{"id":118,"date":"2006-09-12T21:53:17","date_gmt":"2006-09-12T21:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brucefinley.com\/counter-terrorism\/state-counterterrorism-officials-casting-wider-net\/"},"modified":"2007-12-08T21:55:17","modified_gmt":"2007-12-08T21:55:17","slug":"state-counterterrorism-officials-casting-wider-net","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/counter-terrorism\/state-counterterrorism-officials-casting-wider-net\/","title":{"rendered":"State Counterterrorism Officials Casting Wider Net"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>AID FROM CITIZENS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> The ACLU denounces the use of a website to report “suspicious” activity as an encouragement to spy.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Colorado counterterrorism officials used the 9\/11 anniversary to<br \/>\nlaunch an Internet system that lets ordinary people electronically<br \/>\nreport “suspicious activity” – ferreting out possible terrorist<br \/>\nbombers or plotters in their midst.<\/p>\n<p>“One person can make a difference in thwarting terrorism,” State<br \/>\nPatrol Chief Mark Tostel said Monday in unveiling the system.<\/p>\n<p>Civil-liberties leaders immediately denounced the move as deeply<br \/>\ndestructive.<\/p>\n<p>The system lets anybody with Internet access send a report and<br \/>\nphotos (via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ciac.co.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.ciac.co.gov<\/a>) documenting anything that strikes them<br \/>\nas suspicious.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said suspicious activity may include “unusual requests<br \/>\nfor information,” “unusual interest in high-risk or symbolic<br \/>\ntargets,” “unusual purchases or thefts,” “suspicious or<br \/>\nunattended packages,” “suspicious persons who appear out of<br \/>\nplace” or people acquiring weapons, uniforms or fraudulent<br \/>\nidentification.<\/p>\n<p>A report sent through the system would ping the e-mail of a law<br \/>\nenforcement staffer at an intelligence relay station, the Colorado<br \/>\nInformation Analysis Center, located in Centennial in a secure<br \/>\nbuilding looped into federal computer networks.<\/p>\n<p>Multi-agency teams in this “fusion” center, with access to<br \/>\nclassified data, then would review the report, perhaps running<br \/>\nlicense-plate or other personal- data checks, and could notify the<br \/>\nFBI.<\/p>\n<p>About 300 tips about possible terrorism-related activity in<br \/>\nColorado, fielded at the center over the past 18 months, were<br \/>\ndeemed significant enough to forward to the FBI, state officials<br \/>\nsaid. The new electronic system is designed to increase the flow of<br \/>\ninformation that could be used to stop terrorism.<\/p>\n<p>It’s unclear what happens to names, locations and other information<br \/>\nsent to the FBI. Everybody who sends in a tip will get a response,<br \/>\nofficials said.<\/p>\n<p>Coloradans could abuse the system “to undermine their neighbors or<br \/>\ntheir enemies,” said State Patrol Sgt. Jack Cowart, a former Air<br \/>\nForce intelligence officer who manages the center. But that risk<br \/>\nalready exists with the rise of phone-oriented systems that let<br \/>\nColoradans report “road rage” and crime, Cowart said.<\/p>\n<p>“This is just one more. … We need information from the public to<br \/>\nkeep the public safe,” Cowart said.<\/p>\n<p>A counterterrorism telephone hotline (720-852-6705) already draws<br \/>\nup to 20 tips a week to the fusion center. Surveillance crews<br \/>\nsometimes contact police dispatchers, who can send officers to<br \/>\ncheck out people or places, said State Patrol Capt. Brenda Leffler,<br \/>\ncommander at the center.<\/p>\n<p>“I hate it,” said Cathryn Hazouri, executive director of the<br \/>\nAmerican Civil Liberties Union in Colorado. “This is encouraging<br \/>\npeople to spy on one another.”<\/p>\n<p>It moves modern America in the direction of communist societies of<br \/>\nthe Soviet Union and China, “where people were encouraged to turn<br \/>\nin their family members, or their neighbors, if they believed those<br \/>\npeople were not toeing the government line,” Hazouri said.<\/p>\n<p>“Be careful. Be aware that you could ruin people’s reputations,<br \/>\nruin their ability to go on an airplane,” Hazouri said. “There<br \/>\nare so many things that grow out of this kind of program.<\/p>\n<p>“It’s almost as though they are trying to tell people that they<br \/>\nneed to be afraid. Very afraid. Afraid of people they know, and<br \/>\nespecially of people they don’t know.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AID FROM CITIZENS The ACLU denounces the use of a website to report “suspicious” activity as an encouragement to spy. Colorado counterterrorism officials used the 9\/11 anniversary to launch an Internet system that lets ordinary people electronically report “suspicious activity” – ferreting out possible terrorist bombers or plotters in their midst. “One person can make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-counter-terrorism","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}