by Paul Joseph Watson
June 25, 2010
from
PrisonPlanet Website
President
Obama
will be handed the power to shut down the Internet for at least four months
without Congressional oversight if the Senate votes for the infamous
Internet ‘kill switch’ bill, which was approved by a key Senate committee
yesterday and now moves to the floor.
The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, which is being pushed
hard by Senator Joe Lieberman, would hand absolute power to the
federal government to close down networks, and block incoming Internet
traffic from certain countries under a declared national emergency.
Despite the
Center for Democracy and Technology and 23
other privacy and technology organizations sending letters to Lieberman and
other backers of the bill expressing concerns that the legislation could be
used to stifle free speech, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee passed in the bill in advance of a vote on the Senate
floor.
In response to widespread criticism of the bill, language was added that
would force the government to seek congressional approval to extend
emergency measures beyond 120 days. Still, this would hand Obama the
authority to shut down the Internet on a whim without Congressional
oversight or approval for a period of no less than four months.
The Senators pushing the bill rejected the claim that the bill was a ‘kill
switch’ for the Internet, not by denying that Obama would be given the
authority to shut down the Internet as part of this legislation, but by
arguing that he already had the power to do so.
They argued,
“That the President already had authority
under the Communications Act to 'cause the closing of any facility or
station for wire communication' when there is a 'state or threat of
war'", reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Fears that the legislation is aimed at bringing
the Internet under the regulatory power of the U.S. government in an
offensive against free speech were heightened further on Sunday, when
Lieberman revealed that the plan was to mimic China’s policies of policing
the web with censorship and coercion.
“Right now China, the government, can
disconnect parts of its Internet in case of war and we need to have that
here too,” Lieberman told CNN’s Candy Crowley.
While media and public attention is
overwhelmingly focused on
the BP oil spill, the establishment is
quietly preparing the framework that will allow Obama, or indeed any
President who follows him, to bring down a technological iron curtain that
will give the government a foot in the door on seizing complete control over
the Internet.
As we have illustrated, fears surrounding cybersecurity have been hyped to
mask the real agenda behind the bill, which is to strangle the
runaway growth of alternative and independent media outlets which are
exposing government atrocities, cover-ups and cronyism like never before.
Indeed, China uses similar rhetoric about the need to maintain “security”
and combating cyber warfare by regulating the web, when in reality their
entire program is focused around silencing anyone who criticizes the state.
The real agenda behind government control of the Internet has always been to
strangle and suffocate independent media outlets who are now competing with
and even displacing establishment press organs, with websites like
the Drudge Report now attracting more
traffic than many large newspapers combined.
As part of this war against independent media,
the FTC recently proposing a “Drudge
Tax” that would force independent media organizations to pay fees
that would be used to fund mainstream newspapers.