email John Bush at libertylover512@yahoo.com

I actually disagree with your statements about going about it all wrong – at the NOLA National Department of Homeland Security Fusion Center Conference we were approached by over a dozen fusion center directors, folks we had never met, folks we had met with, and some just curious.

The point is to show them we are not a threat to them, even though we disagree. Other than the strategic reports smearing us, these ODF fusion center visits are the only opportunity they’ve had to get to know who we are – and believe it or not, most of them like us. And our tour scheduling has become MUCH MORE EASY since visiting so many, our struggles began primarily at the beginning.

Every fusion center is DIFFERENT and gives DIFFERENT answers – we also do grassroots training courses in each city we visit.

I am curious, though, what do you think is a better way? Instead of talking “smack” why not join us and help?

I have BSc in International Business and Management, and a masters in International Relations. I have excelent linguistic both written and spoken skills in Pashtu and Dari; and can effecietly transalate documents of types and nature in to English and back to the early. I also have excelent first hand and scholary knowledge of Afghanistan, its culture and history. Durring my academic career I have also undertaken researches into various aspects of Afghanistan history, politics and culture and the current on-going conflict. I am towards the end of finishing my masters dissertation on the current conflict and peace-building in Afghanistan. I am also endowed with adequate computing skills. I would be very much interested in prospective employment and contribute to the success of your organisation.

I am also the National Coordinator for open records requests with Operation Defuse. We are about to send out open records requests to all 72 fusion centers in this country. And not simple requests either. We are asking for every budgetary document, every strategic report that isn’t classified, every interlocal agreement. We are asking for stacks of information to put in our own fusion center that we are creating. Our fusion center will be citizen’s fusion center about fusion centers. That way, anyone can go to the online fusion center and find out anything about their local fusion center.

We aren’t just visiting with these officials and then badmouthing them later. We are visiting them and ensuring that they act as transparently as possible. If we don’t understand what each fusion center is like, we are making our claims on broad based assumptions. We should never demonize the people, especially without understanding really what they do. Please, I would like to hear a better approach, ways to improve what we do. We are learning a lot everyday on the road. This is our first trip, and our first meetings with fusion center representatives outside of Austin. We are trying to make our trips as productive as possible, so do you have any suggestions?

We have been denied access to 3 fusion centers when planning this trip. We have had access to 3 fusion centers so far. The 3 that denied, we will still visit and just ask them in person if we can interview them. Believe it or not, visiting with these fusion center personnel actually gets us in to more fusion centers. We are getting fusion center representatives that we meet with to email their friends at other fusion centers and let them know we are normal people and not “terrorists”.