More Alarming ’1984′ Echoes of Cyber-Police & Government’s Power of Seizure: New Bill Would Give Obama “Emergency” Control of Internet
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on August 28, 2009
George Orwell's prophetic novel, '1984,' about totalitarian government control
Just when you thought the government power grabbing couldn’t become any more audacious, you discover that the Obama administration is yet again trying to muscle in and have “emergency” control of the Internet. I wrote about this in April, and now, this government invasion/control is getting closer to the “anti-First Amendment” finish line.
From my original post:
This information is straight out of an Orwell sci-fi novel. Not only would government waste billions of dollars to monitor us over the Internet, but WE would be paying for our monitoring. Did the temperature in the room just drop 15 degrees?
Old man Fidel Castro must be very proud. Control the banks, control major businesses, control the media, control cyberspace, control all other communications in a nation… a socialist leader’s dream.
My original source: WorldNetDaily: Life with Big Brother: Will bill give Obama control of Internet? Proposed new powers called ‘drastic federal intervention’.
From CNET News:
CNET News: Bill would give president emergency control of Internet
By Declan McCullagh
August 28, 2009Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.
They’re not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.
The new version would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do what’s necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for “cybersecurity professionals,” and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.
“I think the redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to its vagueness,” said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which counts representatives of Verizon, Verisign, Nortel, and Carnegie Mellon University on its board. “It is unclear what authority Sen. Rockefeller thinks is necessary over the private sector. Unless this is clarified, we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill.”
Representatives of other large Internet and telecommunications companies expressed concerns about the bill in a teleconference with Rockefeller’s aides this week, but were not immediately available for interviews on Thursday.
[...]
The Rockefeller proposal plays out against a broader concern in Washington, D.C., about the government’s role in cybersecurity. In May, President Obama acknowledged that the government is “not as prepared” as it should be to respond to disruptions and announced that a new cybersecurity coordinator position would be created inside the White House staff. Three months later, that post remains empty, one top cybersecurity aide has quit, and some wags have begun to wonder why a government that receives failing marks on cybersecurity should be trusted to instruct the private sector what to do.
Rockefeller’s revised legislation seeks to reshuffle the way the federal government addresses the topic. It requires a “cybersecurity workforce plan” from every federal agency, a “dashboard” pilot project, measurements of hiring effectiveness, and the implementation of a “comprehensive national cybersecurity strategy” in six months–even though its mandatory legal review will take a year to complete.
The privacy implications of sweeping changes implemented before the legal review is finished worry Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.” As soon as you’re saying that the federal government is going to be exercising this kind of power over private networks, it’s going to be a really big issue,” he says.
Probably the most controversial language begins in Section 201, which permits the president to “direct the national response to the cyber threat” if necessary for “the national defense and security.” The White House is supposed to engage in “periodic mapping” of private networks deemed to be critical, and those companies “shall share” requested information with the federal government. (“Cyber” is defined as anything having to do with the Internet, telecommunications, computers, or computer networks.)“The language has changed but it doesn’t contain any real additional limits,” EFF’s Tien says. “It simply switches the more direct and obvious language they had originally to the more ambiguous (version)…The designation of what is a critical infrastructure system or network as far as I can tell has no specific process. There’s no provision for any administrative process or review. That’s where the problems seem to start. And then you have the amorphous powers that go along with it.”
Translation: If your company is deemed “critical,” a new set of regulations kick in involving who you can hire, what information you must disclose, and when the government would exercise control over your computers or network…
Excellent commentary from FOX News: Quit Campaigning and Start Acting Like a President, Mr. Obama
If you close your eyes and think of a country where a new leader is (1) investigating the leader that came before him, (2) doling out possible criminal charges against that former leader’s subordinates, and (3) sending one agency to investigate whether another agency overstepped its boundaries while it is 100% certain that no citizen was harmed as a result and on the contrary citizens’ lives were saved, some countries automatically come to mind — mostly in the developing world — but not one of them would be the United States of America.
[...]
Regarding his future as an ex-president, Mr. Obama needs to take a moment and consider whether the team that will inevitably follow him in the White House, either in 3 or 7 years from now, might pick up the mantle of prosecuting its predecessor and take issue with anything and everything from national health care and taking control of the Internet, to funneling money to groups such as ACORN through the stimulus bill, to any other controversial decision made by the Obama administration.
Additional reading:
Examiner.com: Fl. Sen. Bill Nelson–cosponsor to S773–White House to control internet
i4u News: New Bill Will Give President ‘Emergency Control’ Over Private Networks
VentureBeat: Bill would give President emergency control of Internet in his dreams
The Jawa Report: Obama Seeking Absolute Control of Internet
Adotas: President Obama to seize the Internet under ‘cyberthreat’?
Ryan Mauro, Pajamas Media: Obama Uses ‘Politics of Fear’ He Once Criticized
Givoanni’s World: Govt Takeover of Internet- Bill Allows Obama to Seize Internet in Crisis
The B.S. Report: Running Banks, Car Companies, Housing Market And Health Care Not Enough; Obama Wants Control Of The Internet!
Dick Morris: The Declaration of Independence Has Been Repealed
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Want Some Milk with Those Cookies? White House May Track When You Visit Dot-Gov Websites (video) and Rush Limbaugh & Glenn Beck: The Highly Anticipated “Free Speech in Jeopardy” Interview (5-part video) and Obama Ignores Cheaper, Better Solutions from GOP, Forcing Trillion-Dollar Porkulus Bill and Debt on America
Hot Air: WH: We’re not collecting names, we’re storing your e-mail addresses
The Foundry: Video: Chief Diversity Officer Seeks To Stifle Free Speech
Michelle Malkin: Unanswered questions about the Internet Snitch Brigade and Obama’s computer security police and Iran vs. the Internet and U.N. declares Castro a “World Hero of Solidarity” and Race-baiter Democrat Rep. Diane Watson praises Cuban health system, Castro & Guevara who “kicked out the wealthy”
Pronk Palisades: Obama’s Hidden Agenda and Cadre of Marxists, Communists, Progressives, Radicals, Socialists–Destroying Capitalism and The American Republic
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