The center, located in a downtown Seattle office building, involves about 20 local, state and federal police officials along with a team of analysts to review intelligence gathered statewide.

“We think it has prevented things,” Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste said.

The state is potentially a target-rich environment for terrorists, with everything from jumbo ferries to massive dams to the Tacoma Narrows bridges, he said.

But now the federal Department of Homeland Security wants to cut funding for such centers and slough the costs off on states, said Batiste and members of Washington’s congressional delegation.

The Seattle center is now funded through about $2 million in federal homeland security grants.

Batiste and others said the federal agency has decided the grant money no longer can be used to pay for current analysts in the 58 intelligence centers, known as fusion centers, nationwide. The grants can be used to hire new analysts, but they will pay for them only for several years.

Batiste and Washington’s congressional delegation said that could force the Seattle center to close, as state and local law enforcement agencies already have tight budgets. The state has asked for a waiver to the grant rules.

“For them to walk away is ludicrous,” Don Pierce, executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs and a former Bellingham police chief, said of the Department of Homeland Security.

“We believe this is one of the most important things we are doing, if not the most important thing when it comes to homeland security,” he said. “They are pulling the rug out from under us.”

Batiste agreed.

“We’re already running on bailing wire and duct tape,” he said. “They asked us to do something. We did. And now, they don’t help us. It’s an oxymoron I am struggling with.”

Homeland Security officials said there has been a “general misunderstanding” with the state over the new rules.

The department wants more of the grant money nationwide spent on building up capabilities to deal with improvised explosive devices than in the past. But they also admit to a fundamental “philosophic difference.”

“We planned to get these centers up and running, not sustain them forever,” said Russ Knocke, a department spokesman. “Congress said these grants were for counterterrorism and natural disaster preparedness, not local law enforcement.”

Washington state law enforcement officials began sharing intelligence information even before the Sept. 11, 2001. But the terrorist attacks added to the urgency and the need to forgo “turf battles” and work closely with such federal agencies as the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Washington state center gathers more than just intelligence on potential terrorists. It also collects and analyzes information from nine regional centers in the state on such things as drug trafficking and organized crime.

Batiste said terrorist groups sometimes have connections to drug trafficking or organized crime to fund their operations.

Pierce said information is not only collected on potential foreign terrorists but on domestic ones as well, “either right-wing or eco-terrorists.”

Some groups in the peace community, however, have complained that the center has tracked their protest activities, including arrivals of nuclear submarines at the Bangor Navy base and other Navy fleet arrivals in Puget Sound.

Batiste said he and others are well aware of the civil liberties implications surrounding the center’s activities.

“We in no way want people to think big brother is watching,” he said. “We are trying to protect our communities.”

Batiste and others can’t discuss specifics of what the center has worked on, though it did review and disseminate more than 2,000 intelligence information reports in 2006, developed 323 leads involving criminal and terrorism investigations and provided assistance to other homeland security agencies on 500 occasions.

The center was involved in the hunt for two men who were acting suspiciously aboard a Washington state ferry last summer. A photo of the two men taken by a crew member on the ferry was distributed to the media.

The two European men, who didn’t know about the search for them until this spring, came forward and provided information to a U.S. embassy that proved their identity.

All 11 members of Washington’s congressional delegation have written Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff urging him to change the rules to allow for continued funding of the centers.

“They are asking us to protect the homeland but are not willing to help,” said U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, a former King County sheriff who has introduced legislation to allow for continued federal funding.

“They spread money across the country like peanut butter to pay for equipment. But we’ve pretty much acquired all the equipment we need. What we need are bodies to help with intelligence sharing.”

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of the Appropriations Committee’s homeland security subcommittee, called the Seattle center the “nerve center” of the state’s efforts to identify terrorist threats and criminal trends.

“During these tough economic times, when states are struggling to provide essential services, we can’t allow the Department of Homeland Security to pawn off its responsibilities,” Murray said.

Les Blumenthal: 202-383-0008