The FBI Deputizes Business
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.
“We are the owners, operators, and experts of our critical infrastructure, from the CEO of a large company in agriculture or high finance to the guy who turns the valve at the water utility,” says Schneck, who by day is the vice president of research integration at Secure Computing.
“At its most basic level, InfraGard is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the private sector,” the InfraGard website states. “InfraGard chapters are geographically linked with FBI Field Office territories.”
In November 2001, InfraGard had around 1,700 members. As of late January, InfraGard had 23,682 members, according to its website, www.infragard.net, which adds that “350 of our nation’s Fortune 500 have a representative in InfraGard.”
To join, each person must be sponsored by “an existing InfraGard member, chapter, or partner organization.” The FBI then vets the applicant. On the application form, prospective members are asked which aspect of the critical infrastructure their organization deals with. These include: agriculture, banking and finance, the chemical industry, defense, energy, food, information and telecommunications, law enforcement, public health, and transportation.
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.”
The ACLU is not so sanguine.
“There is evidence that InfraGard may be closer to a corporate TIPS program, turning private-sector corporations-some of which may be in a position to observe the activities of millions of individual customers-into surrogate eyes and ears for the FBI,” the ACLU warned in its August 2004 report The Surveillance-Industrial Complex: How the American Government Is Conscripting Businesses and Individuals in the Construction of a Surveillance Society.
InfraGard is not readily accessible to the general public. Its communications with the FBI and Homeland Security are beyond the reach of the Freedom of Information Act under the “trade secrets” exemption, its website says. And any conversation with the public or the media is supposed to be carefully rehearsed.
“The interests of InfraGard must be protected whenever presented to non-InfraGard members,” the website states. “During interviews with members of the press, controlling the image of InfraGard being presented can be difficult. Proper preparation for the interview will minimize the risk of embarrassment. . . . The InfraGard leadership and the local FBI representative should review the submitted questions, agree on the predilection of the answers, and identify the appropriate interviewee. . . . Tailor answers to the expected audience. . . . Questions concerning sensitive information should be avoided.”
One of the advantages of InfraGard, according to its leading members, is that the FBI gives them a heads-up on a secure portal about any threatening information related to infrastructure disruption or terrorism.
The InfraGard website advertises this. In its list of benefits of joining InfraGard, it states: “Gain access to an FBI secure communication network complete with VPN encrypted website, webmail, listservs, message boards, and much more.”
InfraGard members receive “almost daily updates” on threats “emanating from both domestic sources and overseas,” Hershman says.
“We get very easy access to secure information that only goes to InfraGard members,” Schneck says. “People are happy to be in the know.”
On November 1, 2001, the FBI had information about a potential threat to the bridges of California. The alert went out to the InfraGard membership. Enron was notified, and so, too, was Barry Davis, who worked for Morgan Stanley. He notified his brother Gray, the governor of California.
“He said his brother talked to him before the FBI,” recalls Steve Maviglio, who was Davis’s press secretary at the time. “And the governor got a lot of grief for releasing the information. In his defense, he said, ‘I was on the phone with my brother, who is an investment banker. And if he knows, why shouldn’t the public know?’ ”
Maviglio still sounds perturbed about this: “You’d think an elected official would be the first to know, not the last.”
In return for being in the know, InfraGard members cooperate with the FBI and Homeland Security. “InfraGard members have contributed to about 100 FBI cases,” Schneck says. “What InfraGard brings you is reach into the regional and local communities. We are a 22,000-member vetted body of subject-matter experts that reaches across seventeen matrixes. All the different stovepipes can connect with InfraGard.”
Schneck is proud of the relationships the InfraGard Members Alliance has built with the FBI. “If you had to call 1-800-FBI, you probably wouldn’t bother,” she says. “But if you knew Joe from a local meeting you had with him over a donut, you might call them. Either to give or to get. We want everyone to have a little black book.”
This black book may come in handy in times of an emergency. “On the back of each membership card,” Schneck says, “we have all the numbers you’d need: for Homeland Security, for the FBI, for the cyber center. And by calling up as an InfraGard member, you will be listened to.” She also says that members would have an easier time obtaining a “special telecommunications card that will enable your call to go through when others will not.”
This special status concerns the ACLU.
“The FBI should not be creating a privileged class of Americans who get special treatment,” says Jay Stanley, public education director of the ACLU’s technology and liberty program. “There’s no ‘business class’ in law enforcement. If there’s information the FBI can share with 22,000 corporate bigwigs, why don’t they just share it with the public? That’s who their real ‘special relationship’ is supposed to be with. Secrecy is not a party favor to be given out to friends. . . . This bears a disturbing resemblance to the FBI’s handing out ‘goodies’ to corporations in return for folding them into its domestic surveillance machinery.”
When the government raises its alert levels, InfraGard is in the loop. For instance, in a press release on February 7, 2003, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General announced that the national alert level was being raised from yellow to orange. They then listed “additional steps” that agencies were taking to “increase their protective measures.” One of those steps was to “provide alert information to InfraGard program.”
“They’re very much looped into our readiness capability,” says Amy Kudwa, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. “We provide speakers, as well as do joint presentations [with the FBI]. We also train alongside them, and they have participated in readiness exercises.”
On May 9, 2007, George Bush issued National Security Presidential Directive 51 entitled “National Continuity Policy.” In it, he instructed the Secretary of Homeland Security to coordinate with “private sector owners and operators of critical infrastructure, as appropriate, in order to provide for the delivery of essential services during an emergency.”
Asked if the InfraGard National Members Alliance was involved with these plans, Schneck said it was “not directly participating at this point.” Hershman, chairman of the group’s advisory board, however, said that it was.
InfraGard members, sometimes hundreds at a time, have been used in “national emergency preparation drills,” Schneck acknowledges.
“In case something happens, everybody is ready,” says Norm Arendt, the head of the Madison, Wisconsin, chapter of InfraGard, and the safety director for the consulting firm Short Elliott Hendrickson, Inc. “There’s been lots of discussions about what happens under an emergency.”
One business owner in the United States tells me that InfraGard members are being advised on how to prepare for a martial law situation-and what their role might be. He showed me his InfraGard card, with his name and e-mail address on the front, along with the InfraGard logo and its slogan, “Partnership for Protection.” On the back of the card were the emergency numbers that Schneck mentioned.
This business owner says he attended a small InfraGard meeting where agents of the FBI and Homeland Security discussed in astonishing detail what InfraGard members may be called upon to do.
“The meeting started off innocuously enough, with the speakers talking about corporate espionage,” he says. “From there, it just progressed. All of a sudden we were knee deep in what was expected of us when martial law is declared. We were expected to share all our resources, but in return we’d be given specific benefits.” These included, he says, the ability to travel in restricted areas and to get people out.
But that’s not all.
“Then they said when-not if-martial law is declared, it was our responsibility to protect our portion of the infrastructure, and if we had to use deadly force to protect it, we couldn’t be prosecuted,” he says.
I was able to confirm that the meeting took place where he said it had, and that the FBI and Homeland Security did make presentations there. One InfraGard member who attended that meeting denies that the subject of lethal force came up. But the whistleblower is 100 percent certain of it. “I have nothing to gain by telling you this, and everything to lose,” he adds. “I’m so nervous about this, and I’m not someone who gets nervous.”
Though Schneck says that FBI and Homeland Security agents do make presentations to InfraGard, she denies that InfraGard members would have any civil patrol or law enforcement functions. “I have never heard of InfraGard members being told to use lethal force anywhere,” Schneck says.
The FBI adamantly denies it, also. “That’s ridiculous,” says Catherine Milhoan, an FBI spokesperson. “If you want to quote a businessperson saying that, knock yourself out. If that’s what you want to print, fine.”
But one other InfraGard member corroborated the whistleblower’s account, and another would not deny it.
Christine Moerke is a business continuity consultant for Alliant Energy in Madison, Wisconsin. She says she’s an InfraGard member, and she confirms that she has attended InfraGard meetings that went into the details about what kind of civil patrol function-including engaging in lethal force-that InfraGard members may be called upon to perform.
“There have been discussions like that, that I’ve heard of and participated in,” she says.
Curt Haugen is CEO of S’Curo Group, a company that does “strategic planning, business continuity planning and disaster recovery, physical and IT security, policy development, internal control, personnel selection, and travel safety,” according to its website. Haugen tells me he is a former FBI agent and that he has been an InfraGard member for many years. He is a huge booster. “It’s the only true organization where there is the public-private partnership,” he says. “It’s all who knows who. You know a face, you trust a face. That’s what makes it work.”
He says InfraGard “absolutely” does emergency preparedness exercises. When I ask about discussions the FBI and Homeland Security have had with InfraGard members about their use of lethal force, he says: “That much I cannot comment on. But as a private citizen, you have the right to use force if you feel threatened.”
“We were assured that if we were forced to kill someone to protect our infrastructure, there would be no repercussions,” the whistleblower says. “It gave me goose bumps. It chilled me to the bone.”
Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine.
© 2008 The Progressive
The Pig state expands. Our bosses were always part of it but now it’s official.
Mussolini helped us out by defining Fascism as the unity of business and government. Unity. Working together. For the interest of business. Fascism. TOday known in Doublespeak as Neoliberalism.
A song by the late Rev. Ralph Baldwin says:
“It’s 21 years later (now 24), but it’s really 1984.”
The more we learn, the scarier it gets. No wonder the sheep close their minds.
The Thought Police expands! Remember Winston Smith’s discovery that the old antique dealer with whom he had traded, and rented his deceased wife’s room from was. “For the first time in his life, Winston was face to face with a member of the Thought Police.”
We shall find that they are everywhere. As Winston said, “We are the dead.”
meanwhile, here’s something quite interesting: www.cyberspaceorbit.com/ConnectingTheDots.htm
Public and private partnerships usually include the public. Things like civil defense include everyone. This is Morgan Stanley on crack with a loaded gun. P.U.
Another stud in the framework of American totalitarianism. Add to this Section 1042 of the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act giving the President the power to invoke martial law under any condition the President determines as necessary, The Military Commissions Act of 2006 allowing for indefinite imprisonment of anyone who speaks out against the government’s policies, and National Security Presidential Directive 51 allowing the president to do whatever he deems necessary to insure the “continuity of government,” including amending the Constitution, and the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 that passed the House by a vote of 406-6 and allows those who engage in sit-ins, civil disobedience, trespass, or any other crime in the name of animal rights to be branded as terrorists under the law.
Are you getting the picture yet? Your Democracy is dissolving before your eyes on an almost daily basis in favor of a Bush led totalitarian government. Do you really think that he will allow Clinton or Obama to become president with these dictatorial powers? I doubt it, get ready for the big shock and your trip to one of over 800 American Death Camps now under construction. A great evil is overtaking us. If you believe in mind over matter begin thinking positive thoughts collectively now !!!
It’s been asked before, but lets try again: Is it fascism yet?
” Do you really think that he will allow Clinton or Obama to become president with these dictatorial powers?”
Why not? They’ve been vetted or they wouldn’t be the “front runners”
Yes it is Fascism and it has been for sometime.
As you older progressive folks here probably know, this is nothing new just more official rather then low profile like the good old days.
From the quote “Haugen tells me he is a former FBI agent and that he has been an InfraGard member for many years. He is a huge booster. “It’s the only true organization where there is the public-private partnership,” he says. “It’s all who knows who. You know a face, you trust a face. That’s what makes it work.”…
I think the Civil Air Patrol did the same kinds of surveillance since the 50’s on the public and children (Oswald, David Ferrie and me) and other private public organizations like the Federal Reserve system and any large defense industry with anybody with security clearance.
Skull and Bones was and probably still is another low profile group and Time/Life who bought the Zapruder film and kept it for editing for 12 years was also run by CEO and board members with CIA connections… something Dan Rather failed to mention in his Jay Leno interview the other night.
When I was a welder in LA in the 70’s I was caught takin photos of the environmental hazards at the lead factory pumping lead and sulfur dioxide fumes into the open air and was told I would never leave the Plant if I did not turn over the film because I was an “industrial espionage agent” … I turned over the film… but lived to tell the tale!
The fact that they are putting these old operations out in the open now ..(even Bush now saying torture is legal) is just showing how desperate they are becoming.
To be outraged at them coming out in the open about what they did before in private would be hypocritical of me… I say give them all the rope they need to hang themselves.
Hang Down your heads Bush and Cheney…poor boys your bound to Die!
Kurt Vonnegut put his finger on it when he wrote “Hocus Pocus.”
The Evilgelical’s dark side religion is called The State.
Retroactive immunity from prosecution for telecomms/internet companies anyone?
The Senate are going to love approving InfraGourd’s remit too.
we are ALL so screwed
Hey, this looks like an opportunity to start a pool. Any bets on when the capitalist bastards arrest the first “terrorist” for calling a labor strike?
Do you get a nice Brown Shirt with that Membership Card?
Wow! Infragard! A new name for Gauleiter! Wow! Do they get skull rings, magic daggers and a cool cult ceremony? Wow.
Everyone should also take note-
One business owner in the United States tells me that InfraGard members are being advised on how to prepare for a martial law situation - and what their role might be. He showed me his InfraGard card, with his name and e-mail address on the front, along with the InfraGard logo and its slogan, “Partnership for Protection.” On the back of the card were the emergency numbers that Schneck mentioned.
This business owner says he attended a small InfraGard meeting where agents of the FBI and Homeland Security discussed in astonishing detail what InfraGard members may be called upon to do.
“The meeting started off innocuously enough, with the speakers talking about corporate espionage,” he says. “From there, it just progressed. All of a sudden we were knee deep in what was expected of us when martial law is declared. We were expected to share all our resources, but in return we’d be given specific benefits.” These included, he says, the ability to travel in restricted areas and to get people out.
But that’s not all.
“Then they said when - not if - martial law is declared, it was our responsibility to protect our portion of the infrastructure, and if we had to use deadly force to protect it, we couldn’t be prosecuted,” he says.
I was able to confirm that the meeting took place where he said it had, and that the FBI and Homeland Security did make presentations there. One InfraGard member who attended that meeting denies that the subject of lethal force came up. But the whistleblower is 100 percent certain of it. “I have nothing to gain by telling you this, and everything to lose,” he adds. “I’m so nervous about this, and I’m not someone who gets nervous.”
Again notice — WHEN - NOT IF MARTIAL LAW IS DECLARED
Don’t worry, man, when the Love Chorus chicks sing their beautiful songs, man, the great wave will come and wash over the pigs, man, and their porky little pink bellied bodies will float out to the sea.
Dorky, dorky…
I am speechless, but I guess I can say we are all screwed. This proves that it is a government of the businesses for the businesses. Woops maybe I should not say that is an infragard member listening?
Peter Sirois February 7th, 2008 5:57 pm
“Hey, this looks like an opportunity to start a pool. Any bets on when the capitalist bastards arrest the first “terrorist” for calling a labor strike?”
You’re not getting my dollar, Peter! I’m going to need it when the shit hits the fan in this country.
Martial Law will not be televised.
This is one of those…OH SHIT! stories…WOW! this one..well…this is IT! right? A protected class of Money Makers that can shoot to kill..how maqny times have you been told..” I don’t appreciate your attitude..” because you simply ask a question they don’t wish to answer…etc…etc..the Corporate-bureaucratic Head game tactic..where you are “Out of Control” or any one of a dozen dismissive “Tricks’ they have learned to get rid of anyone who poses a threat to their little corner of the world…
And that is really what this is..in REALITY…giving SPECIAL TREATMENT to a group of people who have NO business making decisions about any of our “States of Mind” or the “Threat Level” that they percieve us to be…these are the people that tailgate you on the highway, these hyper aggressive types who LOVE the ridiculous FBI New World Order Speak..(bi-directional multi tasking upwardly mobile interdimensional portal seminar on ….blah..blah…blah..)and THEY now have a SECRET HANDSHAKE and CARTE BLANCHE LETHAL FORCE PROTECTION? Great..
It’s a surveillance society Corporate Fascist Theocracy move at it’s VERY BEST…
See for yourself..go to the San Francisco chapter website and look at their LAST MEETING…which was headlining “Intellectual Property” issues…ARE THEY FUCKING KIDDING? that is SPYING!…PERIOD! Yeah..right..Al-Qaeda is threatening to release a series of pirated copies of the Lion King…Ohhh noooo! not THAT!
I will find out who the local INFRAGARD asshole is in MY TOWN..and I will EXPOSE them..we HAVE to begin to EXPOSE and to VILLIFY these people who HAVE NO PROBLEM PARTICIPATING IN A CORPORATE FASCIST SOCIETY ON THE…SIMPLY UNBELIEVABLE BASIS..AND RATIONAL..THAT THEY GET “SPECIAL PRIVILEGES” FOR ME..THAT IN AND OF ITSELF IS PERHAPS THE “PROOF” THAT THESE PEOPLE SHOULD BE THE LAST ONES TO MAKE LIFE AND DEATH DECISIONS..THAT THEY ACTUALLY WANT AND EXPECT “SPECIAL TREATMENT” AND FEEL JUSTIFIED AND ….SMUG….BASTIDS! FIGHT THE OPPRESSOR…
Is it fascism yet? Probably better to call it neo-fascism, since the American style fascism is more successful and sustainable than the old fashioned stuff of Germany, Italy, and Spain of the 1930’s.
I take it all back. Bu$h the inferior and Shotgun Dick ARE a gift to democracy and good government.
Is Infraguard listening/reading here? Good! FUCK YOU
Yeah, lets see, what’s that thing defined as the merger of the Corporate and the State…?
BOO!!!!
It’s Sinclair Lewis’s “It Can’t Happen Here” happening here. Now. The corpo-state is locked and loaded and we are in their sights.
go to www.infragard.net
Browse and see the full extent of ‘Big Brother’.
BTW, don’t bother trying to locate your nearest chapter. They seem to have disconnected link
“We couldn’t find this chapter
files/california
Please try again later Thank you for your patience”
Can they make us keep shopping?? At gunpoint??
You suppose this rounding up of the Mafia in multiple states has any connection?
I thought this must be a sick joke - however…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InfraGard
I’ll have to ask www.mi5.gov.uk about this.
Perhaps Mitt Romany and the Salt Lake City gang aren’t so dumb stockpileing a year’s worth of food and warer after all. NSPD 51 being what it is.
“BTW, don’t bother trying to locate your nearest chapter. They seem to have disconnected link”
You can find chapters here:
http://www.infragard.net/chapters/index.htm
Since the membership form is on the website, we should all join. We’ll do a reverse infiltration. Let them figure out who’s spying on them for a change.
I pay the bills that support the infrastructure, want my card.
can you feel the endgame coming people? be ready.
No, it is not fascism yet. Read Sebastian Haffner’s Defying Hitler for an inside and psychological view of the rise of fascism in Germany. If the CommonDreams authors all get put in prison for “treason” or are killed “while trying to escape” then we have fascism. No, we are not there yet. No author or poster here has been put in prison for expressing his or her views—yet. But the trajectory is there, and there is no way to predict what will happen if a new cycle of violence with al Qaeda happens with new attacks in the US. InfraGard is yet-another step in the direction towards a US-style police state. If the members of InfraGard start martial training in miltiary camps to learn to shoot straight, that will be another step down the police state path.
Now is the time to prevent the trajectory from continuing. That happens by means of political organizing, direct action, and movement-based hard work.
Maybe we should infiltrate them…. they are paranoid folks lookin for criminals…. they say the FBI is spending all its time on immigration arrests so that they can git rid of any suspected terrorist with an immigration violation since it is hard to prove terrorism… sounds great eh?
Then they say Justice Dept. don’t have hardly any terrorism cases…. probably easier to find some farm workers and kick them out and chalk it up to a victory on Terror War.
If things keep goin the way there goin I think these folks would be the first to have the training to arrest Bush and Cheney when they get their pink slips…. same with the mercenaries…. last to get hired and first to get fired….Oh the stupid economy will work it out in the end…
But yes we should keep these guys under close surveillance….
We haven’t had an attack by al Qaeda yet! What if we have another black op like 911, or the Gulf of Tonkin, or the Straits of Hormuz (fortunately didn’t come off) or an errant bomber full of armed cruise missiles unleashing them on someone?
Do we need Blackwater troops patrolling our neighborhoods to admit we have become a fascist state?
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck, swims like a duck, it probably ain’t a turkey.
They don’t realize it, but they are moving this couuntry toward armed conflict!Theres revolution in the air.
Who needs threats? That’s about the future. We’ve got terrors aplenty already. Obviously the FBI and the Infraguard (will they fix bridges, pay teachers what they’re actually worth, feed schoolchildren, teach real science, or is it “infra” as in “fraternity”?) are a bit behind the times. We are way past needing to protect our infrawhatever. Now we need to restore a constitution, bill of rights, reinstitute the EPA, FDA, FCC. Rothschild, you write this story as if you’ve been living under a rock.
The dire world predicted in the 1975 version of “Rollerball” is now one step closer to being.
any union members reading this article should check with their leadership about possible membership.
Just chcked out Mich, chapter, is headed by GM chairman, plus Dephi head; UAW members need to ask some qustions.
Martial law will be declared.
There will be no election.
Greeat Grappa that is just what I need is to start a hunt in my union for some hit man on roller skates ,,,sorry been their done that…
but you do it please and keep us posted.
and smile a lot.
Everytime I get to the point where Im feeling like maybe, just maybe, things are not going to be as bad as my gut tellss me they are, another sickening piece of the puzzle is dropped onto my head
Jim Glover: If its good for management, why not labor?
Bush has said it would be much easier being dictator on record a few times. fact- his grandfather was caught trading with NAZI financiers during ww2 and got a slap on the wrist. for that matter, many major u.s. corporations like GM, ITT, FORD, EXXON, IBM etc. traded with the fascists some even during ww2 according to Charles Higham’s book TRADING WITH THE ENEMY and it is instructive to see how our veterans and even active-duty folks are treated as disposable garbage, or the millions who died because of wars or “conflicts” we started. Economic depression- useless consumers - full-on privatized police state- freeze dried prozac laced gen-mod soy/corn mush if lucky. oh wait, this stuff will be ethanol for the security forces. The most decorated Marine in US history General Smedley Butler (until recently) was hired by “Wall
Street” in the 30’s to overthrow FDR.WHISTLEBLOWER!!! he testified before the US Congress.(he also said he was wall street’s right-hand mafia man, invading China and Central America numerous times. Here’s an American Hero For Democracy.
…
hey cool. corporate eagle scouts.
anybody surprised?
…
“We were assured that if we were forced to kill someone to protect our infrastructure, there would be no repercussions,” the whistleblower says.
Protect our infastructure? Like from a bunch of blue coated gunmen breaking down our front door? What has the national debt done to America’s infastructure?
This is another clear attempt to control labor by the oligarchs. These people have been readying this stuff since at least the ’50s when they did the same thing in South America. The Chicago School of Economics.
Its all to make lists so when the final shock comes they will be able to round up all the dissenters and torture and or kill them so the masses see what they are in for and accept working for $1 an hour with staggering inflation.
Read this if you want to know who is behind all this insanity:
http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine
BIG_MONEY
‘martial law will not be televised’……it won’t be on the internet either!!!!!!
well, anyone can join (as long as you don’t mind a ‘records check’ by the fbi. the application form is there (5 pages) but do read their ‘code of ethics’ and their ‘policies and procedures’ first. best of all there is no cost to join infragard…………
The tradition of the citizen soldier is not new in this country. The National Guard can be observed in terms of that history. The national guard has been part of that history. It is sad that the government notions of security are so extreme but cool heads can prevail.In the mean time there has been considerable international development of peace and reconciliation studies and projects with proven efficacy - South Africa as case in point. This presence enables one to view the FBI/civic formulation from perspectives that need not identify broad civic participation as being ‘infiltration’ but choosing to be such a citizen-soldier-of-peace-presence as society moves through this period.
Notice that this police state program began in 1996 under the direction of Robert Mueller, who was head of the FBI under Clinton I. It basically is a Clinton-organized program.
Labor unions should really get onto this. What prevents Infragard members from reporting legitimate union activities, especially organizing and strikes, as “terrorist” threats. What prevents them from compiling lists of shop floor activists, stewards and officers and sending them to the FBI?
John Sweeney and Andy Stern are you listening, or are you too busy cutting deals with Walmart, the Republican Governors Conference and the National Endowment for Democracy?
makenator February 8th, 2008 2:56 am
That’s “Smedley Darlington Butler” and as you say, an American Hero For Democracy…
We have had all the Heroes/Heroines and Martyrs any country deserves.
I saw Nixon win in ‘68 by saying that the greatest single weapon working against US forces in Vietnam was opposition to the war. America cheered, “Kill The Hippy Protest Scum. Filthy Traitors.” I learned at 19 what this country was.
I saw Raygun as Governator of CA back in ‘68 when every protestor for anything was an “animal, agitator, malcontent” - and they shot us in our beds and they shot us in the streets, and America did nothing. I saw Raygun as POTUS giving the heart and soul of this country into the hands of richfilth animals, and America cheered, “You’re our Hero Ronnie. We LOVE you Ronnie.” While he told quadriplegics they were able bodied and cut off their medications and any financial support and they committed suicide, and America watched game shows.
And it’s all over now baby blue….the highway is for gamblers better use your sense. Take what you have gathered from coincidence….
The Last Unrepentant, Genocidal, Aryan Slave Empire, in its final hours of swaggering brutality returned to the slave roots of its founding in a vain attempt to regain its formative strengths. But the well was empty and the monsters were faced instead by a massed wall of billions of screaming victims. It was a tsunami force culminating from 500 years of global rape, pillage, and oppression. And the Empire collapsed, and like China in the 19th Century, the US became a carcass for global carrion eaters for 150 years. Remember Hong Kong and the Opium Wars and the Bund, round eyed barbarian? Trust me on this one, the Chinese have very, very long memories. And they know what dead meat smells like, dinner.
Opposition to the War?
No. Opposition to the existence of the US as a prima facie threat to the survival of the human species.
You guys should really rent Babylon5, all 5 seasons if you get the chance. They started on-air in ‘93 but they covered a lot of ground, from Build Up to Coup to Collapse. You get the Coup at the end of the 1st season. It is the only multi-season sci-fi program that played out like a full on novel. When you rent you don’t get carpet bombed by commercials cause there ain’t any. When Joss Whedon had all his characters cursing in Mandarin in his series, “Firefly”, he was prophetic.
Of course, the Chinese will also have to get past their predilection for Male Supremacy (Family/Clan); Gender slavery; Human slavery; Massive child abuse; & Constant War. To that extent their only difference from us is Genocide. I know my people have perped out at least two genocides, one in the Continental US, the second was in what we call the British & Emerald Isles.
There were thriving populations in both places before my Celt ancestors arrived. We wiped them out. Not even a marker in the gene pool. That means we didn’t even rape the women and we normally raped everybody, men, women, and children, and sheep and cattle and oxen and goats and chickens – forget the chickens, I wasn’t supposed to mention the chickens. I know of the might of the Great Khan and he did build mountains of human skulls as we have often done, but I don’t think either Mongol or Ch’in ever perpetrated genocide. That may be their saving grace if they can get past the first 5. Of course, if they don’t, if they pursue the triplet sirens of wealth, conquest, and power – well – then it’s back to small bands of hunter gatherers poking around for sip-wells and tubers, and watch out for the radioactive bits.
For us, NOTHING. Not for 150 years and by then none of you will recognize the wasteland that remains. Elect all the Dims you want. This is Empire and Empires die, some sooner, some later. History has granted you a ringside seat for an event unwitnessed in over 1500 years, the collapse of a bloated monstrosity parading as thing of Global Power. You might want to find a shady spot, somewhere else. Otherwise you are likely to hear the sound of M80 tanks on your city streets. After that comes a sound most of you may find unfamiliar, the sound of airborne mortars and the thud of impact.
And then the question will become, “Which side are you on?” Life and death and too late.
Justicia.
Pieces of 8.
In 2002 I was illegally / maliciously sued by my substantial former employer…an international Teleservices-IT-Business Process Outsourcing company & special govt contractor. Shortly after news of the suit was published I received two specific warnings that this company could easily tap my home phones and read my ISP and I should expect this…and was also warned I would never work again. Guess what? Sic the FBI & the SEC & the DOJ & the IRS… whatever it takes. Quid Pro Quo - What else does anyone need to know? BTW…Call your Congressman…3 most useless words in the English langauge
Fascism is coming to America!Fascism is coming to America!Fascism is coming to America!!!!
And what an opportunity for some insider trading. 9/11 airline stocks? small potatoes. advance info on latest “shock”? where do I sign up?
1996? Wasn’t Billy Boy Prez then? I have to assume that the planning and execution of our fascist state has been going on for quite some time. And it is a non-partisan effort.
And Billary in 2008? That was also planned. Just one big happy empire building family without a specific gene pool. I wonder if Obama is giving them fits or if he is in on this too. Probably not. So he will never be the candidate or he will be dead.
We all know where this is going. Are we prepared? What are we supposed to do now? Leave the country? Stay and die? What?
“Is Infraguard listening/reading here? Good! FUCK YOU”
Thanks, Jack37. I couldn’t have said it better myself!
Yeah, Big business just didn’t have enough control over everyone’s life. It is called Fascism.
As I type these words, I’m listening to Peter B. Collins interviewing Mathew Rothschild, the author of this article, on krxa 540 am radio ( a progressive radio station ). If I can calm down, I’ll call and voice my concern.
Anita Linker, I second Jack37’s comment. Way to go, Jack!
If you see no problem with/plan on voting for Clinton or Obama, skip this comment.
Everyone else: assuming that most or all of us are far-left, progressive, whatever, do you realize that folks on the far right have these exact same concerns? They’ve been worried about/working against the coming martial law for a long, long time (see, for example, infowars dot com, or go to Google video or YouTube and watch America: Freedom to Fascism).
Many of us were for Kucinich. Some of us are willing to hold our nose and vote for Obama. Some of us prefer to hope for a Nader or throw away our vote on a McKinney. Those are all valid ideas. Let me propose another.
Ron Paul. He is the only candidate left who truly understands the inherent dangers of continuity of government plans, the ongoing decimation of civil liberties, FEMA camps and related terrifying things, and he understands that martial law is coming.
I completely disagree with Ron Paul’s stance on abortion. I think he’s naïve to think that he could close all federal departments with the stroke of a pen. I think he’s silly to run on abolishing the IRS. I shudder to think what he will do to the next 20 years of our Supreme Court. HOWEVER, he’s not bought-and-paid-for by the same terrifying groups that have vetted and approved Clinton et al. As critically important as reproductive freedom, worker’s rights, and all the other post-New Deal civil rights are, they are NOTHING compared to our basic Constitutionally guaranteed liberties. We move closer to fascism every day. Read Naomi Wolf for confirmation of this. Watch her on YouTube.
What will you do when the rest of the Middle East changes over from petrodollars to petroeuros and the dollar crashes? Or when the mortgage insurance companies holding all this worthless paper fail and the stock market has to “take a holiday”? Or when the FDIC can’t cover your deposit amount when your bank fails? Or when the Fed prints enough worthless paper money to do so and we go into hyperinflation? Can you pay $10 a gallon for milk? $100? $1000? Will it be safe to walk around your town at night when that happens?
Does this sound crazy? It would have sounded crazy to me a year ago, or even six months ago. But part of my job requires me to read multiple MSM and alternative media sources every day. Bad stuff coming down the pike. It’s all out there in plain sight if you read widely and think for yourself. Do what you can to turn it around, and get yourself prepared. Survivalists aren’t as nutty as I used to think they were. In fact, they are pretty darn sane.
Ron Paul is the only candidate running for president who will restore the Constitution; who understands that the question of martial law is not if, but when; and who won’t take orders from Bush/Clinton/Bush/Whoever’s handlers. That is why I will vote for him in November if I have to write his name on my ballot with my sharpened #2 pencil.
AlabamaYellerDog - I hear ya loud and clear on all points, especially on Ron Paul. I’m a lifelong democrat, but changed my party registration to repub. so I could vote for him in the primaries. Since I don’t think he’ll make it to the repub. ticket I’m going to vote for McKinney or will write in Kucinich if she doesn’t run, and IF there’s an election at all. No longer will I vote for the mainstream democrat unless they don’t accept corporate contributions.
As for the survivalists, I’ve started stocking up on canned foods and water, especially since I live in a rural area. I’m also going to stock up on laundry detergent, toilet paper and other necessities as well.
I’ve tried to talk to my friends about this stuff because I’m retired and have time to read up on it. But, they don’t want to listen to me I guess because then they’d have to think about it. Oh well, guess we’ll see who’s better prepared when the shit hits the fan.
“We were assured that if we were forced to kill someone to protect our infrastructure, there would be no repercussions,”
Infastructure like Medicare, Social Security and National Healthcare?
As someone noted above, Mussolini’s definition of fascism is basically a nationalistic state that acts of behalf of corporations.
An out-of-print book, “The Crime and Punishment of IG Farben,” describes how German corporations in the time of Nazism often got the spoils of Hitler’s invasions. Flash forward to today, and not all corporations necessarily have a stake in fascism (with exceptions for Halliburton, Blackwater, etc.). However, the Infragard program gives them that stake by instilling the fear of terrorism, the fear of the unnamed other, which, in this case, is really the American people.
The government does the same sort of thing with firefighters, having them attend special classes about responding to terrorist threats. Firefighters don’t do enforcement, but such programs help spread the fear anyway.
Today, we likely have real threats of terrorism, largely because of the blowback from U.S. Middle East policies, the Iraq occupation and the CIA’s arming of the mujahedeen in a secret proxy war to entice the Soviet Union into invading and occupying Afghanistan (per Brezinski). However, terrorism historically has not been a likely event in the United States. A Los Angeles Times article, after 9-11, listed all of the terrorist incidents in the United States to that date. Topping the list at the time was Puerto Rican nationalists. Yep, you don’t hear about it because these incidents were so few and between.
Counter-terrorism is now a monetized industry that elicits the support of corporations in response to homeland security dollars, and now Infragard is available to combine profit-taking with ideology. All of this provides a formula for the kind of corporate-state alliances that happened before in cases like Nazi Germany.
Meanwhile, Congressional war supporter, Jane Harmond, recently issued a bill to fund studies on dissent. She wants to find out how long it will take before the American people revolt. That suggests a government that would sooner declare martial law than respond to the will of the American people for peace.
The parallels to other periods of fascism are uncanny. I’d like to dismiss all of this corporate counter-terrorism stuff to hype, fear and bloated bureaucracies, but programs like Infragard seem too well contrived, too well thought out toward actually achieving fascism.
Ironically, folks may remember the fear back during President Reagan/Bush I’s days when FEMA was created with martial law contingency plans in place. Of course, Bush II subsequently came to power, and he defunded FEMA and placed it under the Department of Homeland Security, allowing the people of New Orleans to die and suffer without coordinated relief. So, FEMA didn’t turn out to be the means of imposing martial law, at least nationally, nor was it of any help, either.
The DHS mostly wastes our tax dollars by dumping them on corporations for all sorts of measures that aren’t necessary to security. However, as with the Infragard program, one shouldn’t underestimate the ideological effects of this corporate cash infusion. It helps to “normalize” fascism. After all, most corporations currently perform “security checks” on new-hire employees, and punish them for underperformance, insubordination, etc. So it’s not much of step further to carrying out other “patriotic” control measures.
It’s surprising, as the article suggests, that the FBI wants to empower corporations to shoot people. The current economic control now wielded by corporations has been so effective that such measures seem hardly necessary (at least, from their point of view).
People need to speak out against this, despite personal consequences.
Fascism at its preliminary stages… This is it.
Oh, yea… I forgot.
InfraGard - FUCK YOU!!!
The thing that sucks, is most Americans are too caught up about what happens on American Idol or what Britney will do next to pay attention what really is affecting them… It’s going to take some Nazi employer shooting his employee for everyone to take notice… Thank you for spitting in our forefathers faces media!!