Surprise, surprise

WASHINGTON - Local intelligence-sharing centers set up after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have had their anti-terrorism mission diluted by a focus on run-of-the-mill street crime and hazards such as hurricanes, a government report concludes.

(AP)

What? You saw that coming? Yeah, it was pretty much a no-brainer, wasn't it.

"Although many of the centers initially had purely counterterrorism goals, for numerous reasons they have increasingly gravitated toward an all-crimes and even broader all-hazards approach," according to a Congressional Research Service report from June...

Most centers are run by state police or other law enforcement agencies. Many also have representatives from a range of other agencies, including fire and public works departments and state gambling regulators...

Arizona's center has representatives from the state's public safety, motor vehicles and liquor control departments....

And guess what.

"States are at different levels because there wasn't the preconceived game-plan on how to do this," said George Foresman, a former undersecretary at the Homeland Security Department who oversaw the awarding of startup money for many of the centers.

Right. No plan.

Or maybe there was a plan. Maybe the plan was to be so freakin' dumb the terrorists would never be able to figure out what we're up to. Or to be so freakin' afraid the terrorists wouldn't have to bother with the terror stuff.

Whatever, there was zero chance the government - any government - would sit on all these bright, shiny toys and a piece of legislation so ill-conceived as the so-called Patriot Act without finding a way to redefine every crime there is - hell, every form of misbehavior - as "terrorism." This is how environmentalists become terrorists - just one example. Check out the wrong book, make a phone call to the wrong person, donate to the wrong charity, you can become a terrorist too.

Of course, there's always a silver lining. Maybe in some happy and not-too-distant future we can label Republicans terrorists, and that would be a good thing right there.