Saturday, January 29, 2011

Return of the Internet 'Kill Switch'

Obama Criticizes Internet Kill Switch In Egypt While His Own Administration Tries To Ram It Through In America

Prison Planet.com
Saturday, January 29, 2011


While his own administration tries to ram through legislation that would give Obama the power to shut down parts of the Internet under a “national emergency,” Obama himself decries Egyptian authorities shutting down the Internet for their own “national emergency”.

RELATED: Egypt’s Internet Kill Switch: Coming To America

RELATED: New Bill Gives Obama ‘Kill Switch‘ To Shut Down The Internet

RELATED: Obama Can Shut Down Internet For 4 Months Under New Emergency Powers

RELATED: Lieberman’s Model For America: Purging The Internet of Dissent

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Congress Enslaves: See The Internet Kill-Switch

Lew Rockwell

I know that Congress and those who influence Congress are out for loot, power, their own personal goals, and perquisites, but at my end, which is the receiving end, the outcomes flowing out of Congress enslave. From my perspective, understanding their motivations means very little: Congress to me is simply a powerfully destructive institution that ties America up in knots. It enslaves. What else than enslavement would you expect an institution with such massive power to produce? Certainly not a beneficent regard for the persons it controls or for the public interest. Enslavement is its most important product (at my end). A recent case in point is the internet kill-switch legislation re-introduced by Senators Collins and Lieberman. See, for example, this discussion and comments. Just as President Truman once seized the steel mills, future Presidents might seize the internet. They’d have the congressional authorization and the gradually-built up precedents to make this pass judicial muster. They could close down free speech. For government officials, this is a rational augmentation of their power, but from where I sit, and I hope you and many others sit, it’s outrageous totalitarian control. More enslavement.

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Zombie internet 'kill switch' bill back to haunt the Senate

Washington Examiner

Reminding free speech advocates and libertarians that bad bills are like zombies in DC, the “internet kill switch” will be revived in the Senate. Still sponsored by Maine Sen. Collins and Sen. Lieberman, the Sen. Snowe supported bill has been revised and will presented once more...

...What should be most concerning is that this “kill switch” is being proposed and is backed by two Republican Senators. No doubt freedom and liberty activists country-wide will be melting the phones when this hits the Senate floor again.

[Full Article]

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Internet 'kill switch' bill will return

CNet News

A controversial bill handing President Obama power over privately owned computer systems during a "national cyberemergency," and prohibiting any review by the court system, will return this year...

[Full Article]

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Egypt Flips Internet Kill Switch. Will the U.S.?

PC Mag

What can an undemocratic government to do to control its people? If tear gas and rubber bullets don't work, take away their Twitter and Facebook access, of course. And if the people still don't fall into line, cut off their Internet and mobile phone access entirely. That's exactly what the Egyptian government did today when confronted with citizenry taking to the streets and demanding regime change. The surprising thing isn't that a corrupt, authoritarian regime would launch this kind of state-sponsored denial off service attack on its own citizens. Nor that it is willing to jeopardize its economy by cutting its businesses off from world markets. No, the thing that surprises me is that the U.S. government has plans for its own Internet Kill Switch...

[Full Article]

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Could Egypt Happen Here? Obama's Internet "Kill Switch"

Fast Company

Egypt pulled the plug on the Internet. A Senate bill would give Obama the power to do the same--or something like it.

First it was Facebook. Then it was Twitter. Now, in the face of massive protests in the streets of Cairo and throughout the country, Egypt has pulled the plug on the entire Internet for its citizens. As this chart from Arbor networks shows, Internet traffic mounted steadily in Egypt steadily over several days, then suddenly and precipitously dropped to nil at 5:20 PM EST yesterday.

The U.S. has condemned the move--in a tweet, no less.

Such a flagrant violation of communications--possible only in the less free corners of the world, right? But since last summer, when a Senate bill was introduced by Joe Lieberman, the U.S. has been considering an Internet "kill switch" of its own. Full text of the bill, "Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset," can be found here. "For all of its 'user-friendly' allure, the Internet can also be a dangerous place with electronic pipelines that run directly into everything from our personal bank accounts to key infrastructure to government and industrial secrets," Lieberman said in June.

As recently as three days ago, CNET reported on a "renewed push" to implement the bill. Plenty of people criticized the first version of the bill, but the latest version has raised even more red flags. The revision bans judicial review over executive decrees. "The country we're seeking to protect is a country that respects the right of any individual to have their day in court," Steve DelBianco of the NetChoice coalition told CNET. "Yet this bill would deny that day in court to the owner of infrastructure."...

[Full Article]

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Internet Kill Switch: Should the United States Emulate Egypt?

AOL News

Turn it off, quick!

As was witnessed Thursday in Egypt, the embattled government acted to shut down the Internet as demonstrations fueled by social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter threatened to overwhelm the ruling party.

While pulling the plug on the World Wide Web might seem like a measure relegated to the governments of Iran, Egypt and China, it turns out that just such a proposal is being considered in the United States Congress. Championed by Sen. Joe Lieberman, the bill would give President Barack Obama (and those who succeed him) control to snuff out the Internet in one fell swoop during a so-called "cyber-emergency," AOL News reported in July...

[Full Article]

[Webmaster - Time is running short. We may not have the Internet much longer as we know it in it's current form. We may soon no longer have access to free, unfiltered, uncensored news and information. Take the time now to download all the PDF's, MP3's, and videos you can before the free Internet gets shut down. Start preparing for the shutdown now so that you will still be able to educate and train yourself and others when this time comes. Familiarize yourself with alternative forms of communications such as amateur ("ham") radio and shortwave radio. VVVVVVV]

[Webmaster - Here are some free downloads to get you started. There will be many more to come. VVVVVVVV]