Democratic Cybersecurity caucus leader threatens “cyber-9/11” if legislation not quickly passed

Paul Joseph Watson

Prison Planet.com

Monday, August 16, 2010

An Internet kill switch bill that would give President Obama the power to shut down parts of the world wide web for a period of at least four months without congressional oversight has moved closer to a Senate vote, with one of its primary advocates, Democratic co-chairman of the House Cybersecurity Caucus Jim Langevin, threatening a “cyber-9/11” if the legislation is not quickly passed.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is now trying to merge two “cybersecurity” bills, one sponsored by Senator Joe Lieberman and another sponsored by Democrat Jay Rockefeller, in preparation for a final vote when the Senate returns to session in early September.

Lieberman and Rockefeller are perhaps the two very worst people in government to be crafting legislation to regulate the Internet, as they are both on record as advocating a completely state-controlled world wide web or seeing the Internet shut down for good.

During an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley back in June, the Independent from Connecticut made it clear what the ultimate agenda of cybersecurity legislation was focused around – creating a Chinese style Internet that would hand the government the power to regulate free speech on the world wide web.

Meanwhile, Rockefeller has previously expressed his hostility towards the Internet, wishing that it had ‘never been invented’ and labeling the world wide web the “number one national hazard” to national security.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t



“Right now China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in case of war and we need to have that here too,” Lieberman told Crowley. Under Lieberman’s 197-page Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act (PDF), President Obama or any of his successors would have “absolute power” to shut down sectors of the Internet for at least four months without Congressional oversight, for the first time handing the U.S. government similar powers to those enjoyed by the Communist Chinese.

As we have documented, China has exercised its power to shut down the Internet, something that Lieberman wants to introduce in the U.S., at politically sensitive times in order to stem the flow of information about government abuse and atrocities.

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The goal of abolishing Internet anonymity and creating a virtual ID card is also a key centerpiece of Lieberman’s cybersecurity agenda.

This strategy revolves around, “The creation of a system for identity management that would allow citizens to use additional authentication techniques, such as physical tokens or modules on mobile phones, to verify who they are before buying things online or accessing such sensitive information as health or banking records,” reported the FInancial Times.

Only with this government-issued “token” will Internet users be allowed to “able to move from website to website,” a system not too far removed from what China proposed and rejected for being too authoritarian.

Lawmakers pushing cybersecurity have constantly invoked the threat of terrorists targeting U.S. government networks or sensitive infrastructure hubs as a means of justifying the draconian legislation.

In an interview with Federal News Radio, Rep. Jim Langevin (D.-R.I.) warned that unless the legislation was advanced quickly, there would be a “cyber-9/11” attack carried out against vulnerable networks.

“Right now I believe we’re in that moment of a pre-9/11 world in the digital domain and I want to make sure that we never have the worst case scenario here in the United States where the .gov domain of the country or our businesses or our economy are threatened,” said Langevin.

However, as we have documented, the threats are being completely overblown in a deliberate effort to rush through the legislation. We are constantly told that cyber-terrorists could hack into the power grid and shut down the United States, an attack that would have far greater consequences than 9/11, and yet, as we have proven, large industrial power and water plants are not even connected to the public Internet, and are not vulnerable to such attacks.

This article was posted: Monday, August 16, 2010 at 11:41 am

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