By Andrew Becker and G.W. Schulz

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick looks through a microscope to see how bullet casings are matched at the Commonwealth Fusion Center and State Police Crime Lab on July 15, 2011. A new U.S. Senate report has criticized fusion centers for failing to produce meaningful results. Courtesy of Office of Gov. Deval Patrick

The nation’s vast network of anti-terrorism “fusion centers” for law enforcement have produced shoddy, untimely and often useless intelligence reports that have done little to keep the U.S. safer, a scathing U.S. Senate report concludes.

The 141-page report, a copy of which was obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting, identified problems with nearly every significant aspect of the Department of Homeland Security’s more than 70 fusion centers, which were designed for law enforcement to coordinate their intelligence gathering.

The report marks one of the most blistering indictments to date of the Department of Homeland Security’s domestic intelligence operation. The department, investigators conclude, “has not attempted to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the value federal taxpayers have received for that investment.”

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Source: Center for Investigative Reporting