were dismissed on narrow procedural grounds. The TPP would also expose other TPP governments to a potential wave of investor-state cases by newly empowering more than 5,200 U.S. corporations to launch investor-state cases against TPP governments on behalf of more than 19,000 subsidiaries.

Below are the maps of the locations of multinational corporations that would be empowered with these new rights if Congress were to pass the TPP. In total, U.S. and foreign corporations with more than 75,000 subsidiaries would be able to use the expansive rights under TPP. These corporations could challenge the local zoning and environmental laws of your community, so zoom in using the "+" button to see which corporations are in your city. Click on the dots to see the names of the corporations and their industry. The color of the marker indicates the country of the parent company. The red lines on the map are the borders of the districts of the U.S. House of Representatives. Click here for a full list of companies based in TPP countries that operate in the United States, sorted by congressional district.

= Corporation based in Australia = Corporation based in Vietnam
= Corporation based in Canada = Corporation based in Singapore
= Corporation based in Japan = Corporation based in Mexico
= Corporation based in Malaysia = Corporation based in New Zealand
= Corporation based in Peru
= Corporation based in Brunei
= Corporation based in Chile


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Map
Satellite

Below is a map of U.S. corporations operating in the TPP countries. Zoom into a specific country by double clicking on the map to view the corporations located there.

Map data ©2016
Terms of Use

Map
Satellite

Each country, with the exception of Brunei, has hundreds of foreign corporate affiliates established in its territory that would gain new rights under the investor-state dispute system of the TPP. The table below lists just the number of U.S.-owned firms in each other TPP country. It also gives the total number of firms in the United States owned by corporations in TPP countries. The TPP countries that are not already covered by U.S. investor-state pacts include: Australia, Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Vietnam. Corporations in those countries own 10,119 of the 18,871 U.S. subsidiaries listed below. . . . .

This table indicates, for example, that 8,298 U.S. corporate affiliates are established in Australia, while 18,871 corporate affiliates from the other TPP countries are established in the United States.

The source of information on cross-registered firms is Uniworld's foreign firms database.

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