Meet InfraGard, the Justice Department’s secret team

Just as you thought Big Brother might be fading into the background, something comes along to jolt you back into realizing he’s still out there. In this case, it’s an organization affiliated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The organization is called InfraGard, and there is indeed a Buffalo chapter. In fact, there is an InfraGard chapter attached to each of the FBI’s 56 field offices, comprising more than 23,000 members, with a special agent acting as a liason and coordinator for each chapter. The other members are all civilians.

The special agent coordinator for the Buffalo chapter of InfraGard is Joe Ondercin. I tried to contact agent Ondercin for this story, but so far he has yet to respond. In fairness, notice was short and he may be busy. We’ll try again. Emails to Buffalo’s chapter president, John W. Schunak, were not fruitful either.

The purpose of InfraGard is the sharing of information between the private sector and the FBI. The private sector represents critical infrastructure vital to the interests of this nation: banking and finance, emergency services, government operations, transportation, electric power, gas and oil storage and delivery, water supply systems, and telecommunications. The vast majority of these operations are not owned by the government but by private interests. In fact, 350 of the nation’s Fortune 500 corporations have a member in InfraGard.

The information these corporations are sharing with the FBI is the same old information with which we have all become familiar: the ubiquitous terrorist threats against the homeland. InfraGard is, according to its Web site, “a partnership between the 56 FBI field offices…through a secure encrypted website and messaging network, private sector and government partners can share information about vulnerabilities and attacks in a secure and confidential way.”

InfraGard started as a pilot program in 1996 at the Cleveland, Ohio, FBI field office. The program’s initial purpose was the prevention of cyber crimes, so local computer experts were consulted for assistance. The sharing of information began and soon the program began to expand.

In February 1998, the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) was born. Located at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, its function was to expand the nascent cooperation between the private sector and the FBI. Initially, the focus was to be on preventing computer hackers having their way with both government and private sector mainframes. Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh were the proud parents of this latest addition to Big Brother’s brood.

In July 1999, InfraGard was officially born. It is the centerpiece of the NIPC.

Membership perqs are worth the price of admission: “access to sensitive but unclassified information; valuable networking opportunities; secure communications; F.B.I. certified and accredited system.”

InfraGard members do not join the national organization but apply through the local affiliate. Membership is apparently open to anyone, but even if you make the cut you can still be denied entrance to the club. What ultimately gets you in is what you can bring to the InfraGard table.

The application itself is not particularly forbidding. I downloaded one off the Web. You must be an American citizen and you must pass an FBI background check. You must be able to get a “secret” security clearance. If you already have one, you’re in.

On page two of the application I found something downright alarming. Section five under the first paragraph reads:

5) Federal Agencies will exercise care to protect information. To the extent allowed by law, information received from InfraGard members that is marked “InfraGard protected information’ shall be protected from agency disclosure under 5 USC 552 (commonly referred to as the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)), and from publication, divulgence, or release in any other manner pursuant to the prohibitions of the Trade Secrets Act, 18 USC 1905.

Apparently the taxpayers who foot the bill don’t have a right to know what their money is being used for.

The last paragraph on page two slams the door on any transparency whatsoever. If the aspiring InfraGard member wants no one to know he’s joining, no problem. It reads, in part: “Applicant may choose to protect from public discloser their affiliation with InfraGard, and request that InfraGard and InfraGard partners also protect from public disclosure the applicant’s affiliation with InfraGard to the full extent permitted by law.”

The Buffalo chapter does, in fact, list its board of directors.

Once the application is completed, off it goes to the local InfraGard chapter for FBI evaluation. Even if one does pass the test, so to speak, there is no guarantee that he or she will be accepted for entrance. Virtually every one of the InfraGard chapter Web sites I read states that membership is open to everyone. But there is a loophole that is not publicized on any of the Web sites. It’s at the bottom of the applicant requirements section: One must be sponsored by an existing InfraGard member, chapter, or partner organization. Sorry, ordinary citizens, you and I are out—out of the loop on information that is “sensitive and not publicly available.” And since we cannot ask for disclosure under Freedom on Information Law, we can only imagine what this information might be. Let’s suppose that InfraGard and the FBI get a credible tip about an impending attack. Would the public be informed? Or would InfraGard members use this information to protect themselves and their own “infrastructure” first?

Among the perqs InfraGard promises its members are “valuable networking opportunities.” I wonder what those opportunities would be? Surely members of Fortune 500 corporations would not use sensitive and protected information shielded by federal laws and the Justice Department for profit?

Who knows what manner of federal no-bid contracts are flying across InfraGard’s encrypted Web sites.

And there may be the “gentlemen’s agreement” type qualifications for membership. This is, of course, still a Bush White House Justice Department. Are conservative credentials required for admission? Does an aspiring applicant get preferential treatment if he or she has made significant campaign donations to the current administration?

Much has been made of illegal government wiretaps and data mining. Given the stealth nature of this organization, much of this covert action could be circumvented. Is political information being traded, alongside or instead of information about terrorist threats?

InfraGard seems to be an elitist organization that blends the top echelon of the private sector with the FBI—an organization that circulates information that we cannot legally access among members of a quasi law enforcement organization we cannot know.