JR Dieckmann
Will Obama take over the internet?
By JR Dieckmann
Obama announced on Friday, the creation of a new "Cyber-security Czar" to oversee Internet security. We all can agree that Internet security is important to prevent cyber-attacks, but can we trust this government and administration to handle the task in our best interests, or theirs? The Internet is the last frontier for freedom and free speech in America. If we allow this government any control over it, we sign the death warrant for the First Amendment.
The plan involves coordinating federal security systems with private networks which leads me to ask; shouldn't the government secure their own servers and let the private sector secure their own? Obama stated that his Cyber-security Czar will have direct access to the president which also means that the president will have direct access to the Cyber-Czar. This was not the first time Obama talked about government control over the Internet. He brought it up once before, saying that he wanted control of the Internet during any national emergency.
Here is the problem I see with this whole plan. We have seen the tactic used by this administration over and over again — find or create a crisis, then violate the people's liberties to deal with it. We saw it with the banking industry. We saw it with the mortgage industry. We're seeing it with the auto industry and the energy industry, the global warming hoax, and many others. This is a president who wants the federal government to control everything of any significance. Controlling the Internet would be most helpful to him in forcing his Marxist agenda down the throats of the American citizens.
Obama points to "spyware and malware, spoofing, phishing, and botnets" as being specific security threats, but are they really? These are the kinds of attacks that happen many times a day to most computers on the Internet and are easily blocked by any good antivirus and firewall software. Protection against them is already widely available and in use. We don't need the government to protect us from them.
Government and critical industries need to protect their computers against foreign and domestic hackers. They are already doing all they can to this end and are perfectly capable of handling the task without merging private and government security systems. Creating a Cyber-Czar and government controlled security system throughout the entire Internet is not necessary, but is a huge threat to our privacy and free speech.
This plan starts off, like most fascist plans from Obama, as innocent and in the public interest, but then they morph into another government takeover of a segment of our society or commerce. If you can convince the people that they need the government to secure cyberspace, then extend government tentacles into every major Internet server in the country, that would be a most useful tool for a government and an administration that is intent on controlling free speech in America.
In order to coordinate government and private Internet servers and networks, it would be necessary to download government software into those servers. Who is to say that that software won't contain its own triggers to shut down certain servers or the complete Internet on the whim of that man in the White House? How would you like to go to your favorite news site and find nothing there but a message from the White House touting the virtues of socialism? This is the sort of thing they do in North Korea, and used to do in Communist Russia.
Obama stated that this system won't be used to spy or intrude on citizens' privacy: "Our pursuit of cyber-security will not — I repeat, will not — include monitoring private sector networks or Internet traffic," he said. But that's not entirely true. Data passes both ways when computers talk to each other.
According to the Washington Times, efforts are already under way for monitoring of traffic among various Internet networks:
The Democrat Socialists are trying every way they can to shut up and shut down conservative talk radio. Their only other source of dissent is the Internet. If they can find a way to control what information is distributed over the Internet, then all Americans will see is the propaganda from the left. An Obama Internet Czar and security system would make that most convenient.
Obama violated presidential protocol, and still does, when he insisted on keeping his Blackberry and email list along with his personal connections after taking the oath for Office of the President. All previous presidents have only been allowed outside communications through normal White House channels.
Allowing Obama any intervention into the Internet other than what he already has will be a death blow to the Constitution, American tradition, and conservatism in America. It will be an open door to government censorship. We must not allow him to get his foot inside that door. If we do, then we need only look at his current policies to see where it will lead.
© JR Dieckmann
June 3, 2009
Obama announced on Friday, the creation of a new "Cyber-security Czar" to oversee Internet security. We all can agree that Internet security is important to prevent cyber-attacks, but can we trust this government and administration to handle the task in our best interests, or theirs? The Internet is the last frontier for freedom and free speech in America. If we allow this government any control over it, we sign the death warrant for the First Amendment.
The plan involves coordinating federal security systems with private networks which leads me to ask; shouldn't the government secure their own servers and let the private sector secure their own? Obama stated that his Cyber-security Czar will have direct access to the president which also means that the president will have direct access to the Cyber-Czar. This was not the first time Obama talked about government control over the Internet. He brought it up once before, saying that he wanted control of the Internet during any national emergency.
Here is the problem I see with this whole plan. We have seen the tactic used by this administration over and over again — find or create a crisis, then violate the people's liberties to deal with it. We saw it with the banking industry. We saw it with the mortgage industry. We're seeing it with the auto industry and the energy industry, the global warming hoax, and many others. This is a president who wants the federal government to control everything of any significance. Controlling the Internet would be most helpful to him in forcing his Marxist agenda down the throats of the American citizens.
Obama points to "spyware and malware, spoofing, phishing, and botnets" as being specific security threats, but are they really? These are the kinds of attacks that happen many times a day to most computers on the Internet and are easily blocked by any good antivirus and firewall software. Protection against them is already widely available and in use. We don't need the government to protect us from them.
Government and critical industries need to protect their computers against foreign and domestic hackers. They are already doing all they can to this end and are perfectly capable of handling the task without merging private and government security systems. Creating a Cyber-Czar and government controlled security system throughout the entire Internet is not necessary, but is a huge threat to our privacy and free speech.
This plan starts off, like most fascist plans from Obama, as innocent and in the public interest, but then they morph into another government takeover of a segment of our society or commerce. If you can convince the people that they need the government to secure cyberspace, then extend government tentacles into every major Internet server in the country, that would be a most useful tool for a government and an administration that is intent on controlling free speech in America.
In order to coordinate government and private Internet servers and networks, it would be necessary to download government software into those servers. Who is to say that that software won't contain its own triggers to shut down certain servers or the complete Internet on the whim of that man in the White House? How would you like to go to your favorite news site and find nothing there but a message from the White House touting the virtues of socialism? This is the sort of thing they do in North Korea, and used to do in Communist Russia.
Obama stated that this system won't be used to spy or intrude on citizens' privacy: "Our pursuit of cyber-security will not — I repeat, will not — include monitoring private sector networks or Internet traffic," he said. But that's not entirely true. Data passes both ways when computers talk to each other.
According to the Washington Times, efforts are already under way for monitoring of traffic among various Internet networks:
-
"Contrary to this claim, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security have been pushing financial, transportation and other sectors to sign onto a program that would give the federal government unprecedented access to their cyber systems.
"According to documents obtained by The Washington Times, major industries have been asked to give the federal government the ability to monitor traffic in and out of private corporate systems. This is referred to as the Defense Industrial Base pilot program expansion to industry, and it could open the door for the feds to monitor much more than just cyber attacks on some private networks. Companies have pushed back against direct federal monitoring, instead proposing that an intermediary funnel information on cyber attacks to the federal government."
The Democrat Socialists are trying every way they can to shut up and shut down conservative talk radio. Their only other source of dissent is the Internet. If they can find a way to control what information is distributed over the Internet, then all Americans will see is the propaganda from the left. An Obama Internet Czar and security system would make that most convenient.
Obama violated presidential protocol, and still does, when he insisted on keeping his Blackberry and email list along with his personal connections after taking the oath for Office of the President. All previous presidents have only been allowed outside communications through normal White House channels.
Allowing Obama any intervention into the Internet other than what he already has will be a death blow to the Constitution, American tradition, and conservatism in America. It will be an open door to government censorship. We must not allow him to get his foot inside that door. If we do, then we need only look at his current policies to see where it will lead.
© JR Dieckmann
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
