Page 2 of
2 The worm
that turned on the US By John
Feffer
Also, if we attack infrastructure,
civilians are at heightened risk. Knocking out
centrifuges is one thing. But cyber-warriors could
just as easily target the entire electricity grid.
"You could argue that out of the gate cyber-war is
going to be war crimes," says Marcus Ranum of
Tenable Network Security.
"If you're
talking taking out an electronic infrastructure
preparatory to a ground attack, you're talking
about shutting down their hospitals and shutting
down their businesses, shutting down their stock
exchange, shutting down their street lights, and
screwing people's lives up. These are all contrary
to the civilized laws of how wars are supposed to
be fought."
The prospect of such attacks
taking out US infrastructure has
prompted Richard Clarke,
in his new book Cyber War, to propose a ban
on cyber-attacks on civilian targets.
And,
finally, the most frightening possibility is the
worm that goes out of control. Stuxnet did some
damage outside Iran but it was relatively tame as
malware goes. But more serious stuff is now out
there - see, for example, Flame - and who knows
what's in the pipeline that could, like a
cyber-smallpox, cause a major e-pandemic?
We are creating genetically engineered
life forms. We are considering geo-engineering on
a massive scale to avert global warming. And now
we are inching closer to importing the MAD
(mutually assured destruction) logic of nuclear
weapons into cyber-space.
Remember: the
Internet was originally a creation of DARPA (with
a minor assist from Al Gore). Now DARPA, like
Darth Vader, is attempting to reclaim its progeny
and recruit it to the dark side. Where are the
light sabers to fend it off?
The more
things change Perhaps the greatest fallout
from the Stuxnet program is diplomatic. "This will
certainly play into [Iran's] fears about what else
is out there," a former intelligence official told
The Washington Post. "It certainly won't make them
eager to get back to the negotiating table."
And indeed, the latest round of
negotiations with Iran has gone nowhere. "The
chief reason for the failure of the talks was the
unwillingness of the West to even consider what
Iran has sought the most: scaling back existing
sanctions and imposing a freeze on pending
European Union (EU) and American sanctions against
Iran's financial and energy sectors," writes
Foreign Policy In Focus contributor Richard
Heydarian in "Dashed Hopes for Baghdad
Breakthrough".
"Unless the West is willing
to negotiate concessions with regard to its
punitive sanctions, the Iranians will continue to
push the frontiers of enrichment, thus further
raising the prospects for an armed confrontation."
The US Congress, meanwhile, is back to its
same old tricks on the Middle East. "Earlier this
month," writes FPIF senior analyst Stephen Zunes
in "Bipartisan Assault on Middle East Peace", "the
House of Representatives passed a dangerous piece
of legislation [HR 4133] that would undermine the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process, weaken Israeli
moderates and peace advocates, undercut
international law, further militarize the Middle
East, and make Israel ever more dependent on the
United States."
In Egypt, meanwhile, the
first round of the presidential elections produced
two frontrunners: a candidate from the Muslim
Brotherhood and a candidate of the old regime.
"The upcoming run-off is a contest between the
remnants of the Mubarak regime and the Islamist
Muslim Brotherhood, continuing a struggle now
waged for more than 60 years," write FPIF
contributors Bonnie Bricker and Adil Shamoo in
"Egypt's Path Winds toward Democracy".
"The old regime is associated with a vast
security apparatus and its dictatorial, corrupt,
and abusive tactics, along with its concentration
of wealth among a small number of well-connected
and influential families. On the other side, the
Muslim Brotherhood promotes social justice, using
Islamic principles to guide governance. Under the
Muslim Brotherhood, however, women and minority
rights could be curtailed, and democratic
principles may not be fully applied."
For
a lively account of how Egypt got to where it is
today, check out FPIF Pick of the week, The
Journey to Tahrir, which FPIF contributor Melissa
Moskowitz calls a "deep and meaningful portrait of
the revolution that shocked the world".
Secrets and lies Reporter David
Axe recently found himself in a middle of a
controversy when he reported the comments of Army
Brigadier General Neil Tolley that US Special
Forces were on the ground in North Korea gathering
intelligence.
"Almost immediately, the
Pentagon repudiated the story," writes FPIF
contributor Tim Shorrock in Tall Tale about
Special Forces in North Korea? "A spokesman for US
Forces in Korea told Voice of America that Axe's
quotes were 'made up'. A Pentagon flack later
added that the general's comments 'were distorted
[and] misreported.' Axe, who wrote a good-humored
account of his experience on his blog, War is
Boring, stuck to his story and asked the Pentagon
for an apology."
It turns out that the
general was speaking hypothetically. But the
United States has certainly gone to great lengths
to acquire human intelligence inside North Korea.
"The United States has also relied on the
information gathered by its ally, South Korea,
from the network of spies that it ran in North
Korea," I write in Spying on the North, a column
for Hankyoreh newspaper.
"These
bukpagongjakwon formed an elite army
Intelligence Unit tasked with
intelligence-gathering, infiltration, and even
assassination. North Korea's incursions in South
Korea are well-known: the attack on the Blue House
in 1968, the submarine that ran aground in 1996,
the numerous spies that have infiltrated South
Korean society. But South Korea's missions have
been no less extensive and audacious. One infamous
group of ex-cons, trained on Shilmido to
assassinate Kim Il-sung in the wake of the 1968
Blue House incursion, revolted against their
guard-trainers and made their way to Seoul to
petition the president. None survived, and the
incident was suppressed."
On the topic of
secrecy, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is
continuing to meet in closed-door sessions. "Nine
countries are currently negotiating the TPP: the
United States, Australia, New Zealand, Chile,
Peru, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore,"
writes FPIF contributor Arnie Saiki in Japan,
Nuclear Energy and the TPP.
"Despite large
protests at home against accession into the TPP
negotiations, Japan, Canada and Mexico are also
expected to join. Although the negotiations are
being held in secret, leaked documents confirm
that contrary to democratic practice, the
documents connected to the negotiations will
remain secret for four years after being signed or
dismissed."
Deepening democracy Many women leaders have come to the fore in
Latin America: Laura Chinchilla in Costa Rica,
Dilma Rousseff in Brazil, Cristina Fernandez in
Argentina. "Currently, however, the presence of
women in politics is more symbolic than anything
else," writes FPIF guest columnist Erika
Guevara-Rosas in Rocky Road to Gender Equality in
Latin America.
"These new women leaders
are not transforming their societies in
fundamental ways. Indeed, the feminization of
politics in the region has not yet translated into
the incorporation of feminist and women's rights
agendas, or even into improved conditions for the
majority of women."
Rebecca McKinnon's new
book Consent of the Networked documents the
efforts of activists to use the Internet to get
around government censorship. "New products like
Tor, which enables users to upload and download
without being traced, are becoming popular in
places like China, Iran and Egypt," writes FPIF
contributor Julia Heath in her review.
"Diaspora, Crabgrass, FreedomBox and
StatusNet are decentralized social media platforms
that provide users local control and anonymity,
which makes them better suited for activists."
John Feffer is co-director of
Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for
Policy Studies.
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