Joe Lieberman introduces internet "Kill Switch" legislation.

[Anti Federalist]

Obama internet 'kill switch' proposed

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/obama-internet-kill-switch-proposed-20100618-yln6.html

US President Barack Obama would be granted powers to seize control of and even shut down the internet under a new bill that describes the global internet as a US "national asset".

Local lobby groups and academics have rounded on the plan, saying that, rather than combat terrorists, it would actually do them "the biggest favour ever" by terrorising the rest of the world, which is now heavily reliant on cyberspace.

The proposed legislation, introduced into the US Senate by independent senator Joe Lieberman, who is chairman of the US Homeland Security committee, seeks to grant the President broad emergency powers over the internet in times of national emergency.

Titled "Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act", the bill stipulates any internet firms and providers must "immediately comply with any emergency measure or action developed" by a new section of the US Department of Homeland Security, dubbed the "National Centre for Cybersecurity and Communications".

Lobby group TechAmerica told ZDNet it worried that the bill would give the US "absolute power" over the internet and create "unintended consequences".

One of Australia's top communications experts, University of Sydney associate professor Bjorn Landfeldt, railed against the idea, saying shutting down the internet would "inflict an enormous damage on the entire world".

He said it would be like giving a single country "the right to poison the atmosphere, or poison the ocean".

"All our financial systems, all our security systems ... we're so reliant on the internet that if you shut it down there's a question of whether society will continue to operate normally anywhere in the Western world," Landfeldt said in a phone interview.

"By doing this they would do the terrorists the biggest favour ever because they would terrorise the rest of the world".

Landfeldt said the US would be the only country in the world with the ability to shut down the internet. He said such a move would be extremely difficult for the US to justify to other nations.

"Unfortunately, too much of the core of the internet resides in the US - let's put it this way, they cannot shut down machines in Australia, but they can completely isolate us and shut down certain core functions like the DNS ... they can render the internet fairly useless for the rest of the world," he said.

Senator Susan Collins, co-sponsor of the bill, has said: "We cannot afford to wait for a cyber-9/11."

Lieberman argued the bill was necessary to "preserve those networks and assets and our country and protect our people".

He said that, for all its allure, the internet could also be a "dangerous place with electronic pipelines that run directly into everything from our personal bank accounts to key infrastructure to government and industrial secrets".

US economic security, national security and public safety were now all at risk from new kinds of enemies, including "cyber warriors, cyber spies, cyber terrorists and cyber criminals".

Geordie Guy, spokesman for the online users' lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia, said governments around the world seemed terrified of some unidentified risk that they believe the internet poses.

"The proposal is from Joe Lieberman, a repeat offender on rights versus regulation, in a bill called Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010," he said.

"One wonders which nation Senator Lieberman considers the internet an asset of, and how proposing its destruction by presidential or homeland security order protects it.

"The internet is not a national asset of the United States, nor is it a media regulation problem of Australia. It is an international network used by millions upon millions of citizens and it needs to remain free and available."

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy did not respond to calls requesting comment.

Google, one of the world's biggest internet companies, declined to comment as it was not yet official US government policy.

[phill4paul]

Every one needs to get to know a ham radio operator or get one themselves. If/when the SHTF the second American revolution will not be televised.

[Anti Federalist]

Every one needs to get to know a ham radio operator or get one themselves. If/when the SHTF the second American revolution will not be televised.

Or blogged about either, or so it seems. :mad:

[Matt Collins]

http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/ahamadeh/the-internet-kill-switch

[free1]

Please tell me there's a recall petition for Lieberman, or at least an election coming up to replace him.

[ChaosControl]

Lieberman is trying to be the biggest piece of **** in the country apparently.

[Kotin]

fuck lieberman.

[Pericles]

How are they going to shut off routers located outside the US? There are root DNS servers located elsewhere, and while this might be successful in removing the US from the NET, the rest drives on unimpeded.

Network of networks remember?

A private NET could be rebuilt quickly - the key players are the trunk backbone carriers - but they can be bypassed as well thanks to fiber optics.

[Anti Federalist]

How are they going to shut off routers located outside the US? There are root DNS servers located elsewhere, and while this might be successful in removing the US from the NET, the rest drives on unimpeded.

Network of networks remember?

A private NET could be rebuilt quickly - the key players are the trunk backbone carriers - but they can be bypassed as well thanks to fiber optics.

I don't know that they can.

But who are you to question our dear leaders, mundane?

They'll just arrest you for using the net, that's where all this is going.

They won't control the supply any more than they can control the drug supply (or at least that part of the drug supply that government doesn't own) they'll settle for controlling the user.

That's you, prole. ;)

[Jeremy]

He's going down here in CT next election.

[Anti Federalist]

He's going down here in CT next election.

I doubt that.

[TC95]

What this country needs is a dictatorship!



YouTube - Ed Schultz wants Obama to be dictator (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsQK2Wl8-N0)

[Anti Federalist]

What this country needs is a dictatorship!



YouTube - Ed Schultz wants Obama to be dictator (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsQK2Wl8-N0)

Hell, we pretty much have it already.

[RM918]

Terrorizing the rest of the world? We've been doing that for decades already.

[IceForester]

Lieberman is trying to be the biggest piece of **** in the country apparently.
Agreed 100%

[awake]

Would some one please kick the soap box out from under this hack.

[Anti Federalist]

The Decline and Fall of Power

Posted by Butler Shaffer on June 18, 2010 08:20 PM

Scott Evans’s update to Lew’s blog re Herr Lieberman, should be read and re-read by every lover of liberty as a reminder of the waning power of political systems. The state is still in a position to do a great deal of mischief and destruction, but it no longer enjoys the illusion that its vertically-structured facade of authority is capable of controlling complex events. From the government’s failures in post-Katrina New Orleans, to the current oil spill in the Gulf, the well-funded and legislatively empowered political apparatus has been unable to make any more effective responses than to have presidents show up for photo-ops or to babble meaningless platitudes.

The world is becoming increasingly decentralized; the horizontal is replacing the vertical. Such changes are not being occasioned by ideological thinking, but by the pragmatic necessities of sustaining life. Just as a tree does not grow from the top down, the lives of individuals and of societies cannot be directed by external authorities, no matter how long they have been revered. It is becoming more evident to more people that there is nothing that anyone in power can do to resolve the problems created by political thinking. More and more of us are discovering just how weak is any system that must rely on threats and violence to achieve its ends. The state is no more capable of shutting down the Internet than it has been able to halt the flow of drugs. Do not forget that the Internet was created by the federal government, whose designers — consistent with the study of chaos and complexity — were unable to foresee where the system might lead.

The vision of Joe Lieberman, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton holding a midnight session at the White House to “throw the switch” to end the Internet may gratify their delusionary minds, but has as much chance of reversing the forces of centrifugation as would bipartisan support for legislation mandating an end to the decentralizing processes of plate tectonics!

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/59910.html

[Jordan]

Haha, that's so weird you linked that, I wrote that this morning :o I'm interning for them here in D.C.

Hi five, brosef.

[Matt Collins]

YouTube - 3 Reasons The FCC Shouldn't "Touch" The Internets (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLyUeiR7djQ&feature=player_embedded)

[easycougar]

Wow this would suck for the company I work for...most of our users connect though a VPN client and a lot of our branch locations have a SOHO VPN device that uses the internet to connect to our Corporate network...we've phased out most of the dedicated T1 lines because cost issues

[xd9fan]

Its God Damn High time we talk about a "kill switch" on Washingtondc.....

[CCTelander]

The Decline and Fall of Power

Posted by Butler Shaffer on June 18, 2010 08:20 PM

Scott Evans’s update to Lew’s blog re Herr Lieberman, should be read and re-read by every lover of liberty as a reminder of the waning power of political systems. The state is still in a position to do a great deal of mischief and destruction, but it no longer enjoys the illusion that its vertically-structured facade of authority is capable of controlling complex events. From the government’s failures in post-Katrina New Orleans, to the current oil spill in the Gulf, the well-funded and legislatively empowered political apparatus has been unable to make any more effective responses than to have presidents show up for photo-ops or to babble meaningless platitudes.

The world is becoming increasingly decentralized; the horizontal is replacing the vertical. Such changes are not being occasioned by ideological thinking, but by the pragmatic necessities of sustaining life. Just as a tree does not grow from the top down, the lives of individuals and of societies cannot be directed by external authorities, no matter how long they have been revered. It is becoming more evident to more people that there is nothing that anyone in power can do to resolve the problems created by political thinking. More and more of us are discovering just how weak is any system that must rely on threats and violence to achieve its ends. The state is no more capable of shutting down the Internet than it has been able to halt the flow of drugs. Do not forget that the Internet was created by the federal government, whose designers — consistent with the study of chaos and complexity — were unable to foresee where the system might lead.

The vision of Joe Lieberman, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton holding a midnight session at the White House to “throw the switch” to end the Internet may gratify their delusionary minds, but has as much chance of reversing the forces of centrifugation as would bipartisan support for legislation mandating an end to the decentralizing processes of plate tectonics!

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/59910.html

I was just thinking of posting this but you beat me to it!

[CCTelander]

The Decline and Fall of Power

Posted by Butler Shaffer on June 18, 2010 08:20 PM

Scott Evans’s update to Lew’s blog re Herr Lieberman, should be read and re-read by every lover of liberty as a reminder of the waning power of political systems. The state is still in a position to do a great deal of mischief and destruction, but it no longer enjoys the illusion that its vertically-structured facade of authority is capable of controlling complex events. From the government’s failures in post-Katrina New Orleans, to the current oil spill in the Gulf, the well-funded and legislatively empowered political apparatus has been unable to make any more effective responses than to have presidents show up for photo-ops or to babble meaningless platitudes.

The world is becoming increasingly decentralized; the horizontal is replacing the vertical. Such changes are not being occasioned by ideological thinking, but by the pragmatic necessities of sustaining life. Just as a tree does not grow from the top down, the lives of individuals and of societies cannot be directed by external authorities, no matter how long they have been revered. It is becoming more evident to more people that there is nothing that anyone in power can do to resolve the problems created by political thinking. More and more of us are discovering just how weak is any system that must rely on threats and violence to achieve its ends. The state is no more capable of shutting down the Internet than it has been able to halt the flow of drugs. Do not forget that the Internet was created by the federal government, whose designers — consistent with the study of chaos and complexity — were unable to foresee where the system might lead.

The vision of Joe Lieberman, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton holding a midnight session at the White House to “throw the switch” to end the Internet may gratify their delusionary minds, but has as much chance of reversing the forces of centrifugation as would bipartisan support for legislation mandating an end to the decentralizing processes of plate tectonics!

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/59910.html


Here's the previous post that Shaffer refers to in the above:



Commissar Joe Lieberman
Posted by Lew Rockwell on June 18, 2010 06:49 AM
The totalitarian senator Joe Lieberman wants the US dictator-in-chief to be able to “seize” and even “shut down” the internet in a national emergency. What sort of emergency? Well, for example, if people are getting news that the government does not want them to have, about some planned Middle East war of aggression, or a putsch in DC.

UPDATE from Scott Evans:


It’s always heartening to hear that yet another of the beltway criminals is completely ignorant of how the internet works. I strikes me as hilarious to hear politicians, particularly the current marionette occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, bloviate about “shutting down” the internet, an organism that is the very definition of the word “decentralized” and thus beyond ANY politician or nation’s control. As the Chinese government is finding out (and I’m sure the Cuban and probably North Korean have found out as well, although we’re unlikely to hear about it through “official” media), the internet reacts to censorship attempts in much the same way that the human body reacts to a virus: it isolates the attempt and creates alternate paths to the sources of information being sought after. Ditto for any attempts by Washington to seize control of ISPs. There are ALWAYS alternative gateways to the worldwide web that are beyond Leviathan’s control, and tech-savvy Americans will ALWAYS find ways to exploit them.

It will be interesting to see what ridiculous and desperate (and ultimately futile) attempts at information regulation the Establishment tries in the future. As their power and influence continues to wane, look for the technoignoramus Liarman and his fellow kleptoplutocrats to grow ever more reckless in their attempts to save themselves.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/59889.html

[NYgs23]

Lieberman trying to put his finger in the dike of authoritarianism to prevent a deluge of liberty.

[CCTelander]

Lieberman trying to put his finger in the dike of authoritarianism to prevent a deluge of liberty.

I'm tempted to suggest a place Lieberman might "put his finger," along with his legislation, but that might be considered a bit crass. ;)

[Anti Federalist]

Napolitano: Internet Monitoring Needed to Fight Homegrown Terrorism

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/18/napolitano-internet-monitoring-needed-fight-homegrown-terrorism/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fpolitics+%28Text+-+Politics%29

WASHINGTON -- Fighting homegrown terrorism by monitoring Internet communications is a civil liberties trade-off the U.S. government must make to beef up national security, the nation's homeland security chief said Friday.

As terrorists increasingly recruit U.S. citizens, the government needs to constantly balance Americans' civil rights and privacy with the need to keep people safe, said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

But finding that balance has become more complex as homegrown terrorists have used the Internet to reach out to extremists abroad for inspiration and training. Those contacts have spurred a recent rash of U.S.-based terror plots and incidents.

"The First Amendment protects radical opinions, but we need the legal tools to do things like monitor the recruitment of terrorists via the Internet," Napolitano told a gathering of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.

Napolitano's comments suggest an effort by the Obama administration to reach out to its more liberal, Democratic constituencies to assuage fears that terrorist worries will lead to the erosion of civil rights.

The administration has faced a number of civil liberties and privacy challenges in recent months as it has tried to increase airport security by adding full-body scanners, or track suspected terrorists traveling into the United States from other countries.

"Her speech is sign of the maturing of the administration on this issue," said Stewart Baker, former undersecretary for policy with the Department of Homeland Security. "They now appreciate the risks and the trade-offs much more clearly than when they first arrived, and to their credit, they've adjusted their preconceptions."

Underscoring her comments are a number of recent terror attacks over the past year where legal U.S. residents such as Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad and accused Fort Hood, Texas, shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan, are believed to have been inspired by the Internet postings of violent Islamic extremists.

And the fact that these are U.S. citizens or legal residents raises many legal and constitutional questions.

Napolitano said it is wrong to believe that if security is embraced, liberty is sacrificed.

She added, "We can significantly advance security without having a deleterious impact on individual rights in most instances. At the same time, there are situations where trade-offs are inevitable."

As an example, she noted the struggle to use full-body scanners at airports caused worries that they would invade people's privacy.

The scanners are useful in identifying explosives or other nonmetal weapons that ordinary metal-detectors might miss -- such as the explosives that authorities said were successfully brought on board the Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He is accused of trying to detonate a bomb hidden in his underwear, but the explosives failed, and only burned Abdulmutallab.

U.S. officials, said Napolitano, have worked to institute a number of restrictions on the scanners' use in order to minimize that. The scans cannot be saved or stored on the machines by the operator, and Transportation Security Agency workers can't have phones or cameras that could capture the scan when near the machine.

[Anti Federalist]

bump for this new story

[SooperDave]

and we don't live under a totalitarian regime and police state :-/ riiiiight

[Mach]

If they ever flick the switch it's time to get out the flaming torches-n-pitch forks and march onward.

Lieberman is a joke, you know who he's for, not us.

[nandnor]

They cant shut it down. They can only shut down the root name servers, and ISPs around the world can collaborate and use new ones instead

[nandnor]

up

[Mr.Magnanimous]

So what exactly is a cyber 9\11? Any Politician care to elaborate?