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A quintessential hallmark of an authoritarian regime, particularly one that operates within highly-militarized, though nominally democratic states such as ours, is the maintenance of a system of internal control; a seamless panopticon where dissent is equated with criminality and the rule of law derided as a luxury ill-afforded “during a time of war.”
In this context, the deployment of new offensive technologies which can wreck havoc on human populations deemed expendable by the state, are always couched in a defensive rhetoric by militarist aggressors and their apologists.
While the al-Qaeda brand may no longer elicit a compelling response in terms of mobilizing the population for new imperial adventures, novel threats–and panics–are required to marshal public support for the upward transfer of wealth into the corporate trough. Today, “cyber terror” functions as the “new Osama.”
And with Congress poised to pass the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, an Orwellian bill that would give the president the power to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” and shut down or limit Internet traffic in any “critical” information network “in the interest of national security” of course, the spaces left for the free flow of information–and meaningful dissent–slowly contract.
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Filed under: Communications, Free Speech, Information, Media, Military Industrial Complex, Prison Industrial Complex, Privacy | Tagged: Acting Senior Director for Cyberspace for the National Security and Homeland Security Councils, Advanced Information Systems, Air Crack, Al-Qaeda, Applied Physics Laboratory, Aviation Week, BAE Systems, Beach, Bhopal disaster, Bhopal effect, blackout bomb, BLU-114/B, Booz Allen Hamilton, Center for Information Security Research, Comprehensive National Cyber Initiative, Computer Sciences Corporation, Contractor Misconduct Database, Cyber Command, cybersecurity, Cybersecurity Act of 2009, cyberterrorism, David A. Fulghum, Deals inked on DARPA's Matrix cyber VR, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Durham University, General Dynamics, graphite bomb, Hewlett-Packard, Information and Electronic Systems Integration, Intelligence, Intelligence and National Security Alliance, James Bamford, Johns Hopkins University, Joint Interagency Cyber Task Force, Kosovo, Lewis Page, Lockheed Martin, MadWiFi, ManTech International, Marty McLaughlin, Maureen Baginski, Melissa Hathaway, Microsoft, National Cyber Range, NATO, Naval Postgraduate School, Neil Rowe, Network Attack Weapons Emerge, Northrop Grumman, Novi Sad, Orwellian, Potomac Institute For Policy Studiez, Project on Government Oversight, Rance Walleston, Remarks by Melissa E. Hathaway, Science Applications International Corporation, Simulation, SPARTA, Stephen Graham, Strategic Technology Office, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Systems Division, The Shadow Factory, Training and Support, Vojvodina, Wall Street celebrates stepped-up bombing of Serbia | Leave a comment »
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