By The Associated Press

Published: Wednesday, October 3, 2012, 9:36 p.m.
Updated: Wednesday, October 3, 2012

WASHINGTON — Stinging criticism from Congress about a counterterrorism effort that improperly collected information about innocent Americans is turning up the heat on the Obama administration to justify the program's continued existence and putting lawmakers who championed it on the defensive.

The administration strongly disagrees with the report's findings, and leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee are distancing themselves from the report. The review criticized the multibillion-dollar network of “fusion centers” as ineffective in fighting terrorism and risky to civil liberties.

The political maneuvering by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, is unusual because the bipartisan report was issued by their own subcommittee.

The intelligence reports reviewed by the subcommittee were produced by officials in the Homeland Security Department's Intelligence and Analysis division, which was created after the Sept. 11 attacks with the hope of connecting the dots to prevent the next terrorist strike. This division has never lived up to what Congress initially hoped for.

Lieberman and Collins were the driving forces behind the creation of the department. Fusion centers, the analytical centers intended to spot terrorism trends in every state, are held up by many as the crown jewel of the department's security efforts.

“I strongly disagree with the report's core assertion that fusion centers have been unable to meaningfully contribute to federal counterterrorism efforts,” Lieberman said in a statement Wednesday, singling out six “shortcomings” in the report. Collins issued a separate statement that listed four shortcomings.

1. Shooting of armed intruder, hostage haunts New York police officer
2. Justice Department ‘abusive,’ AP chief says
3. Medicaid opposition underscores states’ health care disparities
4. Researchers develop food map to pinpoint how Americans eat
5. Powerball officials: 80 percent of number combinations picked
6. Big and scary asteroid will luckily just make a flyby
7. Obama foundation won quick tax-exempt approval
8. Amid debris of tornado-ravaged Texas town, ‘miracle’ dog found
9. IRS ignored biggest groups
10. 1 SEAL dead, 7 injured in training crash at Kentucky fort
11. Michigan woman’s rape, cancer claims investigated as scams

There are currently no comments for this story.
Subscribe today! Click here for our subscription offers.