[News] FBI Deputizes Private Contractors With Extraordinary Powers, Including 'Shoot to Kill'
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Fri Feb 8 17:39:03 EST 2008
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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