This piece was written for the Missouri Record.
by Catherine Bleish
September 6, 2009 The Missouri Informational Analysis Center (MIAC) is an organization that had relatively little name recognition before the public became aware of the since retracted “MIAC Strategic Report on the Modern Militia Movement” that was leaked in March of this year. The report was issued to Missouri law enforcement personnel and identified many conservative and libertarian viewpoints as indicators of a “potential threat” to law enforcement officials.
The report specifically mentioned supporters of 2008 presidential candidates Ron Paul (Republican), Bob Barr (Libertarian), and Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party). Issues ranging from concerns about the Federal Reserve Banking System, to illegal immigration, to NAFTA, to RFID tracking technology were also listed as identifiers of a potential “dangerous militia member” for law enforcement.
(View a copy of the report here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/17782513/MIAC-Report-Modern-Militia-Movement)
The public outcry was both immediate and overwhelming. Missouri State Representative Brian Nieves was quoted as saying, “My office received more phone calls on this issue than any other issue EVER”. In response to this reaction, the Missouri Legislature put together the Interim Committee on State Intelligence Analysis Oversight, chaired by Representative Bob Dixon.
The committee has held three public hearings in Jefferson City, St. Charles and Grandview, Missouri. A fourth and final hearing will be held this September 9th in Springfield, Missouri. The hearings have been an excellent opportunity for the public and our elected officials to learn about the current mindset our law enforcement community.
As one of seventy-two Department of Homeland Security sanctioned “fusion centers”, the MIAC integrates intelligence data from local, state, national, and private intelligence gathering agencies with the goal of identifying and preventing terror threats before they happen. The MIAC has been in existence since 2005, receiving its DHS fusion center designation in 2007. The fusion center falls under the jurisdiction of the Missouri Department of Public Safety and employs two part time FBI analysts and one full time DHS analyst in addition to twenty-seven other employees. Twenty-eight percent of the MIAC is funded through the Department of Homeland Security.
During the first hearing held in Jefferson City, Missouri, the MIAC presented a PowerPoint presentation that highlighted the organization’s mission and current activities. What was revealed during this presentation is the fact that the MIAC center in function serves as an efficiency tool for Missouri law enforcement at traffic stops and while conducting warrant checks, but in function is not serving in an anti-terror capacity other than the authoring of such reports. In fact, according to their presentation, of the hundreds of examples of requests made to the fusion center, only Saint Louis Country requested any information related to terrorism.
One of the great concerns that developed from this hearing is the mindset of our law enforcement community. Greg White, Cole County Sheriff, came to the defense of the Strategic Report in question, “to think that we would not do strategic work within the fusion center is as if to say it is OK to commit certain acts of violence”. Citizen testimony came from three individuals and was all in opposition to strategic report in question.
Before the second hearing the Liberty Restoration Project obtained documents from the Missouri Department of Public Safety that underscore the concerning mentality currently found within our law enforcement community.
A March 14th email between two DPS employees refers to the MIAC as, “Fort MIAC”, and yet an even more concerning email from the same date states, “ ..Cindy is manning the M60 nest on the roof of the building… haha.”. The same email defends the MIAC Strategic Report on the Modern Militia Movement stating, “There was nothing wrong or illegal about publishing this piece. There is nothing we can do about the distortion of the information by citizens wanting to twist the meaning of information to conform to their ‘view’ of the world.”. The same email highlights the fusion center’s direct tie to the Department of Homeland Security by stating, “DHS analytic components believed it to be a good piece”.
It was during the second hearing in St. Charles, Missouri, while over a dozen citizens testified their displeasure with the report and the fusion center, that the State Legislators began to express deep concern about the role of the federal government in our state law enforcement practices. Missouri State Representative Jason Smith commented that the report appears to be an attempt protect the government form citizens rebelling and Missouri State Representative Shane Schoeller also commented that legislators have been part of the problem and one solution is the let them know they won’t be reelected.
During the third hearing in Grandview, Missouri an officer from the Kansas City Police Department stated that his drug crime task force uses the fusion center, but the terror related components are completely irrelevant to his success. Representative Brian Nieves commented, “I am one of those people becoming more and more uncomfortable with federal government telling states how to do things” and asked if removing the federal government from the fusion center would impede local or state crime fighting, the KCPD officer responded that removing the federal government from their operations would in no way impede the local or state crime fight.
There are eleven such reports that are unclassified and address various social and political movements with one theme in common; they are all upset with the role of the Federal Government. Interestingly enough, the federal government, through the Department of Homeland Security, seems to have their hands in the development of these reports which profile such groups and people as “threats” all across the nation. At least eight instances of plagiarism have been found between these documents and the Anti Defamation League’s website. The committee will present suggestions to the Missouri Legislature when it is back in session.
Related documents can be found here: http://www.scribd.com/CatherineBleish
