Who's Watching You?
Originally published at Durosia.com. You can comment here or there.
FBI Deputizes Private Contractors With Extraordinary Powers, Including 'Shoot to Kill'
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.
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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.
I don't know about you, but this scares me a lot.
All at once it's both sci-fi in the real world and an echo of something Draconian, something right out of the historical record of any number of oppressive regimes.
This is a private army of information warriors and armchair spies, all looking out for themselves and the status quo more than they're concerned with little things like privacy and Constitutional process. This is the new version of the Military-Industrial Complex we were warned about decades ago--a warning we have continually failed to heed with increasingly disastrous results.
Once again, it comes down to the citizens to be vigilant against abuses of power by our own government. That is a charge so many seem to have forgotten. Our first line of defense, the Free Press, has let us down again and again, failing to recognize, pass on or tie together warning signs that have been there for years. It is only through alternative sources--web sites, personal stories of being wronged and foreign news sources--that we can get a clear picture of what's actually going on here.
Educate yourselves. Then educate others.
Pass on the word of these dark currents swirling about. Stand up, shout out and shed light on them.
Because even if it is too late, there's no way we should go down without a fight.