Should Obama Control the Internet?
April 4th, 2009Via: Mother Jones:
Should President Obama have the power to shut down domestic Internet traffic during a state of emergency?
Senators John Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) think so. On Wednesday they introduced a bill to establish the Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor—an arm of the executive branch that would have vast power to monitor and control Internet traffic to protect against threats to critical cyber infrastructure. That broad power is rattling some civil libertarians.
The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (PDF) gives the president the ability to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” and shut down or limit Internet traffic in any “critical” information network “in the interest of national security.” The bill does not define a critical information network or a cybersecurity emergency. That definition would be left to the president.
The bill does not only add to the power of the president. It also grants the Secretary of Commerce “access to all relevant data concerning [critical] networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access.” This means he or she can monitor or access any data on private or public networks without regard to privacy laws.
Now THAT’S change Dick Cheney can believe in!
But they ALREADY “monitor or access any data on private or public networks without regard to privacy laws.” Remember the FISA scandal?
It’s bizarre to me that this article is so narrow, so legally focused, that it fails to mention even once that such operations are already known to be in place (effectively pretends they never happened), illegally, and were protected by the current president during his campaign.
Stuff happens, and sometimes even gets broad coverage, and yet, somehow, never really sinks in… thanks in part to the highly distorted coverage it receives, no doubt, but there is something a little more psychological at work here as well.
some democrat!
but then i can say the same about obama.
remrof my feel for this is:
In the past it was the NSA, CIA, ect in the dark for rendition, long term tricks, some insider trading, bribery ect.
If its in the open and so narrow, so legally focused, they want to use it anybody and it has to stand up in open court.
What was once in the shadows for the jet set around the world, is now in suburbia.