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Originally posted by CIAGypsy
reply to post by ItDepends
OK, let's talk about the Fusion Centers as you seem to have a narrow view into their purpose. Regardless of attempts to believe otherwise, the government is not everywhere at all times. They do not have limitless resources to analyze every piece of data that comes into purview. The Fusion Centers were set up as State Level agencies of Homeland Security to connect disparate pieces of information that may be suspicious within that state. The Fusion Centers are typically manned by a team of analysts from other agencies such as FBI, State Police, DEA, etc.
Let me give you an example of the type of work the Fusion Center does... Let's say a Fire Station in Anytown reports they are missing a bunch of uniforms. The next town over, a paramedic school reports a man from out of state asked about learning to drive an ambulance. They may report that his behavior was very strange and that he exhibited no desire to be a paramedic, just driving an ambulance... Oh, and he asked if he could rent one for a day. In yet another town, a farm store reports someone tried to buy 500 lbs of fertilizer without the proper credentials. While all this information by itself may not be actionable, if you also consider a big public event is coming up, it might put a different skew on these incidents if viewed as a bigger picture.
The role of the Fusion Center is to connect these disparate pieces of information into a potentially actionable picture. If that happens, they send the information off to the appropriate agency for further follow up.
The goal is to prevent another 9/11 by connecting dots that, on their own, may seem unimportant. Also be aware that the public only sees intelligence failures and not it's successes. The Fusion Centers play a very important role in keeping us safe domestically.