The Texas Observer

Update II below
Updated below

A bizarre, conspiracy-laden memo [.doc] sent to law enforcement personnel last week warns of threats to Texas from Muslim organizations and anti-war groups. It calls on “law enforcement officers to report these type of activities to identify potential underlying trends emerging in the North Central region.”

We’re trying to learn more about which law enforcement agencies received the bulletin - and how seriously they take it.

The bulletin - stamped “For Official Use Only” but leaked to this Web site yesterday - was apparently issued last Thursday by the North Central Texas Fusion System, one of a number of post-9/11 centers designed to consolidate and share intelligence with law enforcement agencies.

The Fusion Center has an email address for “report[ing] suspicious North Central Texas incidents or observations to the Fusion System Analyst.” Civil liberties groups and Muslim organizations have worried that the Fusion Centers are operating with little oversight and may be drifting into counter-terrorism initiatives that they’re not qualified for.

The ACLU is calling the memo the “latest example of inappropriate police intelligence operations targeting political, religious and social activists for investigation.”

Here’s a choice passage from the bulletin:

Middle Eastern Terrorist groups and their supporting organizations have been successful in gaining support for Islamic goals in the United States and providing an environment for terrorist organizations to flourish. A number of organizations in the U.S. have been lobbying Islamic-based issues for many years. These lobbying efforts have turned public and political support towards radical goals such as Shariah law and support of terrorist military action against Western nations. Add to this the Hezbollah training of Mexican Drug Cartel members on bomb making techniques; the threats to Texas are significant.

The bulletin singles out certain organizations: the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim advocacy group; the International Action Center, a left-wing organization founded by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark; and the anti-war group ANSWER.

The bulletin is riddled with John Birch Society-ish statements. “Tolerance is growing in more formal areas,” it warns at one point. As an example, the memo cites an “Islamic Finance 101″ conference held by the Department of Treasury. The document cites one Christopher Holton of the right-wing Center for Security Policy, founded by Frank Gaffney, as calling Islamic finance a “modern-day Trojan horse.” The document goes on to say, “A Houston bank now offers Islamic Financing for home loans.”

Scary. But not as scary as the reports of “Islamic radicalization.”

Islamic radicalization of have been [sic] reported by such groups as Hizb-ut-Tahir who have a goal of overthrowing governments and replacing them with a caliph. They take advantage of growing tolerance in the U.S. Some of their marketing schemes have included hip hop fashion boutiques, hip hop bands, use of online social networks, use of video sharing networks, chat forums and blogs. They have been especially active in California, New York, Wisconsin, and Chicago. They target universities for recruitment.

If it seems like this “Prevention Awareness Bulletin” was culled from conspiracy-prone right-wing Internet Web sites that’s because, apparently, it was. A source list includes HumanEvents.com, FamilySecurityMatters.org, FrontPagemag.com and the Christian Broadcasting Network, as well as more mainstream sources such as the Anti-Defamation League and (using “mainstream” loosely) the Washington Times.

The meta-data of the Word document lists one “James R. Johnson” as the author of the document. Johnson is the son of Congressman Sam Johnson, Republican from Plano. James (Bob) Johnson owns, with his wife Anita Miller, ADB Consulting LLC, which received a contract from Collin County to design the Fusion System. A cached copy of Johnson’s personal Web site says he has “worked in National Intelligence for over 20 years.” Both Miller and Johnson’s email addresses are listed on the contact section of the Fusion Center’s Web site.

Calls to Kelley Stone, the Director of Homeland Security for Collin County, were not returned today. Emails to Miller and Johnson have not been returned. We will update this post if and when we hear back from them.

Update: The Washington Times source used in the bulletin is actually a downright whacky op-ed by Frank Gaffney in which he worries that Treasury “is now in a position to impose its embrace of Shariah on the U.S. financial sector.” Oh, and guess what, the Bush Treasury Department held seminars on Islamic finance. They even had an Islamic Finance Scholar in Residence, a professor at Rice U.

And what is this scary thing called Islamic Finance? According to Forbes.com: “In spirit, Islamic finance seeks to promote social justice by banning exploitative practices. In reality, this boils down to a set of prohibitions–on paying interest, on gambling with derivatives and options, and on investing in firms that make pornography or pork.” That thing about not gambling on derivatives: C-R-A-Z-Y.

Update II: Tim Wyatt, a spokesman for Collin County, which runs the Fusion System, downplayed the bulletin to the Observer today while admitting that it wasn’t terribly well-informed.

Wyatt described the weekly bulletin as a “clipping service” that goes out to 2,900 public health and safety personnel in North Texas, including fire marshals, police officers, firefighters, and health departments.

“The bulletin didn’t direct any agency to investigate or target anybody,” he said. “I don’t think fire marshals in North Texas are out hunting for radical terrorists.”

What about that line at the end that says “it is imperative for law enforcement officers to report these types of activities”?

“I think it’s a bad editing job,” said Wyatt. “What we’re going to do is advise that next time someone take a little closer read of how they’re phrasing the thing because nobody intended it to be a call to investigate or target anybody. The bulletin is nothing other than what it says – a prevention awareness bulletin.”

Apparently, James Johnson - son of Congressman Samuel Johnson, the Republican who represents Collin County - did write the bulletin. Wyatt could not immediately say what qualified Johnson to opine on terror threats to North Texas or why he relied exclusively on Web sites promoting right-wing conspiracy theories.

Wyatt did say that Collin County’s Department of Homeland Security - does everyone have a DHS now?! - will take a closer look at the sources and how Johnson crafted the document.

Absurd, funny, or scary, the larger lesson in all this is that Fusion Centers have had very little public scrutiny. They operate with a considerable amount of autonomy and some clearly have a Keystone Kop element to them.

Gov. Perry announced today that he wants to see the Legislature put $260 million into a fund to help build 16 new reservoirs in Texas. A press release from his office said the governor wants the money to come from a “one-time transfer” from the Rainy Day Fund. But that press release was quickly followed by another one - labeled “REVISED” - that dropped any mention of the Rainy Day Fund.

Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Perry, said the initial mention of the Rainy Day Fund was a mistake. Or an inadvertent admission? She demurred somewhat when pressed about whether the governor really thinks it wise to tap the Fund at a time of severe economic crisis and a $9 billion budget deficit in order to build new reservoirs that many people neither want nor think are needed. It should also be noted that the reservoirs are estimated to cost billions.

“The main message is we need to work with the Legislature to figure out the best way to fund this,” Cesinger said. The precise funding source for the $260 million, she said, is open to discussion.

In supporting the reservoirs, which include the highly-controversial Marvin Nichols reservoir - on the Sulphur River - and Lake Fastrill - on the Neches, Perry is essentially taking sides in a nasty, long-running fight that has pitted Dallas against East Texas. It’s fair to say that folks in rural East Texas are none too pleased about damming rivers so Dallas, which has the highest water usage rates of any city in the state, can continue with St. Augustine lawns and swimming pools. The land that would be flooded by Lake Fastrill includes a relatively pristine stretch of the Upper Neches River and some of the last large stands of bottomland hardwoods left in the state. In an effort to preserve the area, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has designated a national wildlife refuge.

The nature angle may not move Perry much, but he’s walking on a minefield when it comes to private property rights. The Trans-Texas Corridor comes to mind. Many of the landowners at the Marvin Nichols and Fastrill sites have sworn not to budge, meaning protracted and ugly eminent domain battles could be in store if the reservoirs advance.

Perry’s no dummy; he touched on the issue today, saying he supports a constitutional amendment to protect landowners against eminent domain abuses. But he would still support “traditional uses” of eminent domain, such as reservoir-building.

At the same time, Perry “wants to ensure that landowners private property rights are protected as well,” Cesinger said.

That’s probably not going to mollify many folks.

Last session, East Texas lawmakers, especially Rep. Stephen Frost (D-Atlanta), did their damnedest to keep Marvin Nichols and Fastrill from being officially “designated” in the omnibus water bill. They failed - barely - but did get a concession that the designations will expire in 2015 unless reservoir backers have made serious efforts toward funding proposed reservoirs. Another round of reservoir wars is expected this year.

In his remarks today, Perry stressed the urgency of funding new reservoirs, citing the growing Texas population.

“I am convinced that the time to adequately preserve and allocate our water supply is now, so that our children and grandchildren will have access to this life-giving resource for the next 50 years,” Perry said in a press release.

Bill Clinton’s spending the weekend in Austin for the second Clinton Global Initiative University conference. Check the boots!

He gave a speech yesterday, a press conference this morning, will speak again this evening, and will pitch in tomorrow on a community service project at Rosewood Park & Community Center in East Austin.

A quick summary of today’s 45-minute press conference at the Austin Convention Center:

• - The biggest problem in the short term is the global economic crisis; the biggest long-term problem is climate change. It would be a shame if we destroyed each other with WMD before we have a chance to save the planet.

• - Energy efficiency rocks and so do green roofs. Mexico, Indonesia, China, India and other influential developing nations won’t get on the save-the-planet bandwagon unless we offer cost-effective strategies that pay back pretty quickly.

• - A major problem with international development work is that organizations give people stuff they can’t use. More and more, we will see non-profits and foundations influencing policy. Idealistic students shouldn’t try to take on projects that couldn’t possibly get funding.

• - Lance Armstrong is a good friend, and Hillary’s speech yesterday went well.

Erle Nye, the controversial former head of energy company TXU, today was appointed the new chair of UTIMCO — the investment arm of the University of Texas.

Nye replaces multi-millionaire Robert Rowling, who abruptly resigned last week in the middle of a contentious hearing in the Senate Finance Committee. The state senators were berating Rowling about bonuses UTIMCO had doled out despite a down year. You can read our report on that hearing here.

Nye is a former CEO and board chairman at TXU Corp., a giant Dallas-based company that was bought out in 2007. Nye’s tenure as CEO at TXU ended in 2004 following a financial crisis at the company that collapsed the stock price and nearly knocked the firm into bankruptcy. Some shareholders lost their life savings when the stock tanked.

In 2004, the Observer reported on a whistle-blower lawsuit in which a former TXU insider claimed that Nye and other TXU executives knew about the company’s impending financial problems and intentionally misled investors and Wall Street analysts. Several executives, including Nye, sold TXU shares not long before the stock price tumbled in late 2002.

Before taking over the top job at UTIMCO, Nye had led its ethics committee.

This just in… The 110-year-old Asarco copper smelter in El Paso is no more. The El Paso Times:

Asarco LLC has informed the Texas Commission on Environmental that it does not plan to reopen its copper smelter in El Paso, company officials announced Tuesday.

The decision is based on the dramatic downturn of the world economy in the last six months, according to [a] statement by Asarco.

And so one of the longest-running, most bitter environmental fights in Texas’ history comes to a close.

For over a century, the Asarco smelter - with its 828-foot smokestack - contaminated El Paso neighborhoods with lead, arsenic, and other toxic chemicals. Lead even found its way into children’s bloodstreams. (Company scientists blamed that on a rash of lead paint chip-eating.) El Pasoans have been fighting for decades to get the company to clean up its act. And for the last ten years they’ve been trying unsuccessfully to block TCEQ from renewing the company’s air permit.

In the end Asarco wasn’t undone by vociferous protests or the legal challenges of environmental groups shocked at TCEQ’s wanton disregard for the health of its citizens. No, according to the company, it took “the dramatic downturn of the world economy.” No more profit, no more pollution.

Still, there will be much rejoicing tonight.

“It’s a blessing for El Paso,” said the Sierra Club’s Neil Carman. “No more lead from Asarco.”

“Now, we can move to a new era of better jobs, clean skies and healthier neighborhoods,” said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, the El Paso Democrat who has bitterly fought Asarco for years. “Winning this battle with ASARCO is as important to our future as creating the medical school. Since the 1880’s, ASARCO has defined our past—now our talent and aspirations will define our future.”

Carman cautions, however, that the Asarco clean-up could be the most expensive and difficult ever undertaken in Texas. Crews in protective suits will have to test practically every square foot of the Asarco property for contamination, said Carman, who studied Asarco when he worked for the state of Texas in the early ’80s. Vast amounts of soil will likely have to be removed, put into barrels, and hauled off to a hazardous waste dump. The remediation process could take five to 10 years and cost well over $100 million, says Carman.

And for those of you who love the two-steps-forward-one-step-back nature of Texas environmental politics, Carman says the hazardous waste from Asarco is likely to go to the Waste Control Specialists’ dump in Andrews.

The Galveston Housing Authority announced last week the fate of the Island’s four storm-damaged public housing complexes. Two of the developments, which have moldered for four-and-a-half months, will be razed and won’t be replaced for at least two years. The other two will be renovated but the cost and completion date are unclear.

As we reported in December, post-Ike Galveston is flirting with a New Orleans-style extreme makeover. In New Orleans, despite mass protest, officials eventually ordered the bulldozing of most of the city’s public housing, making it extremely difficult for low-income residents to return. A whiter, more affluent, and gentrified NOLA has emerged.

In Galveston, nothing so extreme has happened — yet. But the Island’s poor residents (and those middle-class folks who suddenly find themselves a notch or two down the ladder) have largely been unable to return home. Whether they ever will be able to depends a lot on the fate of low-end public and private housing stock.

So far, not so good.

FEMA’s temporary housing program — the Disaster Housing Assistance Program (DHAP) — has been less than a success. More than four months after the storm, only 26 percent of eligible families have found a place to live, reports the Galveston County Daily News. Many of those who are in apartments are receiving eviction notices because HUD and the local housing authority haven’t been paying landlords on time.

Even if DHAP was wildly successful it would still only provide temporary relief. DHAP expires in April 2010. Eventually — and certainly no later than the end of DHAP — displaced Galvestonians will need an affordable home or apartment to return to. It’s not clear how bulldozing two major public housing complexes fits into that equation, though some advocates and former residents hold out hope that there will be a one-to-one replacement of units.

In the past, the housing authority has followed a national trend of replacing traditional public housing with fewer, if nicer, units. The practice has been criticized as a developer-driven model that does little to address the truly needy.

Meanwhile, in a statement of just how poorly this country plans for disaster, Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas is heading a delegation to Cuba later this year to study how they do it.