Posted on 02/03/2013 8:59:54 PM PST by Seizethecarp
A secret legal review on the use of America’s growing arsenal of cyberweapons has concluded that President Obama has the broad power to order a pre-emptive strike if the United States detects credible evidence of a major digital attack looming from abroad, according to officials involved in the review.
That decision is among several reached in recent months as the administration moves, in the next few weeks, to approve the nation’s first rules for how the military can defend, or retaliate, against a major cyberattack. New policies will also govern how the intelligence agencies can carry out searches of faraway computer networks for signs of potential attacks on the United States and, if the president approves, attack adversaries by injecting them with destructive code — even if there is no declared war.
The rules will be highly classified, just as those governing drone strikes have been closely held. John O. Brennan, Mr. Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser and his nominee to run the Central Intelligence Agency, played a central role in developing the administration’s policies regarding both drones and cyberwarfare, the two newest and most politically sensitive weapons in the American arsenal.
As the process of defining the rules of engagement began more than a year ago, one senior administration official emphasized that the United States had restrained its use of cyberweapons. “There are levels of cyberwarfare that are far more aggressive than anything that has been used or recommended to be done,” the official said.
While many potential targets are military, a country’s power grids, financial systems and communications networks can also be crippled.
Some critics have said the cyberthreat is being exaggerated by contractors and consultants who see billions in potential earnings.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Sounds like the power to start a preemptive cyber war against another nation state IN SECRET!
Increased use of drones, complete use of Gitmo, “under the radar initiatives”, massive arms exports, broad authority for cyberweapons....
The man is a dictator, plain and simple.
HOW MUCH HYPOCRISY CAN LEFTIES STOMACH..?
Obama will show us. He has only just begun.
Also from the article:
“Under the new guidelines, the Pentagon would not be involved in defending against ordinary cyberattacks on American companies or individuals, even though it has the largest array of cybertools. Domestically, that responsibility falls to the Department of Homeland Security, and investigations of cyberattacks or theft are carried out by the F.B.I.
“But the military, barred from actions within the United States without a presidential order, would become involved in cases of a major cyberattack within the United States. To maintain ambiguity in an adversary’s mind, officials have kept secret what that threshold would be; so far, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has only described the “red line” in the vaguest of terms — as a ‘cyber 9/11.’”
They are getting us ready for something big.
Take down the network, the world’s economy grinds to a halt, the food conveyor stops, and the cities explode. Gee, I guess that only FEMA can save us, then. Lucky they have been stockpiling MREs like mad, right?
I mean, have socialists ever used food as a weapon before? Hmmmmm.....
And nobody will ever be able to say for sure who started it, or did what. Black flag, false flag, third party operation, or a kid in a basement. All we’ll know is that the data ain’t flowing, then the screens go dark, then ????
Looks like another leak by the NY Times as to Barry’s personal involvement in micromanaging the STUXNET attack on Iran:
“During the attacks on Iran’s facilities, which the United States never acknowledged, Mr. Obama insisted that cyberweapons be targeted narrowly, so that they did not affect hospitals or power supplies. Mr. Obama frequently voiced concerns that America’s use of cyberweapons could be used by others as justification for attacks on the United States.”
I imagine Free Republic is one of the most daring attackers that will have to be shut down to save the country from the menace of domestic terrorism; fortunately, Fatherland Security is up to the task.
As a side note concerning our constitutionally protected rights, if my statement about so-called absolute rights disturbs people, please consider the following. The states had originally decided not to make government powers prohibited to Congress by the BoR applicable to the states. In fact, Thomas Jefferson had noted that the Founding States had reserved government power to regulate our basic 1st Amendment protected freedoms of speech, for example, to the states regardless that the states had made 1A to prohibit such powers to Congress altogether.
"3. Resolved that it is true as a general principle and is also expressly declared by one of the amendments to the constitution that ‘the powers not delegated to the US. by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people’: and that no power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press being delegated to the US. by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, all lawful powers respecting the same did of right remain, & were reserved, to the states or the people: that thus was manifested their determination to retain to themselves the right of judging how far the licentiousness of speech and of the press may be abridged without lessening their useful freedom, and how far those abuses which cannot be separated from their use should be tolerated rather than the use be destroyed (emphasis added); …" --Thomas Jefferson, Kentucky Resolutions, 1798.
>> Broad Powers Seen for Obama in Cyberstrikes
Is this like putting chicks on the front line?
The Police State arrived before Obama.
Actually,according to a report on John Bathcherlor last night, fed judges have said that companies have the right to combat cyber attackers. The story was about how Micrrosoft got permission from a federal judge to attack and shut down a Chinese hacker. That is important as it allows US companies to hit foreign hackers, even if they are government (Chinese, Iranian, NORKS, etc) sponsored.
Secret legal review by the Executive Branch reveals that the Executive Branch has even more power than originally thought.
Scary.
“Obama will show us. He has only just begun.”
Unfortunately, you are correct, the useful idiots who elected this man have tipped the scales towards the destruction of our Country. We have seen nothing yet, watch want happens over the next four years, and sadly No one in Congress or the courts will stop him.
“Actually,according to a report on John Bathcherlor last night, fed judges have said that companies have the right to combat cyber attackers.”
That is very interesting and news to me, but it is not the same thing being discussed in this article which involves preemptively destroying enemy national infrastructure, not just disabling an attacking website’s servers.
This federal judge did NOT authorize any preemptive attacks on hackers (foreign or domestic) based on claimed suspicion of impending attacks, I can be reasonably confident to state.
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