New terrorist information fusion center in Los Angeles | 07.27.2006 | 05:31:19 | Views: 5395 | ID: July 27 '06: State and local law enforcement officials in California have announced a partnership to create the Joint Regional Intelligence Center - a clearinghouse for state and local officials to access and share information about potential terrorist attacks in the region, the Associated Press reported Thursday. The announcement of the command center in California comes at the same time that violence in the Middle East has increased and the terror group al-Qaeda has warned of its desire to participate in helping Hezbollah forces in Lebanon. Al Qaeda's number two, Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, said in a recent video broadcast on the Arab language satellite channel Al Jazeera, that the continuing conflict in the Middle East between Israeli and Hezbollah forces is cause for the terror group's participation, the BBC reported Thursday. "Al-Qaeda could not remain silent in the face of a 'Crusader war' and now saw 'all the world as a battlefield open in front of us', he said" according to the British news service. Back in California, the partnership of federal, state and local law enforcement officials to create the command center is part of a broader national movement to build "fusion centers" which allow for information to be analyzed and disseminated to help protect and investigate possible terror plots in the local area. Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Robert Fox said the center helped to bring "all of our capabilities and expertise together instead of doing it through telephone calls and e-mails." The AP reported that those cooperating in the command will include the LAPD, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the FBI. "What's different about the new center is its responsibility and scale: 62 personnel from at least 15 agencies including the Department of Homeland Security watch over seven counties that are home to more than 18 million people," the AP continued. So far, about $6 million has been spent on the center that is "divided into several groups that analyze information, correspond with outside agencies and manage emergency responses, among other tasks."
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