An Update on InfraGard...The Corporate Deputies Prepare for Bioterrorism

So while we on the left piddle our time away arguing about who is more power crazy, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, the Corporatists are continuing to consolidate their power and influence in our communities as well as at work.
From InfraGard’s own site, read and educate yourself about what the FBI is providing to the business community to train them to be deputies "in case of emergency." What kind of emergency? What ever the powers that be want, be it a race war, punks gone wild laughing in the streets, feminist lesbos kissing in public, crazed environmentalists or anarchists damaging PROPERTY!!!! It doesn't need to be defined now, just be forewarned: it's coming. InfraGard is an FBI program dedicated to promoting ongoing dialogue and timely communication between the private sector and the FBI concerning critical infrastructure protection issues. The FBI and InfraGard members are engaged in this cooperative undertaking in recognition that a public/private strategic partnership is of vital importance to our nation’s security.
All InfraGard participants are committed to the proposition that a robust exchange of information about threats to and actual attacks on these critical infrastructures is an important element for successful infrastructure protection efforts. Each member must subscribe to the National InfraGard Code of Ethics as well as to the National InfraGard By-Laws in addition to those adopted by the Member Alliance. [my bold]
The goal of InfraGard is to enable the flow of information so that the owners and operators of infrastructure assets can better protect themselves and so that the United States government can better discharge its law enforcement and national security responsibilities.
The Metro NYC InfraGard Member Alliance is incorporated under the laws of the State of New York as a not for profit corporation. Sponsorship opportunities are available, and will qualify as tax deductible under United States Internal Revenue code section 501 (c) (3)*.
Here's a brief alert to the members:
BIO5 Researcher Identifies Cities at Risk for Bioterrorism
Boise, ID, is considered high risk, while Tucson ranks low.
By University Communications March 3, 2008
A University of Arizona researcher has created a new system to dramatically show American cities their relative level of vulnerability to bioterrorism.
Walter W. Piegorsch, an expert on environmental risk, has placed 132 major cities – from Albany, N.Y., to Youngstown, Ohio – on a color-coded map that identifies their level of risk based on factors including critical industries, ports, railroads, population, natural environment and other factors.
Piegorsch is the director of a new UA graduate program in interdisciplinary statistics and a professor of mathematics in the College of Science, as well as a member of the UA’s BIO5 Institute.
The map marks high-risk areas as red (for example, Houston and, surprisingly, Boise, ID), midrange risk as yellow (San Francisco) and lower risk as green (Tucson). The map shows a wide swath of highest-risk urban areas running from New York down through the Southeast and into Texas. Boise is the only high-risk urban area that lies outside the swath.
The model employs what risk experts call a benchmark vulnerability metric, which shows risk managers each city’s level of risk for urban terrorism.
Piegorsch says terrorism vulnerability involves three dimensions of risk – social aspects, natural hazards and construction of the city and its infrastructure.
He concludes that the allocation of funds for preparedness and response to terrorism should take into account these factors of vulnerability.
Read Full Article

http://nym-infragard.us/nuke/

Corporate Big Shots Gear Up for Martial Law

Exclusive! The FBI Deputizes Business
By Matthew Rothschild, February 7, 2008
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.

[...] “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.”
[...] [FBI Director Robert Mueller] 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.”
[...] “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.”
[...] 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.
[...] “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.
http://www.progressive.org/mag_rothschild0308