Infragard, ...Spies Among Us Options

[Lee51]

I watched "Conspiracy Theory" -Jesse Ventura tonight. The subject of "Infragard" came up at the end of the show. I had never heard of it so I Googled it and it does exist. They recruit members from business men who have an eye on different areas of our infrastructure. Here is their stated purpose taken directly from their site. www.infragard.net

"InfraGard is an information sharing and analysis effort serving the interests and combining the knowledge base of a wide range of members. At its most basic level, InfraGard is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the private sector. InfraGard is an association of businesses, academic institutions, state and local law enforcement agencies, and other participants dedicated to sharing information and intelligence to prevent hostile acts against the United States. InfraGard Chapters are geographically linked with FBI Field Office territories. "

You might want to use InPrivate settings to go to the site. So, I guess we have Secret Police now. Be careful who you talk to.

[Daniels]

So, I guess we have Secret Police now. Be careful who you talk to.

I think it's important to remember that one of tactics of a battle is to try to convince the enemy that there is no point in fighting because you have them totally outnumbered.

Even if this is not true you can do it by bluffing.

When we are allowed to know of the existence of Echelon, the email monitoring supersite, and other eavesdropping tactics, it may be part of the bluffing by them™.

Their job is to get us to act like robots: shut up, work, believe everything they tell us, and obey them without question.

For those that might not have noticed, privacy legislation only keeps us from speaking about others, it does not stop the gov from snooping through all your tax records, for example.

If we believe that Echelon has our every word monitored, and Infragard is quietly reporting our movements, then the more timid amongst us will remain silent out of fear.

They then will have accomplished their goal -- even if Echelon is just a myth and Infragard is not supported by more than a handful of brainwashed sheep.

[GroundPounder]

ve are vatching you

[Lee51]

I'll let you in on a secret. The paranoia was hyperbole. Fact is, I'm am alarmed that the gov't is recruiting civilians. Too many parallels to past fascist governments. This stuff is starting to look like we are choosing sides. I've chosen mine but I feel sorry for my uninformed compatriots who believe they are doing the patriotic thing. If I were a tactician I might enjoy sitting back and watching all us peons destroy each other. All we can do here is try to get people alarmed enough for their light to come on. The ah ha moment I had watching Zeitgeist for example. If the s**t ever hits the fan all that will really matter is who has the most people on their side and who has the most toys. We've had a coup d'atat, two stolen presidential elections, several false flag operations, our money looted by bankers, and the sheeple still sleep. Is anything our government can do TOO outrageous? I spent 681 days in SE Asia where over 50,000 GIs died for money, politics, and each other. If things ever got bad I'd probably survive. I'd eat your dog if I got hungry enough, but god forgive we never have to go there again. That's the last thing I want. I'm just hoping to turn on some lights for now.

[nitatutt]

GroundPounder:
ve are vatching you

Rod Beckstrom says so ...
(Mr. Beckstrom's website: http://www.beckstrom.com/Main_Page)

Source: Computerworld.com - fair use - link: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/912...ins_of_NSA_role

Federal cybersecurity director quits, complains of NSA role
Rod Beckstrom quit the post after less than a year
By Jaikumar Vijayan
March 8, 2009 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - In a move that highlights differences over who should be in charge of national cybersecurity efforts, the director of a federal office set up to protect civilian, military and intelligence networks has submitted his resignation after less than a year in the job.

Rod Beckstrom, director of the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), on Friday said he is quitting because of concerns over what he said is the National Security Agency's (NSA) domination of the nation's cybersecurity efforts. The NCSC was set up within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last year to oversee and coordinate efforts to shore up the nation's defenses and responses to cyberthreats.

Beckstrom was appointed to lead the NCSC in March 2008 and was required to report directly to then-DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff.

In a sharply worded letter to current DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, Beckstrom on Friday noted that the NSA effectively controlled DHS cyberefforts "through detailees, technology insertions" and a proposed move of the National Protection and Programs Directorate and the NCSC to an NSA facility in Fort Meade. His letter, dated March 5, noted that allowing the NSA to control national cybersecurity efforts is a "bad strategy on multiple grounds."

Beckstrom also stressed his unwillingness to "subjugate the NCSC underneath the NSA."

The intelligence culture embodied by the NSA is "very different than a network operations or security culture," said Beckstrom in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Computerworld. Allowing a single agency such as the NSA to handle all top-level government network security and monitoring functions poses a significant threat to "our democratic processes," he said. "Instead, we advocated a model where there is a credible civilian government cybersecurity capability which interfaces with, but is not controlled by, the NSA."

Beckstrom also lamented the lack of "appropriate" support for his office within the DHS during the Bush administration. He noted that over the past year, his office had received just five weeks' worth of funding because of various roadblocks engineered within the DHS and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Beckstrom's resignation is sure to focus attention on a 60-day review of national cybersecurity efforts now under way by Melissa Hathaway, a Bush administration official, at the behest of President Barack Obama. Hathaway has been working as a cybercoordination executive for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Comprehensive National Cyber Security Initiative, or CNCI.

The CNCI is a highly classified multibillion dollar cybersecurity initiative approved by then-President George W. Bush early last year. Hathaway has been in charge of coordinating and monitoring the CNCI's implementation and was recently asked by Obama to do a complete review of CNCI and other governmentwide cybersecurity initiatives.

Beckstrom's resignation is likely to force Hathaway to address the issue of who should run the government's overall national cybersecurity efforts. Even before Beckstrom's announcement, questions had arisen about the idea of letting the NSA taking the lead on cybersecurity issues. At a congressional hearing as far back as February 2008, lawmakers had expressed concern about the NSA's role in the CNCI, especially because of the classified nature of the initiative.

In December, a panel of security experts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies delivered a set of cybersecurity recommendations for the Obama administration explicitly calling on the White House to take overall charge of cyberinitiatives, not the NSA.

This post has been edited by nitatutt: Dec 29 2009, 11:03 PM