I wonder how the Left will blame this on Bush
A plan to create a new Pentagon cybercommand is raising significant privacy and diplomatic concerns, as the Obama administration moves ahead on efforts to protect the nation from cyberattack and to prepare for possible offensive operations against adversaries’ computer networks.
President Obama has said that the new cyberdefense strategy he unveiled last month will provide protections for personal privacy and civil liberties. But senior Pentagon and military officials say that Mr. Obama’s assurances may be challenging to guarantee in practice, particularly in trying to monitor the thousands of daily attacks on security systems in the United States that have set off a race to develop better cyberweapons.
Much of the new military command’s work is expected to be carried out by the National Security Agency, whose role in intercepting the domestic end of international calls and e-mail messages after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, under secret orders issued by the Bush administration, has already generated intense controversy.
There is simply no way, the officials say, to effectively conduct computer operations without entering networks inside the United States, where the military is prohibited from operating, or traveling electronic paths through countries that are not themselves American targets.
Quite a bit of Internet traffic goes through the United States, so, President Neophyte is learning that monitoring it without stepping on some toes is not as easy as it sounds.
Interestingly, most liberals will ignore this or excuse it. Good for the NY Times to put it on page A1 of Saturday’s edition. Bad that less people will read it since it is Saturday.
Anyone have the odds on the ACLU complaining? I’m betting they will not make a peep.
