InfraGard: Below the Radar

Best-quality tin-foil I've seen in weeks: it's a substantially (but not utterly) unsourced report originating from The Progressive, which is more respectable than you often get for stuff of this kind. And, unlike most stuff of this kind, I can't automatically debunk it, although I can certainly construct scenarios in which relatively innocent comments might be misunderstood (“Will you get in trouble for stopping people storming your power plant? No”).

But it can't really be the case that the FBI and Homeland Security are going around recruiting businesses to be capos if we ever need martial law, can it?

So, readers, reassuring pointers would be most welcome.

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7 Responses to InfraGard: Below the Radar

  1. Well, lobbyists working for corporations write the laws, your phone company spies on you whether it’s legal or not, private armies are fighting in Iraq – which is not an occupation because major combat operations ended five years ago, CIA planes used for kidnapping and torture crash in Mexico filled with cocaine, and we have a Fourth Branch of Government manipulating the Unitary Executive to enact fake laws in the form of Executive Orders that nobody knows aren’t really laws because it would seem neither our elected nor our appointed officials bother with the Constitution anymore, and for some reason the media doesn’t want to “rock the boat” by making a fuss about the selfcrowned childking ruling by classified decree. At least we have a highly-profitable Free and Fair Election Season simulcast on YouTube and [insert your favorite cable television network here] with an official FCC Sweeps Week rating of 29.95% more exciting than the 1936 Olympics guaranteed to keep your mind off the Federal Reality Newsprint Nightmare Burlesque Freakshow or your money back offer valid in the Continental United States only this call may be monitored for quality and training purposes. I love SuperBowl commercials. Have you ever read Philip Dru: Administrator? It was written before color television but sometimes the old black and white books are still good.

  2. Well, lobbyists working for corporations write the laws, your phone company spies on you whether it’s legal or not, private armies are fighting in Iraq – which is not an occupation because major combat operations ended five years ago, CIA planes used for kidnapping and torture crash in Mexico filled with cocaine, and we have a Fourth Branch of Government manipulating the Unitary Executive to enact fake laws in the form of Executive Orders that nobody knows aren’t really laws because it would seem neither our elected nor our appointed officials bother with the Constitution anymore, and for some reason the media doesn’t want to “rock the boat” by making a fuss about the selfcrowned childking ruling by classified decree. At least we have a highly-profitable Free and Fair Election Season simulcast on YouTube and [insert your favorite cable television network here] with an official FCC Sweeps Week rating of 29.95% more exciting than the 1936 Olympics guaranteed to keep your mind off the Federal Reality Newsprint Nightmare Burlesque Freakshow or your money back offer valid in the Continental United States only this call may be monitored for quality and training purposes. I love SuperBowl commercials. Have you ever read Philip Dru: Administrator? It was written before color television but sometimes the old black and white books are still good.

  3. Bentley says:

    sorry for the double-post, got a “cheapo server choked” error…

  4. Da' Buffalo says:

    You’ve got tinfoil, I have WhoIs, and whois says it’ runs on a dot gov domain:

    Registrant:
    InfraGard Technical Program Mgr.
    ATTN: INFRAGARD.NET
    c/o Network Solutions
    P.O. Box 447
    Herndon, VA. 20172-0447

    Domain Name: INFRAGARD.NET

    Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
    Technical Manager, InfraGard w62cg4wr2ha@networksolutionsprivateregistration.com
    InfraGard Technical Program Mgr.
    ATTN: INFRAGARD.NET
    c/o Network Solutions
    P.O. Box 447
    Herndon, VA 20172-0447
    570-708-8780

    Record expires on 27-Sep-2008.
    Record created on 28-Sep-1998.
    Database last updated on 10-Feb-2008 18:01:34 EST.

    Domain servers in listed order:

    NS1.LEO.GOV
    NS.CIS.FED.GOV

    This listing is a Network Solutions Private Registration. Mail
    correspondence to this address must be sent via USPS Express Mail(TM) or
    USPS Certified Mail(R); all other mail will not be processed. Be sure to
    include the registrant’s domain name in the address.

  5. Jim Lippard says:

    See my blog for a different take.

  6. I know a few people in infragard and from the impression i’ve gotten from them I would liken it to a more public and technical lodge meeting maybe. The two techs I know in it appear to regard it as resume-fodder and an occasional meeting where they hear technical presentations etc (Really useful for some IT certifications that require a given amount of training per year to show you’re current on new technologies — e.g. Cisco and ISC2 do this; MS dates your certification and makes you recertify; SUN just dates your certification).

    Nefarious collusion between business and government does not appear to be it’s raison d’etre. Whois data is as it should be: it’s government-associated, with I’m assuming minimal government funding or assistance so it’s root servers are in .gov ultimately (it’s not like it takes a great deal of money to add a DNS entry to the .gov DNS servers). More interesting is the whois on the IP the website is running; it lives at LSU.EDU. I suppose you could find more tinfoil, but sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

  7. Albatross says:

    I’m in Infragard, and David Piniella’s characterization is accurate. When asked, I’ve always described it as a public-private outreach program to prepare first responders in the case of an incident. I have never heard any suggestion that Infragard members had any special privileges or responsibilities in any sort of incident – it’s all about preparedness. When the 35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, communications were very good in part because of the efforts of Infragard to get responders coordinated.

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