Ask the Fusion Centers in Your State These Questions:
1. Is the FBI part of my state fusion center?
2. The Attorney General under Bush rescinded anti-COINTELPRO regulations. The Attorney General under Obama has not written new Guidelines for the FBI. Hence will fusion centers under the directions of the FBI engage in COINTELPRO activities documented by the Senate committee known as the Church Committee?
a. Will there be conspicuous surveillance of citizens on the basis of their political beliefs, even when those beliefs pose no threat of violence or illegal acts?
b. Will there be collection of information about the intimate details of citizens’ lives and about their participation in legal and peaceful political activities?
c. Will the FBI engage in activities as it did in previous COINTELPRO programs to disrupt and discredit domestic political groups or individuals engaged in constitutionally protected activities?
d. Will citizens be given due process rights when accusations are made against them by firemen, neighbors, others to protect against personal vendettas and mobbing (several friends targeting an individual for harassment, making up stories about someone etc.) or will the information turned in be databased and widely disseminated? Will an individual be put under conspicuous surveillance as a result of such information without being made aware of the charges made against them and given an opportunity to defend themselves against these charges?
e. What kind of information will be put in files maintained at fusion centers? Reports by firemen, neighbors etc.? Who will determine the accuracy of information kept in files on American citizens? Will files be kept on persons engaging in peaceful political activities?
f. Will the investigations be restricted to criminal activities and violent acts or will they investigate groups or individuals unrelated to criminal activity and violent acts?
g. Will the exchange of personally identifiable information between agencies only be related to criminal activity and violent acts?
3. What recourse will an American citizen have who feels he or she is the target of a secret offensive action by a fusion center? What mechanism exist for people who believe their activities are unlawfully being monitored to redress their grievances?
4. What oversight exists over fusion centers?
5. What legal standards exist for fusion centers to protect the constitutional rights of citizens?
6. Will fusion centers monitor political activists where there is no suspicion they have committed a criminal act or are making preparations to do so?
7. Will fusion centers engage in monitoring and conducting surveillance of individuals or groups without credible evidence of wrongdoing or making preparations for criminal acts?
8. Is a mechanism in place to periodically review and audit intelligence files by a neutral third party?
9. Can police/fusion centers use GPS to track American citizens without first getting a warrant?
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