7ca2301d   
   XPost: alt.alien.visitors, alt.alien.research, alt.paranet.abduct   
   XPost: alt.conspiracy   
   From: garymatalucci@gmail.com   
      
   Pentagon's new massive expansion of 'cyber-security' unit is about   
   everything except defense - Cyber-threats are the new pretext to   
   justify expansion of power and profit for the public-private National   
   Security State   
      
   As the US government depicts the Defense Department as shrinking due   
   to budgetary constraints, the Washington Post this morning announces   
   "a major expansion of [the Pentagon's] cybersecurity force over the   
   next several years, increasing its size more than fivefold."   
   Specifically, says the New York Times this morning, "the expansion   
   would increase the Defense Department's Cyber Command by more than   
   4,000 people, up from the current 900." The Post describes this   
   expansion as "part of an effort to turn an organization that has   
   focused largely on defensive measures into the equivalent of an   
   Internet-era fighting force." This Cyber Command Unit operates under   
   the command of Gen. Keith Alexander, who also happens to be the head   
   of the National Security Agency, the highly secretive government   
   network that spies on the communications of foreign nationals - and   
   American citizens. The Pentagon's rhetorical justification for this   
   expansion is deeply misleading. Beyond that, these activities pose a   
   wide array of serious threats to internet freedom, privacy, and   
   international law that, as usual, will be conducted with full-scale   
   secrecy and with little to no oversight and accountability. And, as   
   always, there is a small army of private-sector corporations who will   
   benefit most from this expansion.   
      
   Let's begin with the way this so-called "cyber-security" expansion has   
   been marketed. It is part of a sustained campaign which, quite   
   typically, relies on blatant fear-mongering.   
      
   In March, 2010, the Washington Post published an amazing Op-Ed by Adm.   
   Michael McConnell, Bush's former Director of National Intelligence and   
   a past and current executive with Booz Allen, a firm representing   
   numerous corporate contractors which profit enormously each time the   
   government expands its "cyber-security" activities.   
      
   McConnell's career over the last two decades - both at Booz, Allen and   
   inside the government - has been devoted to accelerating the merger   
   between the government and private sector in all intelligence,   
   surveillance and national security matters (it was he who led the   
   successful campaign to retroactively immunize the telecom giants for   
   their participation in the illegal NSA domestic spying program).   
   Privatizing government cyber-spying and cyber-warfare is his primary   
   focus now.   
      
   McConnell's Op-Ed was as alarmist and hysterical as possible. Claiming   
   that "the United States is fighting a cyber-war today, and we are   
   losing", it warned that "chaos would result" from an enemy cyber-   
   attack on US financial systems and that "our power grids, air and   
   ground transportation, telecommunications, and water-filtration   
   systems are in jeopardy as well." Based on these threats, McConnell   
   advocated that "we" - meaning "the government and the private sector"   
   - "need to develop an early-warning system to monitor cyberspace" and   
   that "we need to reengineer the Internet to make attribution,   
   geolocation, intelligence analysis and impact assessment - who did it,   
   from where, why and what was the result - more manageable." As Wired's   
      
   Ryan Singel wrote: "He's talking about changing the internet to make   
      
   everything anyone does on the net traceable and geo-located so the   
   National Security Agency can pinpoint users and their computers for   
   retaliation."   
      
   The same week the Post published McConnell's extraordinary Op-Ed, the   
   Obama White House issued its own fear-mongering decree on cyber-   
   threats, depicting the US as a vulnerable victim to cyber-aggression.   
   It began with this sentence: "President Obama has identified   
   cybersecurity as one of the most serious economic and national   
   security challenges we face as a nation, but one that we as a   
   government or as a country are not adequately prepared to counter." It   
   announced that "the Executive Branch was directed to work closely with   
   all key players in US cybersecurity, including state and local   
   governments and the private sector" and to "strengthen public/private   
   partnerships", and specifically announced Obama's intent to "to   
   implement the recommendations of the Cyberspace Policy Review built on   
   the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI) launched by   
   President George W. Bush."   
      
   Since then, the fear-mongering rhetoric from government officials has   
   relentlessly intensified, all devoted to scaring citizens into   
   believing that the US is at serious risk of cataclysmic cyber-attacks   
   from "aggressors". This all culminated when Defense Secretary Leon   
   Panetta, last October, warned of what he called a "cyber-Pearl   
   Harbor". This "would cause physical destruction and the loss of life,   
   an attack that would paralyze and shock the nation and create a   
   profound new sense of vulnerability." Identifying China, Iran, and   
   terrorist groups, he outlined a parade of horribles scarier than   
   anything since Condoleezza Rice's 2002 Iraqi "mushroom cloud":   
      
   "An aggressor nation or extremist group could use these kinds of cyber   
   tools to gain control of critical switches. They could derail   
   passenger trains, or even more dangerous, derail passenger trains   
   loaded with lethal chemicals. They could contaminate the water supply   
   in major cities, or shut down the power grid across large parts of the   
   country."   
      
   As usual, though, reality is exactly the opposite. This massive new   
   expenditure of money is not primarily devoted to defending against   
   cyber-aggressors. The US itself is the world's leading cyber-   
   aggressor. A major purpose of this expansion is to strengthen the US's   
   ability to destroy other nations with cyber-attacks. Indeed, even the   
   Post report notes that a major component of this new expansion is to   
   "conduct offensive computer operations against foreign adversaries".   
      
   It is the US - not Iran, Russia or "terror" groups - which already is   
   the first nation (in partnership with Israel) to aggressively deploy a   
   highly sophisticated and extremely dangerous cyber-attack. Last June,   
   the New York Times' David Sanger reported what most of the world had   
   already suspected: "From his first months in office, President Obama   
      
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