State Police: Bulletins Caused Headaches
Washington PA Observer Reporter
28
September 2010
Associated Press
HARRISBURG - Leaders of the Pennsylvania State Police told a
legislative committee Monday that unsubstantiated or needlessly
inflammatory listings in state-contracted homeland security
intelligence bulletins caused a series of problems for their operations.
Maj. George Bivens, head of the criminal investigation division, said
some of the notices about threats to Pennsylvania infrastructure
produced by the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response for the
state Office of Homeland Security resulted in a waste of manpower to
address nonexistent threats. He compared the bulletins to a tabloid
magazine.
"Every so often they have something right. Much of the time it is
unsubstantiated gossip," he told the Senate Veterans Affairs and
Emergency Preparedness Committee.
Also Monday, a civil rights lawsuit was filed against the institute and
a copy served to an institute co-director before he spoke in defense of
the organization at the same legislative committee meeting.
Gov. Ed Rendell has publicly apologized for monitoring that included
reporting on the activities of political activists and others. He
decided the state will not renew the institute's contract when it
expires next month, and his administration has posted the bulletins on
the state website.
The group's one-year deal with the state was worth $103,000, paid with
federal funds. The bulletins were issued several times a week and sent
to hundreds of people, most of them in law enforcement and private
industry.
Bivens said his concerns about the Pennsylvania Critical Infrastructure
Bulletins began shortly after they began to appear a year ago. He said
they included information taken out of context and that some of the
analysis was biased.
Bivens said state police higher-ups had to order local stations not to
respond to some of the events because the department's internal
analysis determined there was no real threat to public safety.
He cited as examples a report of a supposed Islamic training camp in
Wayne County, a warning of protests by natural gas drilling opponents
at a Rendell appearance in Tioga County, the potential vulnerability to
attack of the King of Prussia Mall and a family oriented meeting of
gun-rights enthusiasts in Schuylkill County.
He said he attempted to address the problems with the Pennsylvania
Emergency Management Agency, in which the Office of Homeland Security
is located, but felt it did no good. The state police asked that a
disclaimer be put on the bulletins to make it clear they were not being
produced by anyone in law enforcement, he said.
State police Commissioner Frank Pawlowski said a high-ranking aide to
Rendell assured him police knew about the Tioga event and did not
expect trouble. Pawlowski told the committee he responded to Rendell
chief of staff Steve Crawford: "This is one of the problems you have
when you contract intelligence work to amateurs."
Mike Perelman, co-director of the Institute of Terrorism Research and
Response and a former York City Police captain, told the committee he
has a staff of about 15 people, plus 70 more in locations around the
globe, and an office in Jerusalem. He said his company did not compile
a terror watch list.
"We didn't track individuals; we didn't track groups," Perelman said.
"No, there is no list."
Perelman said his company is still performing work under the state
contract.
"We continue to scan the horizon for potential threats against
Pennsylvania's infrastructure," he said.
As he was heading to the committee table to testify, Perelman was
served with the federal lawsuit filed by the Kingston-based Gas
Drilling Awareness Coalition, a citizen watchdog group. The defendants
are Perelman, the institute he runs and James F. Powers Jr., the state
homeland security director.
The lawsuit claims the bulletins characterized coalition actions and
words "as some quantum of a potential threat to critical infrastructure
within the commonwealth - all without any evidence that (the coalition)
posed any remote or indirect physical threat to drilling interests or
property."
The lawsuit says the free speech rights of coalition members were
affected because bulletins were distributed to the Marcellus Shale
drilling companies, and by "publicly casting plaintiff as a potentially
violent organization." It seeks an injunction against domestic
surveillance and damages.
Perelman's lawyer Jeffrey M. Miller and Powers' spokeswoman Maria Finn
both declined comment on the lawsuit.