Bob McCarty Writes

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s tour of Missouri’s “fusion center” on March 11 was her first visit to a state fusion center since joining President Barack Obama’s Cabinet. Governor Jay Nixon briefed Napolitano on the workings of the fusion center, known as the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC).

The words above, which appeared as the first paragraph of a Missouri Department of Public Safety news release, would lead the average Show-Me State resident to trust that Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, knew what he was talking about when he briefed the nation’s top Homeland Security official during her visit to Missouri March 11.  But that trust seems to have been misplaced.

The Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader‘s Chad Livengood reports in an article published today that Governor Nixon is claiming ignorance and blaming others for the information coming out of MIAC, a program the aforementioned DPS news release refers to as a “fusion center” where law enforcement and other agencies pool information, resources and analysis to better address and detect crime and potential terrorist threats.

In the lead paragraph of his article, Livengood reports Nixon blames lax oversight from former Gov. Matt Blunt’s administration for the distribution of the now-infamous state intelligence report (pdf) on the “modern militia movement.”

In the fifth paragraph, Livengood quoted the governor as saying that the MIAC report was “formed under my predecessor” and his staff was unaware of the document.

Ten paragraphs later, Livengood refers back to the aforementioned DPS news release which claimed Nixon had “briefed Napolitano on the workings of the fusion center.”

What Livengood failed to mention — and, perhaps out of kindness, omitted — was the fact that, at the tail end of Secretary Napolitano’s visit to the state, Governor Nixon accompanied the former Arizona governor to Kansas City where the two of them addressed the National Fusion Center Conference.

Surely, Governor Nixon didn’t go to Kansas City and address attendees at an important Homeland Security event on key national security matters about which he knew little or nothing — or did he?

* * *

See also:

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon Accused of Harassing St. Louis Man Who Filed Sunshine Law Request

Yikes, I Might Be Part of the Militia Movement!

Be Sociable, Share!

•