Free Speech, Privacy And National Security With, Maybe, A Dash Of Cronyism

Have you ever heard of the Department of Homeland Security "all hazards fusion centers" that sprung up during the Bush Administration? We have one in Collin County called "The North Central Texas Fusion System" operated by the Collin County Department of Homeland Security in the county sheriff's office building. The Collin County Observer reports that James Johnson, son of U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson, and James Johnson's wife, Anita Miller, have received at least $1 million in no-bid contracts from Collin County since 2004 to design and run the "The North Central Texas Fusion System." Four other such fusion centers, designed to gather intelligence on Texans and share it with law-enforcement agencies, have been created in Texas since 2002.

The Collin County Observer has been posting about the "all hazards fusion center" in Collin County. A blogger colleague suggested we should post something to highlight this important reporting by our friend Bill Baumbach at the Observer blog.

The Collin County Observer has been reporting that a February 19. 2009 North Central Texas Fusion System "Prevention Awareness" bulletin distributed to law enforcement organizations warned that mainstream Muslim organizations were infiltrating American institutions, with the goal of gaining support for Islamic-based issues:

A bizarre, conspiracy-laden memo sent to almost 3,000 cops, fire marshals and public-health officials in North Texas links mainstream Muslim-rights organizations and anti-war groups to Middle Eastern terrorists, and calls on law enforcement to “report these types of activities.”

The leaked memo, dated Feb. 19 and labeled “For Official Use Only,” is one in a weekly series of “Prevention Awareness Bulletins” put out by the North Central Texas Fusion System, a regional intelligence-gathering center run by the Collin County Department of Homeland Security. Five such fusion centers, designed to consolidate and share intelligence with law-enforcement agencies, have been created in Texas since 9/11.

The bulletin has increased fears among civil libertarians and Metroplex Muslims that the North Central Texas Fusion System has edged into spying.

The author of the weekly Prevention Awareness Bulletin is James Johnson, son of U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson, a Republican who represents Collin County [in the 3rd Congressional District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives. The 3rd Congressional District includes the southwestern portion of Collin County and the Northeastern corner of Dallas County.]

So, what is a Department of Homeland Security "all Hazards Fusion Center" and what does it do, you may be asking yourself. The Department of Homeland Security was authorized to fund local Homeland Security operations around the country as a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission Report. This far-reaching, yet little known or scrutinized, 9/11 Commission recommendation on "domestic" intelligence gathering breaks down the walls between local, state, and federal law enforcement and disaster response.

The thinking went that in terms of both prevention and response, effectively fighting terror would require a much higher level of centralized coordination among federal, state and local law enforcement and emergency services than had ever been previously contemplated. Though local fusion centers vary from state to state, most contain similar elements, including members of state and local law enforcement, public health, social services, public safety, and public works organizations. Increasingly, federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms are stationing their agents in the local fusion centers too.

(Department of Homeland Security also promotes and funds local "Urban Search and Rescue" (US&R) task forces to provide specialized assistance after disasters to stabilize damaged structures, locate and extricate victims, identify risks of additional collapses, and meet other needs at disaster sites. The US&R task forces are separate from "all hazards fusion centers," but the two efforts are related.)

Fusion centers are low-profile, highly secure sites where federal and state officials with top secret clearance meet in order to collect, analyze, and redistribute information on "all hazards and all threats." The Department of Homeland Security has paid out more than $327 million in funding to local authorities during fiscal years 2004 to 2008 to form 70 centers across the country. The federal government also provides start up personnel and technical support along with the funding.

The list of hazards and threats covered by these centers initially started with terrorism, but soon expanded to include local crime, gangs, "political activists" and weather-related natural disasters. (During the Bush administration Iraq anti-war protesters were identified as "political activists.") Fusion center databases are initialized with a broad spectrum of information, including the location and capabilities of area hospitals, available emergency response resources, and names from federal terrorism and law enforcement watch lists. Local, state and federal representatives now continually update fusion center databases with details of 911 emergency hot-line calls and other information gathered from law enforcement agencies, commercial sources, internet sources, blogs and websites, club and group memberships and, apparently, even religious affiliation.

Bush Administration Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, pressed fusion centers to "fuse" local firefighters with the "intelligence gathering" functions of local Fusion Centers. Chertoff reasoned that because firefighters, as emergency first responders, were in a position to report suspicious observations as they gain entrance to buildings in response to emergency calls.

The 70 local all hazards fusion centers around the U.S., including the one in Collin County, then, generally gather, compile, store, interpret and then distribute to other government agencies huge amounts of information on the "activities" of local citizens.

This data pool is intended to help local, state and federal law enforcement form a clearer picture of threats facing each state. In addition, it helps inform law enforcement investigations, contingency planning, and emergency response. This is what The North Central Texas Fusion System (NCTFS) does - it gathers and interprets information on the "activities" of Collin County residents and sends "reports" to local, state and national law enforcement organizations on what local groups or individual persons might pose a threat.

While Fusion Centers sprang to life and grew to 70 centers under the Bush Administration they seem to have continuing strong support from the Obama administration. "At the Department of Homeland Security, information and intelligence sharing is a top priority and fusion centers play an important role in helping to make that happen... In the world we live in today, it’s critical for federal, state, local and tribal entities to know what the others are doing so each can operate effectively and efficiently," said Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano at the the third annual National Fusion Center Conference in Kansas City on March 11 this year.

"Protecting our country requires a partnership of federal, state and local resources that are fully integrated to not only gather and analyze information, but then to swiftly share that information with appropriate agencies...Fusion centers represent the honing of these protective efforts, while strongly protecting individual rights and civil liberties. They are a vital part of keeping our nation strong, safe and free," Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said in remarks at the same conference.

The National Fusion Center Coordination Group (NFCCG), the 2009 National Fusion Center conference organizer, promoted a conference agenda focused on strengthening the integrated national network of state and major urban area fusion centers that share information and intelligence with the federal government and each other. Close to 1,000 state, local, tribal, territorial and federal partners involved in the 70+ fusion centers across the country attended the March 2009 conference.

Some worry that the information gathered by Fusion Centers might be used to violate civil liberties. This seems to be the implication of the February 19, 2009 North Central Texas Fusion System "Prevention Awareness" bulletin warning about the political activities of Americans who attend Mosque rather than Church.

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, says pooling information on U.S. citizens who aren't suspected of a crime runs afoul of the Federal Privacy Act of 1974. Some states have even applied for exemptions from constraints on the kind of information they can collect, which Rotenberg calls “a purposeful attempt to suspend federal privacy laws.”

In December of 2008, the DHS issued a "Privacy Impact Statement" giving "civil liberties" oversight guidance to fusion center directors and personnel. The DHS Statement called for the establishment of community oversight committees and the prominent public disclosure of privacy policies, information collected and how the information will be used. The North Central Texas Fusion System in Collin County has not subscribed to nor adhered to these DHS "privacy and civil liberties"guidelines.

Science Takes Hits in Texas

After a year of fierce debate about how evolution should be taught (or not taught) in Texas public schools, the State Board of Education (SBOE) voted on and passed a final version of new science education standards that will guide the content of science textbooks and classroom curriculum for the next decade.

Just to review yesterday’s action, a reference to the “weaknesses” of evolution was removed from the education standard during the morning, but in the afternoon creationists on the board passed several other amendments to the standard that again opens the door for Texas teachers to effectively still have a "critical discussion" on the “strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories" with public school students. The amendment phrases ask teachers to prompt students to “examine all sides of scientific evidence and scientific explanations so as to encourage critical thinking.”

Today, in its final vote on the new eduction standard the entire standard as written, including those fuzzy and open to interpretation 'examine all sides' amendments, were adopted. Those teachers and school districts who want to criticize evolution and discuss the 'scientific theory of intelligent design' will no doubt interpret the amendment language as their license to do so.

The SBOE's decision has a large impact across the U.S. given Texas' ability, because of its size, to influence what is printed in textbooks. The just adopted standard, with the last minute amendments, allows Don McLeroy, young earth creationist chairman of the Texas State Board of Education, to pressure textbook publishers to write the “strengths and weaknesses of evolution discussion" into textbooks used nationwide.

The Texas Freedom Network has released the following statement on the final adoption of science curriculum standards by the State Board of Education today:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 27, 2000

TFN President Kathy Miller: Texas State Board of Education Adopts Flawed Science Standards

The word “weaknesses” no longer appears in the science standards. But the document still has plenty of potential footholds for creationist attacks on evolution to make their way into Texas classrooms.

Through a series of contradictory and convoluted amendments, the board crafted a road map that creationists will use to pressure publishers into putting phony arguments attacking established science into textbooks.

We appreciate that the politicians on the board seek compromise, but don’t agree that compromises can be made on established mainstream science or on honest education policy.

What’s truly unfortunate is that we now have to revisit this entire debate in two years when new science textbooks are adopted. Perhaps the Texas legislature can do something to prevent that.

###

The Texas Freedom Network is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization of religious and community leaders who advance a mainstream agenda supporting public education, religious freedom and individual liberties.

The Texas Freedom Network live-blogged today's meeting and has a good play-by-play of the amendments and maneuverings on their blog. The Texas Observer blog has several posts worth reading and here is The Austin American-Statesman's story link.

Capitol Annex: “Analyze, Evaluate And Critique” Becomes New “Strenghts & Weaknesses” For Science Educators In Texas

Related Posts:

• Young Earth Creationists Win The Day On Questioning Evolution In Texas Classrooms
• Texas School Board Set to Vote on Challenge to Evolution

Seven experts briefly describe the essence of science and how it differs from religion.

"Only a Theory" 2:19	Barbara Forrest, Professor of Philosophy Southeastern Louisiana University - "When creationists try to dismiss evolution as 'only a theory,' they are misusing the word theory."
Avoiding the Supernatural 1:41	Nick Matzke, Public Information Project Director National Center for Science Education - "A conservative judge isn't going to just redefine science."
Science and Religion 2:29	Ken Miller, Biologist Brown University - "What science isn't very good at is answering questions [on] the meaning and purpose of things."
On Isaac Newton 1:34
A Solid Theory 1:18	Kevin Padian, Paleontologist UC Berkeley - "I don't know where people get the idea that evolution is a theory in crisis."
Natural Explanations 1:33	Robert T. Pennock, Philosopher and Evolutionary Scientist Michigan State University - "You can't have gaps that you fill in by appeal to miracles."
Science Is Not Dogmatic 2:02
Science Tests Its Claims 1:12	Eugenie Scott, Executive Director National Center for Science Education - "If you teach intelligent design as a science, you are confusing students about the nature of science."
The Power of Science 1:23	Neil Shubin, Paleontologist University of Chicago and the Field Museum - "Not every idea, no matter how beautiful, qualifies as science."

Young Earth Creationists Win The Day On Questioning Evolution In Texas Classrooms

Pro-evolution advocates felt like they had carried the day Thursday morning when the State Board of Education voted against adding language to the education standard requiring Texas educators to have a "critical discussion" on the “strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories" with public school students.

However, by the end of board proceedings late Thursday afternoon it was actually young earth creationist Don McLeroy, Chairman of the Texas State Board of Education, and the creation social conservative members of the board that won the day on teaching the “strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories" in Texas schools.

The Texas Observer:

McLeroy and the six other social conservatives on the 15-member board mostly got their way this afternoon. They passed a series of minor amendments that, with a slight word change here and there, diluted the state’s science standards and the teaching of evolutionary theory. Critics say these proposals open loopholes in the standards for the teaching of unscientific theories espoused by religious conservatives. (The same approach was tried, quite successfully, at the board’s meeting in January.}

“We’re opening the conversation and broadening it to alternative theories,” said Barbara Cargill, a socially conservative board member from The Woodlands. “We know there are a lot of questions about the fossil record.” [There is NO scientific evidence that is non-supportive of evolution. Evolution is settled science for all but ideologues who oppose it for religious reasons.]

Terri Leo, an ardent social conservative, passed an amendment requiring biology students to “analyze and evaluate the evidence regarding the formation of simple organic molecules.”

Board Chair Don McLeroy passed an amendment that will require science curriculum and textbooks to “analyze and evaluate the sufficiency or insufficiency of natural selection to explain the complexity of the cell.”

Cargill snuck through an amendment that struck a reference to the Universe being 14 billion years old. “It clarifies this for our teachers to let students know that there are differing theories for the age of the Universe,” Cargill said, adding that she was simply trying to add a sense of “humility” to the science standards.

Pro-evolution members offered several amendments themselves, many from Lubbock’s Bob Craig, to undo the social conservatives’ victories from January. Nearly all of those amendments failed.

The change in fortunes occurred largely because of Rick Agosto of San Antonio, who voted against the social conservatives in the morning and mostly with them in the afternoon. Agosto is viewed as the key swing vote on the board. He voted against the “strengths and weaknesses” language in January and again this morning, despite fierce lobbying from religious groups in his district.

Agosto wasn’t alone. Several other pro-evolution board members voted with the social conservatives’ this afternoon.

The board will take its final vote on the science standards, which will set content of classes and textbooks for years to come, tomorrow. The board can add in or take out language up until final passage.

So one last fight is likely on Friday.

The purpose of the several amendments, as McLeroy states in the video, is to allow teachers to question the validity of the “two key parts of the great claim of evolution, which is common ancestry by unguided natural processes.”

Texas School Board Set to Vote on Challenge to Evolution

Updated Thursday March 26 at 1:00PM - Texas State Board of Education votes to not critically challenge evolution in Texas schools and textbooks. See update below.
Young earth creationist Don McLeroy, recently reappointed as chairman of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) by Republican Governor Rick Perry, believes the earth is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old and that modern man and dinosaurs walk the earth together. McLeroy, a Bryon dentist who has no background in science or education, is convinced that evolution taught uncritically undermines the tenet of Christianity that people were created in the image of God.

The video explains the young earth creationist "intelligent design" principles that McLeroy is asking teachers to present to students in Texas schools.

McLeroy believes that the science disciplines of physics, geology, biology and the archaeological study of the fossil record, which all provide evidence the earth is 4.5 billion years old and that biological processes first appeared at least 3.9 billion years ago, must be critically argued by Texas teachers and the text books they use as unreliable.

McLeroy is asking teachers to engage Texas students in a "critical discussion" that the archaeological evidence of the fossil record does not support the idea of natural selection as an explanation of how organisms evolved on earth over millions of years. McLeroy wants teachers to lead students to the believe that cells and the DNA code controlling their function is so complex that intelligent design by a creator and not evolution is the only answer that can be accepted.

Update - CapitolAnnex is reporting:

A motion for the SBOE to reinstate language, advocated by McLeroy, into the education standard requiring Texas educators to have a "critical discussion" on the “strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories" with public school students failed on a 7-7 tied vote of the State Board of Education in Austin on Thursday March 26th.

In spite of the victory, rumors are already running rampant that social conservatives and young-earth creationist groups are looking to challenge the vote. According to a source within the Texas Education Agency, social conservative groups have already raised the idea of challenging today’s vote as violating the Texas Open Meetings Act and the Texas Constitution because Mavis Knight (D-Dallas) cast her vote via teleconference from an Education Service Center in Richardson. Knight is recovering from heart surgery and could not travel to Austin.

While other state agencies and boards–including the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles–conduct their meetings using similar methods, right-wing anti-science advocates are expected to use Knight’s vote as a mechanism to challenge today’s vote.

The vote upholds a tentative vote taken by the board in January to discard the “strengths and weaknesses” language from the education standard. The near-party line vote saw seven ultraconservative Republicans voting for the motion and three more moderate Republicans and four Democrats against.

The SBOE's decision has a large impact across the U.S. given Texas' ability, because of its size, to influence what is printed in textbooks. If the Texas SBOE had voted to require Texas teachers to "critically discuss" evolution, then that “strengths and weaknesses of scientific theory discussion" would have been printed in textbooks used nationwide.

McLeroy's critics, who include many Texas scientists, accuse him of trying to undermine a multitude of scientific evidence that supports evolution and replace it with a discussion of one particular fundamentalist interpretation of religious doctrine in public schools.

The Christian Right has already moved the battle over teaching intelligent design to the floor of the Texas House and Senate with HB 4224. House Bill 4224 would override the SBOE vote just taken by requiring Texas educators to have a "critical discussion" on the “strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories" with public school students. If passed into law the bill would would allow schools to teach whatever they wish, not just on evolution vs. intelligent design, but on any scientific topic from geology to physics to how diseases are transmitted.

WSJ: Texas School Board Set to Vote on Challenge to Evolution
CNN: Education board leader set to challenge evolution
RawStory: Texas House Bill 2800 would allow creationists to grant Masters of Science degrees

Texas Freedom Network Stand Up For Science Initiative:

• Send a letter to your State Board of Education member by clicking here.
• Sign the Stand Up for Science petition here, if you have already signed forward the petition to your friends!
• Read more about young earth creationists on the SBOE.
• Read a TFN report on what Texas scientists think about the battle over evolution and creationism.

Related Posts:

• Texas House Bill End Run To Teach Creation In TX Schools
• Teaching Creationism Has Evolved