Seems that alot of negativity is running around lately, so i though I would post something positive for a change.

I am grateful for everything our military people are doing even if I do not believe in the war itself.

I am grateful for the books I get to read, movies I get to watch, and the things i get to enjoy.

No country is ever perfect, but ours strives to do what it can.

absolutely...thank you

Amen

Amen brother!!!!

Yes our the men and woman in our armed forces do an amazing job

armed forces..lol

FBI Gives Private Contractors 'Shoot to Kill' Powers
by moonwolf | February 10, 2008 at 01:43 pm | 151 views | add comment
Infragard Seal
by moonwolf
4 days ago | 4360 views

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The FBI has a new set of eyes and ears, and they're being told to protect their infrastructure at any cost. They can even kill without repercussion. Welcome Infragard the private corporate spies and police to your workplace and neighborhood, but realize they answer only to their handlers at the FBI, and only after the fact, their communications are outside the purvue of the Freedom of Information Act and members can shoot to kill with impunity.


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."

This article was too long to publish here so follow the link "Go to original story" below.

Source: alternet.org
their website is infragard.net

so much for having 1 positive thread amongst all the negative ones

Foliel...... Absolutely. We who were born in America and those who were not born here, but are American citizens are lucky. Anyone of us could have been born in a third world country or a country where human rights are supressed. But we are here in America, a country that God watches over and has blessed. And I too am grateful for the military who are out fighting for us and protecting us. You might want to add the police and the fire fighters to this list of those we need to thank.

How bout we just thank all those in public service who selflessly do their work behind the scenes, on the front lines and wherever they need to be and very often do not talk of it...So we will never really know.

thank you....its about time someone had something good to say

ditto

I agree that all public service people should be on the list.
I'm just glad I could post something positive for a change :)

ditto

Thank you. You have no idea how much I appreciate your efforts to put forth something positive

Yesterday, I was soooooo distraught over all of the negativness that I removed all my photos in my profile and deactivated my profile. It was getting to me.

Today, when I left for work and looked around at my neighbors' homes, my neighbors who basically keep to themselves, but when you need them they are there in a heartbeat, I realized how fortunate I really am, that there are more good people in our country than there are the hateful and negative.

OH, my Golden Retriever is thankful too!

Lindyy

it is nice to have a positive post. I agree with Lindyy and it just occurred to me that I have a bunch of nice neighbors. I have been home sick for the last month and several of them have knocked on my door and offered to help me.

I really do love all you nice positive folks and even the not so positive ones too

I have to admit your site got me to grinning a little bit ,and made me want to ask a nice positive question.

Does this mean that you nice positive people just dearly love the way our war leaders are doing , and that you dearly love the way our economy is going , and our job situation is great too,and that our govt is doing so great that you don't see any problems and also would not want to change anything?? And maybe you don't mind if McCain would leave our soldiers in Iraq for the next 100 years , and you would have no complaints what so ever. Also, I take it that you are as happy as a possum in a persimmon tree, and are not worried whether your constitution remains in tact, and I guess you would be perfect happy if Clinton gathered up all your squirrel guns.

But ,if I have some ideas how to fix our mess, then I guess you think that I am not positive.

Any way ,Thank you for greatly amusing me , I hope you can get a smile from this too.

Anyway ,I have great hopes that we can stop the war and save this country, and our soldiers , I consider that to be positive thinking.

It is never my intentions to pick on any one of you, But only to get you to think about the solutions to our problems.

I also realize that we disagree on things but Can we disagree ,with out being disagreeable?? I respect every one of your ideas. And I can learn from each one of you, my brothers and sisters.

I posted this thread because there are plenty of other threads for people to post complaints or gripes about our country.

I do not support the war, as I have said in previous posts on other threads. I want our troops to come home, but i do not forsee that happening anytime soon. Our best hope is that the next president we vote in will do something about it.

I think our government needs to worry about us for a change and stop worrying about other countries.

This does not mean that I can't be positive and post a positive thread. I can be thankful for what I have and can do without sacrificing my beliefs.

For future reference, i am NOT a nice positive person. I suffer from chronic depression and am generally one of the most negative people around. I vote, even though I feel like it won't matter. I live for other people not because i want to live. If you knew me in person you would hear all my B****ing about the government and the wars we get into that we have no business being in.

Want my opinion on everything, well here ya go....

lose the government and bring back a king and queen instead of having alot of people in charge.

Take away the commander in chief ability from the president, make it so that only congress can send the troops to war and they can put a time limit on it.

Better yet, just deflect an asteroid into the earth and we won't have anything to worry about.

See what happens when i get negative?