FBI Gives Private Contractors Extraordinary Powers

joshumu

Meet InfraGard, one of the most terrifying manifestations of the American Police State. This seems to be an operation designed to protect private property interests in the event of (inevitable) social unrest and upheaval by empowering the ruling-class elite and their private armies to, indeed, “shoot to kill.” Such empowerment of the propertied classes against the propertyless is, of course, historically nothing new. But it’s typically a sign of trouble.

"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."

http://www.alternet.org/rights/76388/

Jinx

This is disturbing, but nothing new or unexpected. They are basically mercenaries in business suits. Heck, a recent CSI Miami episode dealt with a fictional version of these guys called Peregrine Securities.
A thin as the US military and security infrastructure has been stretched it was only a matter of time before they turned to private contractors for domestic security in addition to the ones they already use in Iraq.
Makes me wonder who holds the trigger on these guys, though, and what sort of safeties are in place to prevent them from using their "shoot-to-kill" authority indiscriminately.

We live in scary times.