Cybersecurity turf battle pits Pentagon against U.S. “Civilian” intelligence and Obama

When American forces in Iraq wanted to lure members of Al Qaeda into a trap, they hacked into one of the group’s computers and altered information that drove them into American gun sights.

Last year Bush got a $17 billion cyber-security 5-year program through Congress to develop cyber-weapons. Now  Obama is locked in an internal debate over how best to address the use of computers and networks for intelligence, military and security needs.   Obama appears far less inclined to entrust such cyber weapons it to the Pentagon.

On queue the May 3^rd  Sunday New York Times published the first in an announced series of articles on cyber-security. as the Pentagon is planning to set up a new cyber command and the White House will release its report on cyber security.

The debate centers on how to structure U.S. government agencies and the military to deal with a domain dubbed cyberspace.

U.S. intelligence agencies want to dominate any structure to be better able to conduct intelligence-gathering while the military is concerned that an intelligence-centric approach will diminish the military’s emphasis on waging cyber warfare - attacking enemy computers and information networks in a conflict and protecting U.S. military and civilian systems.  That schism is critically important and underscore a long stading clash between civilian and military intelligence. The competing  views is that the “civilian” intelligence establishment still suffers from its World War II era ivy-league liberal elitism and the joke that “Military intelligence is an oxymoron.”

The third part of the debate involves who will be in charge of cyber security - the protection of U.S. computer networks, both civilian and government. Civil libertarians and ultra-conservatives both distrust government and military to hold the reins of civilian and government data banks.

There is agreement between the sides and in and out of government that neither  the FBI nor the Department of Homeland Security are equipped to lead cyber security. or properly outfitted for the mission.

The White House Cyber Security Report is being headed by Melissa Hathaway, a former National Security Agency official, and Obama appointee is expected to highlight the growing danger to America’s computer networks posed by foreign governments, criminals or other groups.

The Internet security company McAfee stated in their 2007 annual report that approximately 120 countries have been developing ways to use the Internet as a weapon and target financial markets, government computer systems and utilities.

China has been pointed too as a leading threat with a large and well developed hacker network and very active in the U. S. and elsewhere.

The Pentagon’s review of how to organize military efforts on electronic and digital warfighting has been underway for at least a year. Current efforts for the cyber command would place the unit within the U.S. Strategic Command, the current nuclear warfighting component of the military.

So far nothing is being said publicly about China’s reported secret nano-technology efforts to deploy billions of self-replicating microscopic robots that could literally prowl the Earth gobbling up targets in virtually any category anywhere. Such Sci-Fi weapons may not be quickly available but certainly other cyber weapons are including computer chips that could be turnmed on to turn off massive pieces of America’s infrastructure.

Whether or not such “weapons” were deployed last September 17^th when America’s banking system was attacked has been a forbidden topic. What is known that near panic spread like wildfire and wad was on the cusp of wrecking the U. S. banking system and economy rippng $5-7 trillion dollars out or a full third of the nation’s gross domestic product,