Sioux Rose

Having spent nearly half a year in Asia and watched students come home from school at close to 7 P.M, I saw the commitment to education that is a strong component of Asian cultures. In short, these kids are more than catching up with American students, and as studies have shown, their scores in math and sciences are way beyond U.S. norms.

My point is that this savvy generation raised on computers and equipped with trained abilities in math and science will potentially outwit the U.S. at its own game. Instead of taking down militarism in a show of weapons, a macho contest of direct force, they may find ways to disable the beast by quite literally turning off its circuits.

Since violence is my enemy more than any nation, I would see in this development a genuine benefit for the evolution of mankind.

Siouxrose,

I'll "second" what wrensis, with a slight exception. I would not expect what you say in your second paragraph. That is, I won't be expecting anyone to disable the U.S. military machine through cyber techniques or any others. More likely, I think, or will conjecture anyway, is that the U.S. is an empire on the way to downfall; it'll cause its own demise.

With that said, this cyber bla bla bla is [fearmongering] and for ... as usual, RACKET. The following article explains this quite well.

"Obama's Cybersecurity Plan
Bring in the Contractors!",

by Tom Burghardt, Antifascist Calling blog, June 4, 2009

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13848

EXCERPT(S):

With billions of dollars in federal funds hanging in the balance, President Barack Obama unveiled the Cyberspace Policy Review May 29 at the White House.

During his presentation in the East Room Obama said that "America's economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity" and that efforts to "deter, prevent, detect and defend" against malicious cyberattacks would be run from the White House.

How this debate is being framed however, has a familiar ring to it. Rather than actually educating the public about steps to prevent victimization, state prescriptions always seem to draw from the same tired playbook.

First, issue dire warnings of an imminent national catastrophe; second, manufacture a panic with lurid tales of a "digital Pearl Harbor;" third, gin-up expensive "solutions" that benefit armies of (well-paid) experts drawn from officialdom and the private sector (who generally are as interchangeable as light bulbs however dim).

As Wired magazine's "Threat Level" editor Kevin Poulsen said during a panel at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Washington June 3, "the threat of cyber-terrorism is 'preposterous'," arguing that "long-standing warnings" that hackers will attack the nation's power grid is so much hot-air. Poulsen contends "that calling such intrusions national security threats means information about attacks gets classified unneccessarily."

While the president claims the new office "will not include--I repeat will not include--monitoring private sector networks or Internet traffic," and that his administration "will preserve and protect the personal privacy and civil liberties that we cherish as Americans," the devil is in the details and when they're added together "change" once again, morphs into more of the same.

As with all things Washington, lurking wraith-like in the background, amidst bromides about "protecting America" from "cyber thieves trolling for sensitive information" are the usual class of insiders: the well-heeled corporations and their stable of retired militarists and spies who comprise the Military-Industrial-Security Complex.

Take Dale Meyerrose, for example. The former Air Force Major General served as U.S. Northern Command's Chief Information Officer. After a stint at NORTHCOM, Meyerrose became Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Information Sharing for U.S. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, the former NSA Director and ten-year executive vice president at the spooky Booz Allen Hamilton firm.

Last week, Meyerrose told The Wall Street Journal that "one important challenge will be finding a way to persuade private companies, especially those in price-sensitive industries, to invest more money in digital security. 'You have to figure out what motivates folks,' he said."

He should know. After serving as McConnell's cyber point man, Meyerrose plotted a new flight plan that landed him a plum job with major defense contractor, the Harris Corporation, where he currently directs the company's National Cyber Initiative.

Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the firm boasts $5.4 billion in annual revenue and clocked in at No. 13 on Washington Technology's "2008 Top 100 Government Contractors" list, with some $1.6 billion in defense-related income. Under the General Services Administration's Alliant contract worth some $50 billion, the firm is competeing with other defense giants to provide an array of IT services to various federal agencies. Major customers include the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Reconnaissance Office and Defense Department.

Let's be clear: "What motivates folks" is cold, hard cash and there's lots of it to go around courtesy of the American people. The New York Times reported May 31, "The government's urgent push into cyberwarfare has set off a rush among the biggest military companies for billions of dollars in new defense contracts." According to the Times,

...

As Washington Technology reported June 1, Zal Azmi, CACI International's senior vice president for strategic law enforcement and national security programs, told the insider publication: "The timing is perfect. There is a lot of enthusiasm for it. "It's a very comprehensive plan. It lays out a very good strategy."

And there you have it.

A Cybersecurity Dream: Bundles of Cash

...

Round Up the Usual Suspects

...

Conclusion

The Obama administration's Cyberspace Policy Review is a corporatist boondoggle that will neither ameliorate nor frankly, even begin to address the most pertinent cybersecurity threats faced by the vast majority of Americans: hacking and spoofing attacks by criminals. Why? The wretched programs riddled with bad code and near non-existent "security" patches breeched as soon as they're written are not part of the playbook. Indeed, the corporations and software developers who've grown rich off of the Internet have no incentive to write better programs!

After all, from a business perspective its far better to terrorize the public into demanding more intrusive, and less accountable, minders who will "police" the Internet--for a hefty price.

END OF EXCERPT(S)

Maren Leed of CSIC, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, btw, is with the racketeers or profiteers. CSIS is one of the "private sector partners" the above article refers to as standing to seriously profit; quoted from a Wa. Post article that named plenty more of these cies, associations, etcetera. That, in turn, was quoted from the Obama administration's Cyberspace Policy Review; quite a list of "private sector partners".

The following article quotes some things Obama said on this cyber warfare and security topic.

"US cybersecurity plan poses new war threats, attacks on democratic rights",

by Tom Eley, wsws.org, 30 May 2009

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=54723

EXCERPT:

President Barack Obama announced on Friday the creation of a new "cyber czar" position. The Cybersecurity Coordinator, who is yet to be named, would oversee billions of dollars in funding for developing and coordinating defense of the computer networks that operate the global financial system and domestic transportation and commerce, according to the administration. The position, which Obama said would report directly to him, results from a 60-day "cyberspace policy review" Obama ordered.

Obama's announcement was overshadowed by the US military's imminent creation of a new military "Cyber Command," detailed in a New York Times article published Friday. Obama has not even been presented with the military's plan, nor did he mention it directly in his press conference. However, administration sources have said he will sign a classified order or set of directives later this month authorizing the creation of the Cyber Command.

Media accounts indicate that the formation of the parallel domestic and military cyber security agencies was the source of a bitter "turf battle" between and within competing national security and federal domestic agencies.

...

In his Friday press conference, Obama sought to present the Cybersecurity Coordinator position in the most innocuous terms, ....

But the creation of high-level police agency tasked with overseeing the Internet raises troubling questions. As the New York Times notes, it "appears to be part of a significant expansion of the role of the national security apparatus" in the White House.

Meanwhile, legislation working its way through Congress, the so-called Cybersecurity Act of 2009, would grant the US government unprecedented control over the Internet. The bill gives the president unrestricted power to halt Internet traffic, ordering the shutdown of both government and privately owned and operated networks deemed related to "critical infrastructure information systems," merely by declaring a "cybersecurity emergency."

In his remarks, Obama pointed to the threat of cyber terrorism, noting that US "defense and military networks are under constant attack. Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups have spoken of their desire to unleash a cyber attack on our country." He invoked the recent terror attacks on Mumbai, India, where "terrorists...relied not only on guns and grenades but also on GPS and phones using voice-over-the-Internet." Obama also alluded to the possibility of cyberwarfare with a major foe, mentioning Russia by name. "Last year we had a glimpse of the future face of war," Obama said. "As Russian tanks rolled into Georgia, cyber attacks crippled Georgian government websites."

END OF EXCERPT

The last quoted paragraph in the above excerpt is an example of more GWoT fearmongering from the U.S. presidential administration. It's all bullshit! And I'm surprised that Obama would sink to this depth after all of the years of obvious fearmongering from the Bush-Cheney regime.

Al Qa'ida hasn't been attacking the U.S. with cyber techniques, not unless this Al Qa'ida is rather CIA'da, anyway.

The rest of what the above article states is certainly worth reading; certainly recommended, too. The article I excerpted from in my prior post in this page and by Tom Burghardt is definitely one to read, too.

This program is a bunch of military contractor ripoff horseshit designed to lay the groundwork for squelching political dissent in the United States someday with the same efficacy it's being done tonight in Iran. It's yet another step towards the ultimate tyrannical dream of monitoring and punishing thoughtcrime.

All these governments --US, Israel, Iran, UK and on and on-- are gargantuan, steaming piles of fascist garbage. Any government larger than a local township inevitably becomes an anti-human monstrosity.

May these and all fascists dreams forever founder on the rocks of time, entropy and an unconquerable world.

Drown. Drown you fascist thugs.

the following sentence sums up this rather short article on this subject:

Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a chief architect of the new cyberstrategy, recently acknowledged there is question about how the military could legally set up an early warning system for cyberspace.

the results for barackstar's experiment prior to his election showed the world just how powerful the people can be when united behind a cause. that is why, in the week prior to china's 20 yr. anniversary on human protest, much internet access was denied to its people. and these are just two instances. as fakefrench suggests, it's only a matter of time before the internet, along with the way we use it, changes.

of course, that carries with it good and bad connotations. gone will be the freedom to express opinion, electronically. also gone will be the irrelevant, absurd and inane comments of people such as joehope and maxpayne and jenniferbeddingfeld and shawn berry.