{"id":402288,"date":"2010-03-05T11:07:29","date_gmt":"2010-03-05T16:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prisonplanet.com\/?p=35994"},"modified":"2010-03-05T11:07:29","modified_gmt":"2010-03-05T16:07:29","slug":"former-director-of-national-intelligence-calls-for-%e2%80%9cre-engineering%e2%80%9d-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/402288","title":{"rendered":"Former Director Of National Intelligence Calls For \u201cRe-Engineering\u201d The Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world is one major cyber event away from total restriction of the net<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Steve Watson<\/a>
\nPrisonplanet.com<\/a>
\nFriday, March 5th, 2010<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest attack on the free internet<\/a> comes in the shape of suggestions by former director of national intelligence<\/a> under George W. Bush, Mike McConnell, who writes in an op-ed that the web should be \u201cre-engineered\u201d in order that it can be completely controlled and managed by U.S. intelligence.<\/p>\n

Last week McConnell testified to Congress<\/a> that the country was in the midst of a cyberwar that it was losing. He believes that a coming cyberattack will cause more economic damage to the U.S. than the 9\/11<\/a> attacks.<\/p>\n

With this in mind mind McConnell penned a piece carried by the Washington Post<\/a><\/strong>, in which he urged that financial transactions, power grids, air and ground transportation, telecommunications, and water-filtration systems were all under imminent threat from cyber terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

McConnell called for a return to a Cold War<\/a> mentality of deterrence, writing that the U.S. should make it clear that any cyber attack would be met with immediate and unequivocal retaliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to develop an early-warning system to monitor cyberspace, identify intrusions and locate the source of attacks with a trail of evidence that can support diplomatic, military<\/a> and legal options \u2014 and we must be able to do this in milliseconds.\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore specifically, we need to re-engineer the internet<\/a> to make attribution, geolocation, intelligence analysis and impact assessment \u2014 who did it, from where, why and what was the result \u2014 more manageable,\u201d McConnell added.<\/p>\n

McConnell\u2019s comments prompted Wired<\/strong><\/a><\/em> <\/strong>to hit back, labeling him \u201cthe biggest threat to the open internet<\/a>\u201d, and commenting that cyberwar hype is being used as a pretext to destroy the freedom of the web:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s talking about changing the internet<\/a> to make everything anyone does on the net traceable and geo-located,\u201d Ryan Singel writes, \u201cso the National Security Agency<\/a> can pinpoint users and their computers for retaliation if the U.S. government<\/a> doesn\u2019t like what\u2019s written in an e-mail, what search terms were used, what movies were downloaded.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Singel points out, McConnell now works for defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, a subsidiary of the Carlyle Group \u2013 the global private equity investment firm that enjoyed business links with the Bin Laden<\/a> family prior to 9\/11<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Booz Allen Hamilton now has huge billion dollar contracts with the NSA concerning cybersecurity. It is hardly surprising that McConnell has long pushed for the NSA to become the lead agency authorized to monitor and guard all government<\/a> and private networks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake, the military<\/a> industrial complex now has its eye on the internet<\/a>.\u201d Singel warns. \u201cNever shy of extending its power, the military<\/a> industrial complex wants to turn the internet<\/a> into yet another venue for an arms race. And it\u2019s waging a psychological warfare campaign on the American people to make that so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singel even suggests that a false flag<\/a> cyber attack could be just around the corner, in order to provide the perfect pretext for a complete take over of the net:<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the question is: Which of these events can be turned into a Gulf of Tonkin-like fakery that can create enough fear to let the military<\/a> and the government<\/a> turn the open internet<\/a> into a controlled, surveillance-friendly net.\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

Such musings echo warnings from experts such as Lawrence Lessig, a respected Law Professor from Stanford University<\/strong><\/a>, who stated in August 2008 that \u201cThere\u2019s going to be an i-9\/11<\/a> event\u201d which will act as a catalyst for a radical reworking of the law pertaining to the internet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lessig noted that former government<\/a> Counter Terrorism<\/a> Czar Richard Clarke had told him personally that there was already in existence a cyber equivalent of the Patriot Act, an \u201ci-Patriot Act\u201d if you will, and that the Justice Department is waiting for a cyber terrorism<\/a> event in order to implement its provisions.<\/p>\n

The U.S. military<\/a> also has some $30 Billion invested in it\u2019s own mastering the internet<\/a> projects<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In 2009 the Cybersecurity Act was introduced<\/a><\/strong>, proposing to allow the federal government<\/a> to tap into any digital aspect of every citizen\u2019s information without a warrant. Banking, business and medical records would be wide open to inspection, as well as personal instant message and e mail communications.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to the present, and\u00a0the bill looming in the Senate<\/a><\/strong> legislates for handing the president emergency powers over the internet<\/a> in the event of a cyber attack or other national emergency.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the Obama<\/a> administration lifted the veil on a highly-secretive set of policies it says are designed to defend the U.S. from cyber attacks. The core program revolves around a \u201cCyber Shield\u201d that would allow the Department of Homeland Security to dig into all internet<\/a> communications<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

DHS\u2019s top cybersecurity official has revealed to CNET<\/a><\/strong> that the department may eventually extend its Einstein technology, originally created for federal networks, to non-government<\/a> infrastructure. It has emerged that the NSA is intimately involved with the program.<\/p>\n

All of these moves in the U.S. are being mirrored<\/a><\/strong> in the Australia<\/a>, the U.K. and the rest of Europe.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, if you\u2019re wondering where the funding for such programs is going to come from, Microsoft executive Scott Charney has a suggestion<\/a><\/strong> for you:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could say it\u2019s a public safety issue and do it with general taxation,\u201d Charney noted at security conference in San Francisco earlier this week. That\u2019s right, a tax on the internet<\/a> to go with total restriction and NSA monitoring.<\/p>\n

If we do not act now to educate more people about the ongoing attack on the free and open internet<\/a>, and how we can act to protect it by blocking restrictive legislation and programs, we may soon find ourselves referring to a \u201cpost i-9\/11<\/a> society<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

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