Bill would give president emergency control of Internet

A new U.S. senate bill has been redrafted to give President Obama the power of control to shut down the Internet in case of emergency situations. The 55-page draft that was obtained by CNET appears to permit the president to seize temporary control over private-sector networks in a cybersecurity emergency.

If the bill is passed, it would allow control to temporary disable Internet traffic in private-sectors. "A Senate source familiar with the bill compared the president's power to take control of portions of the Internet to what President Bush did when grounding all aircraft on Sept. 11, 2001."

Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which contains large Internet and telecommunication companies such as Verizon, Verisign, Nortel and Carnegie Mellon University said "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."

The bill is still unclear what power of control President Obama might receive until it is properly addressed after the Senate's summer recess.

The bill is to protect against cyber threats and attacks on critical infrastructures such as the power grid in case of an attack from a broadband connection. Such control over the Internet may never be

Story at: http://current.com/items/90807921_bill-would-give-president-emergency-control-of-internet.htm

Political Power Grid of the Universe because...?

you type in DU but are instantly redirected to a message from the President.

Or traffic from certian geographic ip ranges could be redirected to information about a local emergency

that power.

for the ARPA net (as it was called in the early seventies). I can tell you that the "internet" was specifically designed to NOT have centralized command and control points, it was designed to let traffic flow in case of a nuclear attack (yes, for the military).

Shutting down the internet is almost an impossibility.

I say almost, as we have let corporate America take over much of the "trunk bandwidth" of the internet, and restricted the NAPs to only service certain large corporations.

However, the end to end technology is theoretically installed in millions of personal computers, all that is needed is a communication path(s) and some simple routers, even ham radio operators could carry on in the event that the "plug is pulled" by corporate 'murica at the direction of the President or any other would be dictator.

This sounds like political posturing.

NAPs to turn off the backbone circuits. I don't know if there is current law that would allow him to order it.

In any case, I doubt he would have much trouble getting it done in a "crisis", real or imagined. I'm not supporting it mind you, I just don't think this weasel is adding anything to the President's powers, he's posturing to make himself look good.

The Iranian government tried to block the citizens from communicating to the outside world, but the darn internet got in the way.

You may not have that power.

It's not subject to state or even corporate control like the MSM. I'm actually surprised Bush never tried to sneak a bill like this through. Maybe he thought there were too many internets to effectively shut down.

Shutting down the internet is no mean feat. Its not really a centraly located thing that you can just turn off. I imagine they could shut down the backbones but that would also bring down most other forms of comunication with it not ecxactly a great idea in a time of national emergency.

Corporate Lobbyist Party's penchant for totalitarianism. What in the hands of a decent democracy respecting individual is a relatively benign law could in tha hands of another illegal puppet, controlled by our corporate lords, could be disastrous for democracy.

Right now, where would we go for information if we didn't have the internet. All we would have is Corporate M$M! - Total information control. One of the foundations of a totalitarian system.

with apologies to Gil Scott Heron.

:scared: :thumbsdown:

Clear enough?

No fucking way I'll reward him with my vote if that goes down. I'll stay home and watch reruns of Law & Order or something.

brewed this piece of horseshit up. He's the guy who started the "Gore says he invented the internet" meme. From there it went straight to Drudge with his flashing lights.

Bottom line is Declan McCullagh is known for building piles of shit and disseminating them as the truth. This story is another of his piles of shit. Link to the original is here

http://current.com/14t964c

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2005/jul/02/usnews.internationalnews


"The US had pledged to turn control of the 13 computers known as root servers - which inform web browsers and email programs how to direct internet traffic - over to a private, international body.

But on Thursday the US reversed its position, announcing that it will maintain control of the computers because of growing security threats and the increased reliance on the internet for global communications. A Japanese government official yesterday criticised the move, claiming it will lend momentum to the debate about who controls the information flow online.
"

......But even so.....

"Despite many doomsday scenarios, the most recent US decision will have little if any immediate effect on internet users, and given the internet's anarchic nature it may simply represent a desire to assert state control even when it is not possible to do so.

Claudia Bernett, 32, a digital design analyst in New York, said: "Scary as it seems, because of the nature of the internet, I think they'll be hardpressed to create a coherent system that is capable of the kind of monitoring they hope for ... Eventually, the people participating in the system will find the technological means to evade the watchful eye."

Experts say that in the worst-case scenario, countries that refused to accept US control of the main computers could establish their own separate domain name system, with addresses in some places that others would not be able to reach, making the world wide web give way to discrete, regional web domains."