InfraGard: an FBI-sponsored, private, domestic militia, licensed to kill in the event of martial law

[kpete]

InfraGard: an FBI-sponsored, private, domestic militia, licensed to kill in the event of martial law

Today, more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does -- and, at least on one occasion, before elected officials. In return, they provide information to the government, which alarms the ACLU. But there may be more to it than that. One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to "shoot to kill" in the event of martial law. InfraGard is "a child of the FBI," says Michael Hershman, the chairman of the advisory board of the InfraGard National Members Alliance and CEO of the Fairfax Group, an international consulting firm.

InfraGard started in Cleveland back in 1996, when the private sector there cooperated with the FBI to investigate cyber threats.

"Then the FBI cloned it," says Phyllis Schneck, chairman of the board of directors of the InfraGard National Members Alliance, and the prime mover behind the growth of InfraGard over the last several years.

InfraGard itself is still an FBI operation, with FBI agents in each state overseeing the local InfraGard chapters. (There are now eighty-six of them.) The alliance is a nonprofit organization of private sector InfraGard members.

more at:
http://www.alternet.org/rights/76388/

......................

been around since 1996, eh...? just another stellar job of investigative reporting by our pathetic news media...

more at:
http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/2008/02/infragard-fbi-sponsored-private.html

[leftchick]

1. holy crap

I mean holy fuck!

<snip>

FBI Director Robert Mueller addressed an InfraGard convention on August 9, 2005. At that time, the group had less than half as many members as it does today. "To date, there are more than 11,000 members of InfraGard," he said. "From our perspective that amounts to 11,000 contacts . . . and 11,000 partners in our mission to protect America." He added a little later, "Those of you in the private sector are the first line of defense."

He urged InfraGard members to contact the FBI if they "note suspicious activity or an unusual event." And he said they could sic the FBI on "disgruntled employees who will use knowledge gained on the job against their employers."

In an interview with InfraGard after the conference, which is featured prominently on the InfraGard members' website, Mueller says: "It's a great program."

:scared:

[ursi]

5. LOL! I guess their program backfired here:

Official named to cybersecurity post while still under federal investigation
Feb. 7, 2008

The Homeland Security Department has appointed an official who is under federal investigation to a key position overseeing a program worth hundreds of millions of dollars to secure computer networks across the federal government.

The Feb. 1 appointment of Scott Charbo, Homeland Security's chief information officer, to be deputy undersecretary for the national protection and programs directorate, drew immediate criticism from House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who was familiar with Charbo's past.

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Thompson said an investigation conducted by his committee last year showed Charbo failed to properly address computer security breaches within agencies housed at department headquarters, along with incompetent and possibly illegal activity by private contractor Unisys.

The incidents included the exfiltration of information from Homeland Security Department networks to a Web-hosting service that connects Chinese Web sites, according to Thompson's investigation.

more...

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0108/020708cdam2.htm

[SpiralHawk]

2. TIA

[rox63]

3. Sounds a bit too much like the KGB for my tastes

:scared: :hide:

[ursi]

4. we had a thread started about this last night, please read

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=2833327

[bobthedrummer]

6. Michael Hershman's bio

http://www.michaelhershman.us/bio.shtm

:hide:

[bobthedrummer]

7. A preview of coming attractions kick

[bobthedrummer]

8. More about InfraGard: "Business spies for FBI" by Jerry Mazza

(2-14-2008 onlinejournal.com)
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2954.shtml

InfraGard is a tax-exempt "charitable" organization.

[Supersedeas]

28. the word charity is further and further corrupted

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. How come all of a sudden we are hearing about this?

I have received a dozen emails on this topic in the past week. What's up?

[EFerrari]

12. Amy did this story last week. The Progressive ran an article

and she had the reporter on.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/8/headlines#9

[slackmaster]

13. And the same BULLSHIT from an unverified source gets recycled over and over and over

InfraGard members will NOT have any special immunity under martial law, or any other situation.

InfraGard membership is NOT restricted to the "corporate" world.

InfraGard is NOT about recruiting people to do domestic spying.

:argh:

[slackmaster]

15. Because some conservative punked Matthew Rothschild, saying InfraGard members could "shoot to kill"

(Edited multiple times to correct spelling, etc.)

It was probably a deliberate exploitation of Mr. Rothschild's inability to perceive when he is being fucked with.

Now that the "shoot to kill" quote (quotation marks and all) has found its way into the Blogosphere, it's taken on a life of its own even though nobody has been able to verify it. In another thread, I posted the reaction to that quote of the security manager where I work. He's in his sixth year as an InfraGard member, and assured me that membership carried no such perquisite.

Even sadder, the people who are most affected by that silly little meme are largely unaware that most people do in fact have the right to use deadly force in self-defense even without a declaration of martial law.

[bobthedrummer]

10. BTTT

[L. Coyote]

11. JOIN if you qualify, and get all the alert updates!

If you already have a security clearance, you might want to get on the inside of this one, to know what is going on AND tell the rest of us!

[slackmaster]

14. Yes, and you could also contact your member of Congress

Or the director of the FBI to try to corroborate this story.

[NightWatcher]

16. I'm so contemplating doing this for that one reason

there is a very active local chapter here. I could slide in under radar....unless they read this

[cascadiance]

17. Perhaps we should appeal to Helen Thomas to ask Bush about this at some point...

Sounds like she just became aware of Infraguard on Valentine's day during Zogby's call in show. Check out her response to a caller's question on this during that show here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=94367

Given that she holds DU in high regard by them also having pictures of our giving flowers to her, perhaps this is one way she can pay us back, by asking Bush about this if she gets her name called at some point!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=94364



Though I'm sure she doesn't need any heavy handed coaxing from us to ask him such a thorny question, and will want to do it on her own anyway!

[slackmaster]

18. Should she also ask him if the Clintons killed Vince Foster, or if it's true that Obama is a Muslim?

Equally transparent ridiculous lies.

[cascadiance]

19. The motivation for asking this isn't about slamming someonne else but getting the TRUTH out for us!

Vince Foster rumors and Obama Muslim rumors are nothing more than ways of trying to tear them down. There IS motivation to lie there to destroy the other person.

With Infraguard, I think Americans deserve to hear the truth about what special license the government has given to the private sector to take away yet more of their rights. This sort of question is asking not to try and prompt a slam against someone else, but to find out what possible damage it is to the rest of us. I would suggest that neither you nor many of us know the true agenda and scope of what is happening with this program, and THAT is the problem.

When congress is trying to let many of these same companies off the hook retroactively for spying on us, it doesn't seem that hard to believe that these same businesses might be also complicit in setting up another program to take away citizens' rights in a similar way and be protected by the fascists in control of our government when doing so.

[slackmaster]

20. I've already debunked this one by interviewing an InfraGard member who works with me

InfraGard membership confers no immunity from criminal prosecution.

[cascadiance]

21. So I guess has direct links to Mukasey and SCOTUS,...

... and he's also in daily Bush administration status meetings so he knows EXACTLY what's going on. Heck, when even Condi isn't privy to some of the info that's being found/discussed (we, make that I, couldn't conceive of planes flying into the WTC), I wonder why your coworker knows so much and is such an authority of what is really going on!

Heck, this article might be wrong... I'm not saying that he is right or wrong. But there's enough questions to be asked that they deserve answers. I'm sorry, but like many here, I can't swallow the continuing "Trust us, we know what's good for you!" line of BS this administration and its minions are feeding us. We've heard that line too many time, and too many times we've heard that we've been manipulated into swallowing those sorts of lines against our own interests.

Just like I don't swallow someone saying that they have all of the answers for 9/11, or I KNOW what Sibel knows about 9/11 and the WMD trafficking of secrets to our enemies, I know enough that I feel investigations on all of these issues should be launched, and that America needs to hear what is the truth here, to prevent what appears to be "the mob" taking over our government.

[slackmaster]

23. "this article might be wrong"

:rofl:

The author made a weak attempt to corroborate it and FAILED.

The Rothschild piece is the SOLE SOURCE OF INFORMATION for the alleged license to "shoot to kill".

I can't believe how gullible some of us are.

[cascadiance]

24. Yes, we don't need whistleblowers do we. They are just ONE voice...

... when everyone else is too scared of retaliation to talk about it. And you know that the whistleblower protection laws now are being interpreted to not protect those in national security positions. There really aren't any. These guys at the top can get away with murder, and because of the way things are going, we can't know if they would or if they HAVE been doing so!

Gullible implies being too hasty to believe something. I would conjecture that you should apply that statement to yourself. I'm not BELIEVING that Infraguard is a bad conspiracy, nor am I going to dismiss someone who might be trying to break through the huge walls of secrecy we have today to give us some truth of what's going on. But if we dismiss anyone's comments out of hand and don't even give them the opportunity to have us look into such allegations because to do so would make us "gullible", then I'm sorry, I'm probably going to be moving to Canada, Australia or someplace else where one still believes in democracy and the rule of law, and not the rule by the "trust us" gang!

[slackmaster]

25. I put more credibility into a first-hand report than an unsubstantiated "some guy told me"

:rofl:

[cascadiance]

26. Keep watching your "first hand reports" from CNN and enjoy our falling country while you can...

They like folks like you that just listen to them, and don't try to find out when someone tries to break through to warn others...

I suppose you feel that Sibel Edmonds is a "unsubstantiated" "some guy told me" person too.

[slackmaster]

27. Red Herring

:hi:

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

30. Ahem. All you've reported to date is hearsay, too.

Hate to point that out but it's true.

Perhaps, further investigation would be appropriate rather than assuming the veracity (whether true or false) of this report.

[slackmaster]

33. The story is so obviously false, I can't understand why anyone would believe it

It doesn't pass the "smell test".

BTW, look at the recent comments on the original piece: http://www.progressive.org/mag_rothschild0308

Thu, 02/21/2008 - 11:58am — Yet Another Infragard Member (not verified)
Its True - But only allowed to shoot Martians
The FBI only gives us light sabers and guns with lazer beams. We can only shoot things from outer space and UFOs. It was designed to "shoot to kill" to save all earthlings from outer space attacks. We are in charge of protecting all of Earth. I feel honored to be part of this team.

This magazine is about as truthful as the National Enquirer. Their sources are highly medicated and live in rooms with padded walls.

Thu, 02/21/2008 - 11:01am — Anonymous (not verified)
Re: The FBI Deputizes Business
As a member of Infragard for many years (and as a progressive liberally minded person) I find this article to be on par with a grocery store "alien baby" magazine article....

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

37. Is your intent to close down any discussion on this matter? Appears to be.

I simply seek to get to the bottom of what COULD evolve into a monster none of us, including you I'm sure, would want out of the bottle.

[slackmaster]

39. Calling out bullshit is a hobby of mine

If you like living in a demon-haunted world, I respect your choice.

If you believe my intent is to shut down the discussion, feel free to put me on Ignore.

[fascisthunter]

40. No, Slackmaster Just Believes Americans Should Arm Themselves

just in case.

:rofl:

[slackmaster]

41. Only people who really want to be armed

And what is wrong with that?

[fascisthunter]

42. "demon-haunted world"

Who, you or the poster above you?.... :rofl:

Armin' yurself. Nah, no paranoia there

[slackmaster]

43. Just for your information, I keep my firearms locked up in a safe at home

The only thing I'm regularly "armed" with is a pocket knife.

(And I have had some edged weapons training, so don't even think about attacking me.)

[Indy Lurker]

22. InfraGard as in Infrastructure

This is for companies with vital national infrastructure, such as nuclear power plants, and major rail yards.

They are to report suspicious activity in regards to their infrastructure, not what the neighbor is watching on TV.

As far as shoot to kill goes, I think this is already the case of some places like power plants, If blow past the guard shack, and try to approach a cooling tower, there a good chance you will be shot.

[slackmaster]

29. Official FBI response to allegation that InfraGard members have special powers

...In short, the article's claims are patently false. For the record, the FBI has not deputized InfraGard, its members, businesses, or anything else in the probram. The title, however catchy, is a complete fabrication. Moreover, InfraGard members have no extraordinary powers and have no greater right to "shoot to kill" than other civilians. The FBI encourages InfraGard members - and all Americans - to report crime and suspected terrorist activity to the appropriate authorities....

http://www.infragard.net/press/2008/progressive_article_response_v2.pdf

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

31. I don't believe citing Infragard's web page assists in debunking the assertions.

That's kinda' like the Justice Department asserting the dismissal of AG's was nonpolitical, doncha' think?

:shrug:

[slackmaster]

32. It's a letter from the FBI

If you don't believe it's real, call the FBI and ask them.

If that's not good enough for you, call your member of Congress.

BTW - You put more credibility in Matthew Rothschild's "some guy told me" story?

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

34. I see no denial that it's an FBI operation overseeing local chapters.

Clearly, it's not like merely encouraging citizens to report crimes. It's a far more organized program that could, obviously, lead to abuses.

I understand your focus on the Rothschild tidbit in the story. However, there's more to the organization than Rothschild's minimal piece.

[slackmaster]

The main function of the organzation according to a member I work with, is disseminating information

He sent me some samples of the daily reports. Most of it is from regular news media.

[fascisthunter]

35. Anyone Still Wondering If Bush is a Fascist?

[slackmaster]

36. InfraGard started under the Clinton administration

:hi:

[fascisthunter]

38. So Bill Clinton is Warm to Fascism Too Then, slackmaster

:hi: :rofl:

on edit: guh huh, guh huh, guh huh


You seem a bit to concerned about people's concern. Gee...