[Peace-discuss] We are the enemy

[C. G. Estabrook]

[The important part of the account below is not how the CIA chooses to
spend its (unaccounted) tax money, but rather whom the USG sees as its
enemy: an "alliance of anti-American organizations that includes
anti-globalization hackers." Thus "American" is equated with corporate
globalization, and opponents of the latter are defined as opponents of the
former. They mean it when they say, "Either you are with us, or you are
with the terrorists." --CGE]

	CIA Overseeing 3-Day War Game on Internet
	May 25, 6:42 PM (ET)
	By TED BRIDIS

WASHINGTON - The CIA is conducting a war game this week to simulate an
unprecedented, Sept. 11-like electronic assault against the United States.
The three-day exercise, known as "Silent Horizon," is meant to test the
ability of government and industry to respond to escalating Internet
disruptions over many months, according to participants.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because the CIA asked them not to
disclose details of the sensitive exercise taking place in
Charlottesville, Va., about two hours southwest of Washington.

The simulated attacks were carried out five years in the future by a
fictional new alliance of anti-American organizations that included
anti-globalization hackers. The most serious damage was expected to be
inflicted in the closing hours of the war game Thursday.

The national security simulation was significant because its premise - a
devastating cyberattack that affects government and parts of the economy
on the scale of the 2001 suicide hijackings - contradicts assurances by
U.S. counterterrorism experts that such effects from a cyberattack are
highly unlikely.

"You hear less and less about the digital Pearl Harbor," said Dennis
McGrath, who has helped run three similar exercises for the Institute for
Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College. "What people call
cyberterrorism, it's just not at the top of the list."

The CIA's little-known Information Operations Center, which evaluates
threats to U.S. computer systems from foreign governments, criminal
organizations and hackers, was running the war game. About 75 people,
mostly from the CIA, along with other current and former U.S. officials,
gathered in conference rooms and pretended to react to signs of mock
computer attacks.

The government remains most concerned about terrorists using explosions,
radiation and biological threats. FBI Director Robert Mueller warned
earlier this year that terrorists increasingly are recruiting computer
scientists but said most hackers "do not have the resources or motivation
to attack the U.S. critical information infrastructures."

The government's most recent intelligence assessment of future threats
through the year 2020 said cyberattacks are expected but terrorists "will
continue to primarily employ conventional weapons." Authorities have
expressed concerns about terrorists combining physical attacks such as
bombings with hacker attacks to disrupt rescue efforts, known as hybrid or
"swarming" attacks.

"One of the things the intelligence community was accused of was a lack of
imagination," said Dorothy Denning of the Naval Postgraduate School, an
expert on Internet threats who was invited by the CIA to participate but
declined. "You want to think about not just what you think may affect you
but about scenarios that might seem unlikely."

An earlier cyberterrorism exercise called "Livewire" for the Homeland
Security Department and other federal agencies concluded there were
serious questions over government's role during a cyberattack depending on
who was identified as the culprit - terrorists, a foreign government or
bored teenagers.

It also questioned whether the U.S. government would be able to detect the
early stages of such an attack without significant help from private
technology companies.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.