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The head of a House Homeland Security subcommittee slammed the FBI and Homeland Security Department on Thursday for not coordinating efforts to help state law enforcers probe suspected terrorist plots.

California Democrat Jane Harman, chairwoman of the Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment Subcommittee, said she was "baffled" by the agencies' failure to consolidate multiple databases so the staffers at "fusion centers" do not have to access several systems each morning to see what threats the nation faces.

She also said it is "disturbing" that the FBI and Homeland Security do not recognize each other's security clearances at more than 40 local and regional hubs around the country. "This is obviously absurd," Harman said at an oversight hearing on the centers.

There is an "absence of national strategy" for the centers, which get state and federal funding, and many of them are merely "co-location centers" that do not have the infrastructure to effectively share data, she said. They also lack sustainable resources and a common baseline, she said.

Harman stressed that the FBI and Homeland Security must partner with state intelligence officials and "not dictate who should be doing what."

"I think everyone recognizes that fusion centers hold tremendous promise," she said.

Subcommittee ranking Republican Dave Reichert of Washington noted that "what makes the centers work is the fusion of the personalities" involved. The same characteristic also raises difficulties for the programs' effectiveness, he said.

"We know it's going to be a long process; we know there are going to be some hiccups in the process," said Reichert, a former sheriff.

Congressional Research Service analysts Todd Masse and John Rollins, and Eileen Larence of the Government Accountability Office offered recommendations for how to improve the centers. Both agencies recently studied the programs.

They said Congress could ask the executive branch to draft a national fusion center strategy because no uniform model exists. They added that lawmakers could provide more detailed guidance on the centers' federal funding mechanisms.

Jack Tomarchio, Homeland Security's principal deputy assistant secretary of information analysis; FBI Deputy Assistant Director Michael Mines; and Norman Beasley, counter-terrorism coordinator at the Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff's department, also testified.

Privacy watchdogs have expressed concerns with the fusion centers. Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee met last week to discuss those and other center issues.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it is worried about the involvement of non-law-enforcement agencies and private-sector entities in some fusion centers. The mass collaboration "gives rise to even more significant concerns about the roles these parties play in the collection and analysis of the private information concerning Americans," the group said in a press release.

COMMENTS

• The idea that DHS or FBI should establish standards for how a fusion center should work is ridiculous. If the states had faith in either of those agencies keeping america safe they would not be setting up their own intelligence systems. Skeptical Posted October 2, 2007 11:07 AM
• Why should anyone be suprised at this messabout Security Clearances. In the 1980s, I worked for DOD and had a Top Secret Clearance and took a job at Treasury which needed only a Secret Clearance. Treasury would not accept my Top Secret Clearance and had to complete all the paperwork again for Treasury to complete another investigation eventhough I have had a security clearance for years. Several years later I went back to DOD and had to complete paperwork again for a new Top Secret Clearance. It doesn't seem to have gotten any better over the years. I can understand the need for additional work to go from a Secret to Top Secret, but not the reverse!!!!!!!! When are these agencies going to get some Common Sense????????? JPWilson Posted October 2, 2007 9:49 AM
• Why would the FBI recognize a security clearance from the DHS? DHS was misnamed and should be called DHI for Department of Insecurity! The DHS is run by contractors controlled by President Putin. The FBI is majority run by career officials. The DHS only awards prime contracts to companies such as Digimarc and Lockheed who are majority-owned by the Kremlin's crime gang/FSS w/large presences in Russia, and are loyal to Putin--wrecker of Russia's emerging democracy, and are not loyal to Americans and others residing within democracies. This pattern repeated when a backroom deal was cut (illicit) to give Digimarc the Real ID Act implementation contract this past June and by July 2nd Putin had released another phony contract where Digimarc won't provide the goods, but it will be paid as a reward from bumping Immtec from the # 1 slot based on merit for this contract. Immtec isn't publicly traded and turned-down 3 Kremlin financial offers. No one has heard of us and our smart wallet tech standard, but will learn a lot about us from pending news from US DOJ! Immtec was # 1 based on merit since 2002 in every federal credentialing program, but Lockheed which controlled the programs (all broke procurement law) wouldn't work w/us b/c we aren't Kremlin Mafia-controlled. Dawn Dippell Posted September 29, 2007 12:29 PM