Teacher stabbed in front of class by husband www.privateofficer.com

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio Feb 8 2008 — Christi Layne was terrified of her husband, court records and her attorney say. After she moved out, she got a restraining order against him and had an alarm system installed.
But none of that mattered Thursday morning when he marched into a Catholic school, fired a gun and then stabbed her — right in front of her class of fifth-graders.
Officers later found William Michael Layne, 56, dead in his home from an apparent self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head, authorities said.
Another woman police say Layne attacked — they’re not sure why — was being treated at a Columbus hospital. Stephanie Loop, 22, was stabbed about five blocks away from the school in an alley behind her home, authorities said.
Christi Layne, 53, was taken to a hospital in Huntington, W.Va., where she underwent surgery and “should be fine,” her lawyer told The Columbus Dispatch.
The teacher and her husband, who went by Mike, separated in the summer, said neighbor Jack Freeland, who noted that the husband had a temper.
“If he didn’t like something, he’d tell you straight up how it was,” Freeland said.
Christi Layne asked for a civil protection order last month, saying her husband had threatened her and her son on Dec. 26.
“He said I better enjoy myself because it will be soon,” she wrote in a restraining order request. “I am afraid that he will hurt me or my son when he is mad.”
A judge on Jan. 15 ordered Michael Layne to stay at least 100 yards from her.
But on Thursday, police say, he entered Notre Dame Elementary School shortly after 9 a.m., walked into her third-floor classroom and stabbed her in front of 17 students.
Minutes before heading to the school, he attacked Loop, authorities said. Police later found Layne’s body in his garage after a three-hour standoff at his home.
At least one shot apparently fired by Layne hit the living room wall of a neighboring home, police Chief Charles Horner told The Dispatch.
Hospital officials would not release any information about the women Thursday night.
Horner said he did not know of any relationship between Loop and the Laynes.
Christi Layne had filed for divorce on Jan 25. Police had been involved in a domestic dispute between the Laynes around that time, Horner said, without elaborating.
“She was terrified something like this would happen,” said Rebecca Bennett, Christi Layne’s attorney. “I spoke with her actually a couple of days ago and she was still extremely worried.”
Jim Arnzen, who lives in the apartment next to Christi Layne’s, said she had a security system installed before moving in about two months ago.
Besides stabbing his wife, Michael Layne fired at least one shot from a gun, authorities said. Horner said it was unclear whether the bullet hit Christi Layne.
Student Emmaly Baker said she hid in the classroom’s coatroom when Michael Layne walked in.
“We heard gunshots, and we heard her yelling. I was scared,” Baker told WSAZ-TV. “The police officer came and got us, and she was still laying there and she was hurt really bad.”
Krista Gohmann, the parent of a sixth-grader, was in the school when the gunfire erupted.
“The children ran down the steps. They ran into the office,” she said. “They were screaming and said their teacher had been shot.”
Police said they were reviewing surveillance video from the school to determine how Michael Layne entered the building, which has locked doors.
Classes were canceled Friday, said Deacon Tom Berg, vice chancellor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus.

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6 Year Old Used In Crime Spree www.privateofficer.com

Philadelphia PA.- February 9, 2008 — Police say they have foiled a crime team that involved a 6-year-old boy. Their alleged victims were students at the University of Pennsylvania.
Surveillance video from Houston Hall shows the little boy with his uncle, Kevin Long. Police say Long and his sister, Tondeala Davenport, stole a woman’s purse as she studied. They then put it inside the boy’s Spiderman backpack.
“Parents utilizing their kids to go out there to commit crimes is just a disgrace,” said Lt. John Walker.

Police say the two suspects also stole two credit cards from another woman. She sensed the two were up to no good, realized her credit cards were gone and flagged down university police. They arrested Long on the spot and found the goods in the backpack.
Police are now searching for the boy’s mother. She escaped out a side door. Relatives of the 6-year-old boy left Southwest Detectives tonight disgusted by the allegations.
“I’m upset about it because cause it’s not right. He belongs in school,” said Darlene Saunders.
Investigators say Long hasn’t shown any remorse. He laughed about the crime, allegedly saying it’s all part of the game.

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Woman placed on hold by 911 dies in fire www.privateofficer.com

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. – February 9, 2008 — Authorities in Bucks County are investigating a 911 call placed by a woman reporting a fire in her bedroom. She was put on hold and later died in the blaze.
The Bucks County commissioners have ordered a full investigation into the 911 call that 53-year-old Brenda Orr made from her house on the day she died in a fire.
On January 29th, Brenda Orr, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, called 911 to report that her bed was on fire. It took seven rings and 23 seconds before an operator picked up the call from the disabled woman.
The male operator who answered the call put her on hold. Twenty-five seconds later, another operator picked up.

We’re concerned about the minute that’s missing,” Doylestown Police Chief James Donnelly said this week. “Had we had that minute, I’m not saying for sure that we could have saved her, but we would have been a minute closer.”
Orr, who used a wheelchair, was trapped and died in the blaze. Bucks County’s Director of Emergency Communications said the county has already taken action to resolve 911 problems.
“We know that there were some protocol problems. We are looking for others. We want to make sure if we do a corrective action, we do it properly.” said Brent Wiggins, director of emergency communications.
Donnelly said the fire was caused by careless smoking, though the official fire report leaves the cause as undetermined.
Flowers sit outside Orr’s house on a lawn covered with her burnt belongings. Neighbors wonder if a few seconds could have helped save her from the fast moving flames.
“I don’t think that’s going to make that much of a difference. It was just too far gone. It was awful. Awful,” said Judy Hedden.
“I don’t know if it would have made a difference, but every little bit that you can save time can maybe help somebody in the end,” said Donna Miller.
The 911 operators have been retrained and provided counseling. A full report is expected to be go to the commissioners next week.

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Community mourns after senseless shooting www.privateofficer.com

Community mourns senseless shooting www.privateofficer.com

KIRKWOOD, Missouri Feb 9, 2008 — Hundreds of people sang “Amazing Grace” and prayed Friday evening as they gathered at a City Hall in suburban St. Louis, Missouri, to mourn the victims of a shooting spree.

The candlelight vigil took place a day after a man stormed into a City Council meeting in Kirkwood and opened fire, killing five people and wounding two before being shot and killed by police.
The alleged gunman left a note saying “the truth will win in the end,” the man’s brother said Friday.
The note was found on Charles Lee “Cookie” Thornton’s bed, Gerald Thornton told CNN.
Earlier, the deputy mayor of Kirkwood said the small city “will never be the same” after the shooting.
“This is such a shock to all of us,” Deputy Mayor Timothy Griffin said at a news conference. “This is a tragedy of untold magnitude.”
Mayor Mike Swoboda was shot at the meeting and is in serious condition, Griffin said. A local journalist, Todd Smith, is in satisfactory condition.
The five people killed were police officers Tom Ballman and William Biggs, Councilwoman Connie Karr, Public Works Director Kenneth Yost, and Councilman Michael Lynch, authorities said.
“Their families know they have the support of the entire community,” Griffin said.

Police have not publicly identified the gunman, but witnesses said he was Charles Thornton — a man who they said regularly disrupted meetings to air grievances and complain, though it was not clear what was behind his fury.
No one has made an official statement on Thornton’s behalf, but his brother Gerald on Thursday said he “went to war tonight with the people that were of the government.”
On Friday, Gerald Thornton repeatedly refused to say that his brother had done anything wrong in an interview with CNN, saying only that his brother felt his “constitutional protection was not guaranteed.” He would not elaborate.
He said his brother’s final words to his family were: “To God be the glory,” “I love you,” and “I’ll see you soon.”
Police said the shooter had two guns when he entered the City Council chambers Thursday night — a large-caliber revolver he brought with him and a service weapon he took from Biggs after shooting the police sergeant.
A friend of Thornton’s, Ron Hodges, told The Associated Press the city had ticketed Thornton’s demolition and asphalt business for parking his commercial vehicles illegally. Thornton said he had received 150 tickets, Hodges told the AP, and the tickets were “eating at him.”
Tracy Panus, spokeswoman for St. Louis County police, said authorities believe the suspect parked his vehicle in a lot outside the police station and City Hall, encountered Biggs and shot him, then took his gun.
He proceeded into the council chambers, where he shot the other people.
A witness told the AP the gunman yelled, “Shoot the mayor!” as he stormed into the room.
Janet McNichols, a correspondent with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was also at the meeting.
“I heard him yell something about a gun, and I looked up, and I saw officer Ballman had been shot in the head,” she said in a video posted on the newspaper’s Web site.
“Then I looked right in front of me, and Mr. Yost had been shot in the head, too. He fell over. I could hear him breathing. And the woman sitting next to me, another reporter, we crawled under the chairs and just laid there.”
Other Kirkwood officers came to the scene and shot and killed the gunman, Panus said.
She would not comment on specific security procedures at the City Council meeting but said the measures “are something that they followed.”
Authorities are working to piece together exactly what happened, she said.
An eyewitness to the shootings said Thornton had disrupted City Council meetings frequently in the past.
“He would make inappropriate noises, heehawing like a donkey. He would make derogatory comments towards the director of public works, the city attorney and the mayor,” Alan Hopefl said Friday. “None of it seemed to make any sense as far as him trying to make a point, as far as why he was really there and what his major complaints were.”
Thornton sued the city of Kirkwood after he was arrested twice for disorderly conduct at two council meetings in 2006. He later was convicted, according to the First Amendment Center, a group that says it works to preserve First Amendment freedoms.
According to a Thursday article written by the First Amendment Center — before the shooting — Thornton asked to speak during public-comment portions of 2006 meetings on specific topics but instead discussed his alleged harassment by city officials.
In his lawsuit, Thornton said his First Amendment rights had been violated. But in a January 28 ruling, U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry said that the public-comment portion of a meeting could be reserved for certain groups and topics of discussion.
Bill Reineke, a builder and acquaintance of Thornton’s for 15 years, said he sensed a change in him starting three months ago.
“He seemed to feel lately that things were going wrong,” Reineke said. “He would run into City Hall once in a while during meetings, and he would talk about the plantation mentality of the mayor and board.”
Reineke said Thornton had begun to hold grudges.

“I don’t know what made him go off — what made him twist — but it’s just a darn shame for everyone concerned,” he said.
Kirkwood, a town of about 27,000 people, is about 10 miles west-southwest of St. Louis. Kirkwood’s Web site bills the city as “Queen of the St. Louis Suburbs” with high property values and quality public schools.

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Hospital security officers rescue family from burning house www.privateofficer.com

WATERBURY, Conn. Feb 9 2008 — Three Waterbury Hospital security officers came to the rescue of a Waterbury family after their home caught on fire.
Alan Copeland said he noticed the flames while sitting in his security car at the hospital across the street from the Robbins Street home.
“I could see the flames just flowing out of the third floor. So at that time I ran up the stairs,” said Copeland. “I finally forced the door open. Then a woman walks out with two little kids. So I grabbed the two kids in my arms and I grabbed her.”
During the blaze, 20-year-old Hector Torres, a newly hired security officer, rushed to the second apartment to look for residents.
Torres said he found a male resident whom he rushed out of the room as fast as he could.
A third security officer, Kevn Rasmussen, stayed outside and helped the people rescued from the burning two-family home.
The father of the rescued children said he was unable to personally thank the rescuers. “Many blessings to come to him, because my family is safe and I’m proud,” said Jamar Parkinson.

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Shoplifter who brutally beat officer surrenders to SWAT www.privateofficer.com

Orlando Fla. Feb 9, 2008 As SWAT officers surrounded a house in northwest Orlando on Thursday, the man suspected of trying to kill an Orange County deputy last weekend paced inside, his baby and a gun in his arms.Malik Stephenson, a former carwash worker with an extensive criminal history, spoke by phone with negotiators throughout a two-hour standoff from behind the tinted windows of an acquaintance’s home on the 5200 block of Signal Hill Road.The drama took several turns. Stephenson and his wife, Nina, arranged a deal with hostage negotiators from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, but then had second thoughts. At one point they cracked open the front door and then closed it.

Investigators said Stephenson exhibited a range of emotions during the standoff, first threatening to kill anyone who entered the home and even pointing a rifle at his infant son’s head. Thursday was thought to be the baby’s first birthday, law-enforcement officials said.Several officials said they feared the standoff would end in a gunbattle. But Stephenson told negotiators that he just wanted to be with his family.”He kept telling us he wanted to spend some time with his kid,” Sheriff Kevin Beary said.Stephenson, 34, surrendered peacefully just before 5 p.m. Thursday. He and his wife were both charged with attempted first-degree murder on a law-enforcement officer, aggravated battery on a law-enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence.Deputy Gayle Cadiz, 37, was beaten unconscious Saturday at a shopping plaza at Colonial Drive and State Road 436. The nine-year veteran was taking a report at the plaza when an Office Depot employee pointed out a man fleeing with a stolen $3 floor mat.When Cadiz confronted the man, who is thought to have been Stephenson, he knocked her out with a sucker punch and then repeatedly hit her in the face, deputies said. Authorities think Nina Stephenson was driving the getaway car Saturday.When Cadiz, hospitalized with head and face injuries, was informed Thursday that her suspected assailant was arrested, she was “very excited and relieved,” a sheriff’s official said.A task force of special sheriff’s surveillance agents, known as the felony squad, and officers from the U.S. Marshals Service, Orlando Police Department and Florida Department of Law Enforcement descended on the house about 2:30 p.m. Officials said up to 200 law-enforcement officers, more than 100 vehicles, including armored-assault vehicles, and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Incident Command Unit swarmed the scene.Shortly before 3 p.m., deputies cordoned off an area south of Clarcona-Ocoee Road near Rosemont and waved off television-news helicopters that they said were disrupting SWAT operations. Orange County School District officials locked down Rolling Hills and Rosemont elementary schools just before 3 p.m. Students were allowed to leave by 5 p.m.A search warrant earlier in the day — along with a Crimeline tip — helped lead investigators to the northwest Orlando home. A fingerprint on the floor mat taken from the Office Depot store matched Stephenson’s, Beary said. And a note thought to have been written by Stephenson, and found at an earlier, additional search-warrant site, acknowledged his role in Cadiz’s attack and tried to minimize his wife’s role, investigators said.The note said his wife “didn’t have a whole lot to do with the crime,” Beary said.Suspect had outstanding warrantArrest and prison records show Stephenson has a lengthy history of violence, drug abuse and stealing for a living.At the time of last weekend’s attack on Cadiz, there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest issued Jan. 8. He was classified as a fugitive from justice for failing to report to his probation officer after being convicted in 2006 of running from a police officer.Other convictions include a 4-year sentence in 2001 for fleeing the scene of a fatal hit-and-run crash in Volusia County. Details of that crime could not be learned late Thursday from the Florida Highway Patrol.Stephenson’s criminal record in Florida includes 24 separate arrests dating back to 1997. State prison records show he has used 11 aliases, including X Malik and Harvey Faison.Before moving to Central Florida in 1997, records show, Stephenson was arrested more than 20 times in North Carolina on shoplifting charges. His convictions there include prison sentences for assault with a deadly weapon, driving under the influence, misdemeanor assault and possession of marijuana and cocaine.His wife, whose maiden name is Nina Garrett, has a criminal record as well.She was sentenced to two years’ probation in September after being convicted of grand theft. Born in Illinois, the 43-year-old has been arrested three times in Florida since 2005 for stealing, fleeing from police and possession of cocaine, records show. The couple have been married since December 2005, according to records.’This was textbook’After Orange County deputies confirmed Stephenson was in the home Thursday afternoon and began to watch it, two or three shots were fired from inside, sheriff’s officials said. No one was injured; at least one of the shots struck a sheriff’s vehicle.Toward the end of the standoff, Stephenson told police he was afraid he would be attacked when he left the home, investigators said.They described him as mostly “calm” by then, and his wife told negotiators he was making a bottle for the baby before walking out of the home to surrender.”He kept telling us he wanted to spend some time with his kid,” Beary said.At about 4:54 p.m., Stephenson surrendered peacefully.”This was textbook. I like the way it ended,” Beary said. “Now I have a suspect in custody, not hurt; a second suspect in custody, not hurt; . . . and a 1-year-old, not hurt. It makes my day.

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Woman gives 11 yr old daughter booze and drugs for birthday gift www.privateofficer.com

Woman gives 11 yr old booze and drugs for birthday gifts www.privateofficer.com

Anderson Ind. Feb 9, 2008

An Indiana woman was arrested Wednesday on charges she gave her 11-year-old daughter alcohol and marijuana as a birthday gift, according to reports.
Davita Fuller, 26, of Anderson, Ind., has been charged with one felonious count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after cops alleged the woman offered beer and pot to her daughter and three of her friends during a birthday party on Feb. 1, according to reports by FOX59.com and TheIndyChannel.com.
Fuller’s daughter accepted the invitation, according to eyewitnesses.
“They saw her tip the alcohol beverage up and they saw her inhale what they described as a blunt,” Det. Joel Sandefur of the Anderson Police Department told FOX59.com.
Fuller told police that she was smoking pot and drinking beer with her adult friends at the party, but denied giving them to her daughter, police said.
“This is something we’re not going to tolerate,” Sandefur said.

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Security agents working quietly with FBI www.privateofficer.com

Security agents quietly working with FBI www.privateofficer.com

Washington DC Feb 9, 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. 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.
InfraGard started in Cleveland back in 1996, when the private sector there cooperated with the FBI to investigate cyber threats.
“Then the FBI cloned it,” says Phyllis Schneck, chairman of the board of directors of the InfraGard National Members Alliance, and the prime mover behind the growth of InfraGard over the last several years.
InfraGard itself is still an FBI operation, with FBI agents in each state overseeing the local InfraGard chapters. (There are now eighty-six of them.) The alliance is a nonprofit organization of private sector InfraGard members.
“We are the owners, operators, and experts of our critical infrastructure, from the CEO of a large company in agriculture or high finance to the guy who turns the valve at the water utility,” says Schneck, who by day is the vice president of research integration at Secure Computing.
“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.”
In November 2001, InfraGard had around 1,700 members. As of late January, InfraGard had 23,682 members, according to its website, http://www.infragard.net, which adds that “350 of our nation’s Fortune 500 have a representative in InfraGard.”
To join, each person must be sponsored by “an existing InfraGard member, chapter, or partner organization.” The FBI then vets the applicant. On the application form, prospective members are asked which aspect of the critical infrastructure their organization deals with. These include: agriculture, banking and finance, the chemical industry, defense, energy, food, information and telecommunications, law enforcement, public health, and transportation.
FBI Director Robert Mueller addressed an InfraGard convention on August 9, 2005. At that time, the group had less than half as many members as it does today. “To date, there are more than 11,000 members of InfraGard,” he said. “From our perspective that amounts to 11,000 contacts . . . and 11,000 partners in our mission to protect America.” He added a little later, “Those of you in the private sector are the first line of defense.”
He 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.”
In an interview with InfraGard after the conference, which is featured prominently on the InfraGard members’ website, Mueller says: “It’s a great program.”
The ACLU is not so sanguine.
“There is evidence that InfraGard may be closer to a corporate TIPS program, turning private-sector corporations — some of which may be in a position to observe the activities of millions of individual customers — into surrogate eyes and ears for the FBI,” the ACLU warned in its August 2004 report The Surveillance-Industrial Complex: How the American Government Is Conscripting Businesses and Individuals in the Construction of a Surveillance Society.
InfraGard is not readily accessible to the general public. Its communications with the FBI and Homeland Security are beyond the reach of the Freedom of Information Act under the “trade secrets” exemption, its website says. And any conversation with the public or the media is supposed to be carefully rehearsed.
“The interests of InfraGard must be protected whenever presented to non-InfraGard members,” the website states. “During interviews with members of the press, controlling the image of InfraGard being presented can be difficult. Proper preparation for the interview will minimize the risk of embarrassment. . . . The InfraGard leadership and the local FBI representative should review the submitted questions, agree on the predilection of the answers, and identify the appropriate interviewee. . . . Tailor answers to the expected audience. . . . Questions concerning sensitive information should be avoided.”

One of the advantages of InfraGard, according to its leading members, is that the FBI gives them a heads-up on a secure portal about any threatening information related to infrastructure disruption or terrorism.
The InfraGard website advertises this. In its list of benefits of joining InfraGard, it states: “Gain access to an FBI secure communication network complete with VPN encrypted website, webmail, listservs, message boards, and much more.”
InfraGard members receive “almost daily updates” on threats “emanating from both domestic sources and overseas,” Hershman says.
“We get very easy access to secure information that only goes to InfraGard members,” Schneck says. “People are happy to be in the know.”
On November 1, 2001, the FBI had information about a potential threat to the bridges of California. The alert went out to the InfraGard membership. Enron was notified, and so, too, was Barry Davis, who worked for Morgan Stanley. He notified his brother Gray, the governor of California.
“He said his brother talked to him before the FBI,” recalls Steve Maviglio, who was Davis’s press secretary at the time. “And the governor got a lot of grief for releasing the information. In his defense, he said, ‘I was on the phone with my brother, who is an investment banker. And if he knows, why shouldn’t the public know?’ “
Maviglio still sounds perturbed about this: “You’d think an elected official would be the first to know, not the last.”
In return for being in the know, InfraGard members cooperate with the FBI and Homeland Security. “InfraGard members have contributed to about 100 FBI cases,” Schneck says. “What InfraGard brings you is reach into the regional and local communities. We are a 22,000-member vetted body of subject-matter experts that reaches across seventeen matrixes. All the different stovepipes can connect with InfraGard.”
Schneck is proud of the relationships the InfraGard Members Alliance has built with the FBI. “If you had to call 1-800-FBI, you probably wouldn’t bother,” she says. “But if you knew Joe from a local meeting you had with him over a donut, you might call them. Either to give or to get. We want everyone to have a little black book.”
This black book may come in handy in times of an emergency. “On the back of each membership card,” Schneck says, “we have all the numbers you’d need: for Homeland Security, for the FBI, for the cyber center. And by calling up as an InfraGard member, you will be listened to.” She also says that members would have an easier time obtaining a “special telecommunications card that will enable your call to go through when others will not.”
This special status concerns the ACLU.
“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.”
When the government raises its alert levels, InfraGard is in the loop. For instance, in a press release on February 7, 2003, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General announced that the national alert level was being raised from yellow to orange. They then listed “additional steps” that agencies were taking to “increase their protective measures.” One of those steps was to “provide alert information to InfraGard program.”
“They’re very much looped into our readiness capability,” says Amy Kudwa, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. “We provide speakers, as well as do joint presentations [with the FBI]. We also train alongside them, and they have participated in readiness exercises.”
On May 9, 2007, George Bush issued National Security Presidential Directive 51 entitled “National Continuity Policy.” In it, he instructed the Secretary of Homeland Security to coordinate with “private sector owners and operators of critical infrastructure, as appropriate, in order to provide for the delivery of essential services during an emergency.”
Asked if the InfraGard National Members Alliance was involved with these plans, Schneck said it was “not directly participating at this point.” Hershman, chairman of the group’s advisory board, however, said that it was.

InfraGard members, sometimes hundreds at a time, have been used in “national emergency preparation drills,” Schneck acknowledges.
“In case something happens, everybody is ready,” says Norm Arendt, the head of the Madison, Wisconsin, chapter of InfraGard, and the safety director for the consulting firm Short Elliott Hendrickson, Inc. “There’s been lots of discussions about what happens under an emergency.”
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. He showed me his InfraGard card, with his name and e-mail address on the front, along with the InfraGard logo and its slogan, “Partnership for Protection.” On the back of the card were the emergency numbers that Schneck mentioned.
This business owner says he attended a small InfraGard meeting where agents of the FBI and Homeland Security discussed in astonishing detail what InfraGard members may be called upon to do.
“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.
I was able to confirm that the meeting took place where he said it had, and that the FBI and Homeland Security did make presentations there. One InfraGard member who attended that meeting denies that the subject of lethal force came up. But the whistleblower is 100 percent certain of it. “I have nothing to gain by telling you this, and everything to lose,” he adds. “I’m so nervous about this, and I’m not someone who gets nervous.”
Though Schneck says that FBI and Homeland Security agents do make presentations to InfraGard, she denies that InfraGard members would have any civil patrol or law enforcement functions. “I have never heard of InfraGard members being told to use lethal force anywhere,” Schneck says.
The FBI adamantly denies it, also. “That’s ridiculous,” says Catherine Milhoan, an FBI spokesperson. “If you want to quote a businessperson saying that, knock yourself out. If that’s what you want to print, fine.”
But one other InfraGard member corroborated the whistleblower’s account, and another would not deny it.
Christine Moerke is a business continuity consultant for Alliant Energy in Madison, Wisconsin. She says she’s an InfraGard member, and she confirms that she has attended InfraGard meetings that went into the details about what kind of civil patrol function — including engaging in lethal force — that InfraGard members may be called upon to perform.
“There have been discussions like that, that I’ve heard of and participated in,” she says.
Curt Haugen is CEO of S’Curo Group, a company that does “strategic planning, business continuity planning and disaster recovery, physical and IT security, policy development, internal control, personnel selection, and travel safety,” according to its website. Haugen tells me he is a former FBI agent and that he has been an InfraGard member for many years. He is a huge booster. “It’s the only true organization where there is the public-private partnership,” he says. “It’s all who knows who. You know a face, you trust a face. That’s what makes it work.”
He says InfraGard “absolutely” does emergency preparedness exercises. When I ask about discussions the FBI and Homeland Security have had with InfraGard members about their use of lethal force, he says: “That much I cannot comment on. But as a private citizen, you have the right to use force if you feel threatened.”
“We were assured that if we were forced to kill someone to protect our infrastructure, there would be no repercussions,” the whistleblower says. “It gave me goose bumps. It chilled me to the bone.”

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