[News] FBI Deputizes Private Contractors With Extraordinary Powers, Including 'Shoot to Kill'

[Anti-Imperialist News]

FBI Deputizes Private Contractors With 
Extraordinary Powers, Including 'Shoot to Kill'




By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive
Posted on February 8, 2008, Printed on February 8, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/76388/

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.


© 2008 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/76388/





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