The Internet shutdown in Libya, condemned by the American government, involved a new way to turn off web access for an entire country, lesson learned. Earlier this year, the total Internet blockade in Egypt backfired, emboldened protesters. China is known for blocking Internet services, but it’s not just China. Last June Senators Lieberman, Collins and Carper introduced the “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010″. One vague provision in the bill gave the president the power to “authorize emergency measures.” Devil in the details, it became known as the Internet “kill switch” bill even though the words ‘kill’ and ‘switch’ are not found in the bill.
We couldn’t condemn the action in other countries while at the same time plan it here. No one would even suggest such a thing, right? Right?
Failing to pass in 2010 the legislation was re-branded the “Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act of 2011.” Note the buzz of Freedom in a bill that gives the government power suppress freedom. Ironically, it was re-introduced on the same day as the Egyptian shutdown when President Obama called on the Egyptian government to reverse its interference with Internet access.
The new bill however, doesn’t give the president control of a “Big Switch” rather little switches are given to bureaucrats at Homeland Security. Everyone knows how responsible Homeland Security bureaucrats are; they took the fun out of flying and created a rainbow of alerts. Envision a vast warehouse of ten’s of thousands of bureaucrats with one hand hovering over their kill switches as they surf the Internet looking for something that offends. The rainbow becomes a blinding White light kill alert when government missteps are publicly exposed.
Building a nation on the free exchange of ideas, the founding fathers institutionalized freedom of the press. However even Thomas Jefferson, an outspoken advocate of a free press, as President attempted to suppress that free press. Every administration since has attempted to control, suppress or distort the free flow of information. The last administration attempted to institutionalize a misinformation bureau with in government, which may have gone underground to a secret government when caught in spotlight for free information.
Jefferson failed to halt critical voices because he controlled no switches to shut down the voices of the people. Government control of information is the fast lane to dictatorships. Giving such control to faceless bureaucrats is building a dictatorship of collective irresponsibility where all are the ultimate losers.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Whistle blowing 032411
It happens but some times a backlog of information accumulates which demands comment. Unfortunately the backlog is so great that there isn’t sufficient time to give adequate perspective to commentary, so readers are given only tidbits of stories, sorry about that, but I’m old. These tidbits will have little impact on me whatever the stories’ eventual outcomes. Current generations will have to deal with these issues and their actions or lack of action will impact their children.
Although Congress passed a Whistle Blower protection act, it seems that no one likes a whistle blower less than government bureaucrats and policy makers. Late in 2010 the electronic release of masses of U.S. government documents set off a bureaucratic firestorm that made the bombing of Dresden, Germany seem like a campfire.
Homeland Security immediately declared the Internet editor of WikiLeaks a traitor and started to build a rhetorical gallows on the Washington Mall. Department of Defense declared the papers nation security secrets and piled brush around the gallows to incinerate his dangling body. Isn’t there something about cruel and unusable punishment in the Bill of Rights? The intelligence community set a “honey trap” for him in a foreign country. The State department declared irreparable harm to American Foreign policy.
As the firestorm ragged some officials, probably fearful that they might be thrown in the fire, reviewed the documents and discovered lots of embarrassment from ancient to modern, but no real secrets. However, the bureaucracy was on a downhill roll and there was no stopping. Intelligence twisted foreign arms for an arrest and rendition of the editor. The military grabbed an Army private charged him with releasing the government’s “secrets”, branded him a traitor and threw him into a military dungeon. Always seeking the lime light the Air Force declared "If a family member of an Air Force employee accesses WikiLeaks on a home computer, the family member may be subject to prosecution for espionage under U.S. Code Title 18 Section 793." U.S. officials issued secret subpoenas for Wikileaks’ electronic accounts and credit card receipts apparently seeking names of readers. The government went after foreign officials on suspicion that they may have approved the release of documents.
The Pentagon and other government agencies have taken the position that even though the open source documents are freely available on the Internet, the government must treat them as classified. After all it is American Citizens who are the real enemy for Government abuse.
As the affair grinds along, now out of the public’s spotlight the Army private still sits degraded in naked isolation in a military dungeon, probably expecting eventual rendition to some foreign torture chamber out of view of justice and restraint.
Remember we are trying to sell the American rule of law globally, in a world more aware of American abuse and hypocrisy than its own citizens.
Although Congress passed a Whistle Blower protection act, it seems that no one likes a whistle blower less than government bureaucrats and policy makers. Late in 2010 the electronic release of masses of U.S. government documents set off a bureaucratic firestorm that made the bombing of Dresden, Germany seem like a campfire.
Homeland Security immediately declared the Internet editor of WikiLeaks a traitor and started to build a rhetorical gallows on the Washington Mall. Department of Defense declared the papers nation security secrets and piled brush around the gallows to incinerate his dangling body. Isn’t there something about cruel and unusable punishment in the Bill of Rights? The intelligence community set a “honey trap” for him in a foreign country. The State department declared irreparable harm to American Foreign policy.
As the firestorm ragged some officials, probably fearful that they might be thrown in the fire, reviewed the documents and discovered lots of embarrassment from ancient to modern, but no real secrets. However, the bureaucracy was on a downhill roll and there was no stopping. Intelligence twisted foreign arms for an arrest and rendition of the editor. The military grabbed an Army private charged him with releasing the government’s “secrets”, branded him a traitor and threw him into a military dungeon. Always seeking the lime light the Air Force declared "If a family member of an Air Force employee accesses WikiLeaks on a home computer, the family member may be subject to prosecution for espionage under U.S. Code Title 18 Section 793." U.S. officials issued secret subpoenas for Wikileaks’ electronic accounts and credit card receipts apparently seeking names of readers. The government went after foreign officials on suspicion that they may have approved the release of documents.
The Pentagon and other government agencies have taken the position that even though the open source documents are freely available on the Internet, the government must treat them as classified. After all it is American Citizens who are the real enemy for Government abuse.
As the affair grinds along, now out of the public’s spotlight the Army private still sits degraded in naked isolation in a military dungeon, probably expecting eventual rendition to some foreign torture chamber out of view of justice and restraint.
Remember we are trying to sell the American rule of law globally, in a world more aware of American abuse and hypocrisy than its own citizens.
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