ADVISE

As part of legislation submitted to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations, the new Democratic majority in Congress has a plan to improve information sharing within the Homeland Security Department. H.R. 1, the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007, submitted by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) would enact several dozen antiterrorism recommendations made by the commission. These include recommendations regarding cargo screening, transportation security, critical infrastructure protection and the national incident management system.

WASHINGTON — Frustrated by poor federal cooperation, states and cities are building their own network of intelligence centers led by police to help detect and disrupt terrorist plots. The new "fusion centers" are now operating in 37 states and another covers the Washington area, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The centers, which have received $380 million in federal support since the 2001 terrorist attacks, pool and analyze information from local, state and federal law enforcement officials.

1. Why is the United States government spending millions of dollars to track down critics of George W. Bush in the press? And why have major American universities agreed to put this technology of tyranny into the state's hands?

At the most basic level, of course, both questions are easily answered: 1) Power. 2) Money. The Bush administration wants to be able to root out—and counteract—any dissenting noises that might put a crimp in its ongoing crusade for "full spectrum dominance" of global affairs, while the august institutions of higher learning involved—the universities of Cornell, Pittsburgh and Utah—crave the federal green that keeps them in clover.