McCain: Cybersecurity Bill Ineffective Without NSA Monitoring the Net

Source: Wired
Kim Zetter

After three years of haggling to produce bipartisan cybersecurity legislation that addresses the security of the nation’s critical infrastructure systems, the Senate finally got a bill this week that seemed destined to actually pass.

That is, until a hearing on Thursday to discuss the bill in which Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) sideswiped lawmakers behind the proposed legislation and announced that he, and seven other Senate ranking members, were opposed to the bill and would be introducing a competing bill in two weeks to address failings they see in the legislation.

McCain and his colleagues oppose the current bill on the grounds that it would give the Department of Homeland Security regulatory authority over private businesses that own and operate critical infrastructure systems and that it doesn’t grant the National Security Agency, a branch of the Defense Department, any authority to monitor networks in real-time to thwart cyberattacks.

The bill neglects to give authority “to the only institutions currently capable of [protecting the homeland], U.S. Cybercommand and the National Security Agency (NSA),” McCain said in a written statement presented at the hearing. “According to [General Keith Alexander, the Commander of U.S. Cybercommand and the Director of the NSA] in order to stop a cyber attack you have to see it in real time, and you have to have those authorities…. This legislation does nothing to address this significant concern and I question why we have yet to have a serious discussion about who is best suited to protect our country from this threat we all agree is very real and growing.”

The current cybersecurity bill proposes to do what nothing else has succeeded in doing to date – that is, improve the security of critical infrastructure systems. It would do this by giving the government regulatory power over companies that operate such systems to force them to do due diligence.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) introduced the legislation on Tuesday along with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.).

The Secret Behind SOPA

Source: Prison Planet
Paul Joseph Watson

It’s the end of the Internet as we know it

The secret behind SOPA, the so-called anti-piracy bill which is today the target of an unprecedented backlash with Wikileaks and other major websites ‘going dark’ to protest the legislation, has nothing to do with piracy or copyright theft – it’s about the formal effort to mimic Communist China’s system of Internet censorship.

But don’t take our word for it, listen to what Joe Lieberman, co-sponsor of PIPA, SOPA’s sister version in the Senate, said about the purpose behind the US government’s efforts to control the Internet under the guise of cybersecurity.

Lieberman characterized fears that the US government would use such powers to censor political content as “total misinformation,” yet goes on to admit that the purpose behind the agenda is to mimic China’s ability to “disconnect parts of its Internet in case of war,” adding, “we need that here too”.

Of course, Communist China’s “war” is not against foreign terrorists or hackers, it’s targeted against people who dare to use the Internet to express dissent against government atrocities or corruption. China’s system of Internet policing is about crushing freedom of speech and has nothing to do with legitimate security concerns as Lieberman well knows.

Having largely failed in his bid to use fears over cyberwarfare, bearing in mind it was the United States and Israel who launched the Stuxnet attack, to achieve the ultimate goal of Internet control, Lieberman has returned with the same agenda only under a different guise – the Protect Intellectual Property Act – of which he is the co-sponsor.

Whether the justification is cybersecurity or anti-piracy, the end game remains the ability to seize control over the Internet and shut down websites on a whim.

Senator Lieberman Urges Google to Increase Censorship of Anti-West Blogs

Source: Activist Post
Eric Blair

U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman sent a letter (PDF) to Google this week urging them to censor anti-West, violent jihadist content on their Blogger platform.

The letter, formally from the Committee on Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs which Lieberman chairs, cited the blog of recent "lone wolf" terrorist patsy Jose Pimentel.

"Pimentel allegedly used the Internet to access instructions to make bombs and share his support for violent Islamic extremism," writes Lieberman. "Pimental's (sic) site is just one of the many examples of homegrown terrorists Google-hosted sites to propagate their violent ideology."

Lieberman, no stranger to promoting censorship of the Internet, sent a similar letter in 2008 to then CEO Eric Schmidt requesting that Google-owned YouTube remove videos that contained "offensive material" and "terrorist propaganda".

Lieberman also appeared on CNN in June 2010 praising China's draconian censorship of the Internet and claimed America should have the same ability to shut down Internet content that the U.S. deems dangerous.

In his recent attempt to outlaw information on the Internet, Lieberman applauded Google for complying with his previous request by adding a "flag" option to YouTube videos where anyone can vote the material as offensive or harmful.  Now, Lieberman is strongly urging Google to add the flagging option to all of their content platforms.