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

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

President Obama will be handed the power to shut down the Internet for at least four months without Congressional oversight if the Senate votes for the infamous Internet ‘kill switch’ bill, which was approved by a key Senate committee yesterday and now moves to the floor.

The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, which is being pushed hard by Senator Joe Lieberman, would hand absolute power to the federal government to close down networks, and block incoming Internet traffic from certain countries under a declared national emergency.

Despite the Center for Democracy and Technology and 23 other privacy and technology organizations sending letters to Lieberman and other backers of the bill expressing concerns that the legislation could be used to stifle free speech, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed in the bill in advance of a vote on the Senate floor.

In response to widespread criticism of the bill, language was added that would force the government to seek congressional approval to extend emergency measures beyond 120 days. Still, this would hand Obama the authority to shut down the Internet on a whim without Congressional oversight or approval for a period of no less than four months.

The Senators pushing the bill rejected the claim that the bill was a ‘kill switch’ for the Internet, not by denying that Obama would be given the authority to shut down the Internet as part of this legislation, but by arguing that he already had the power to do so.

They argued “That the President already had authority under the Communications Act to “cause the closing of any facility or station for wire communication” when there is a “state or threat of war”, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

Fears that the legislation is aimed at bringing the Internet under the regulatory power of the U.S. government in an offensive against free speech were heightened further on Sunday, when Lieberman revealed that the plan was to mimic China’s policies of policing the web with censorship and coercion.

“Right now China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in case of war and we need to have that here too,” Lieberman told CNN’s Candy Crowley.

While media and public attention is overwhelmingly focused on the BP oil spill, the establishment is quietly preparing the framework that will allow Obama, or indeed any President who follows him, to bring down a technological iron curtain that will give the government a foot in the door on seizing complete control over the Internet.

As we have illustrated, fears surrounding cybersecurity have been hyped to mask the real agenda behind the bill, which is to strangle the runaway growth of alternative and independent media outlets which are exposing government atrocities, cover-ups and cronyism like never before.

Indeed, China uses similar rhetoric about the need to maintain “security” and combating cyber warfare by regulating the web, when in reality their entire program is focused around silencing anyone who criticizes the state.

The real agenda behind government control of the Internet has always been to strangle and suffocate independent media outlets who are now competing with and even displacing establishment press organs, with websites like the Drudge Report now attracting more traffic than many large newspapers combined. As part of this war against independent media, the FTC recently proposing a “Drudge Tax” that would force independent media organizations to pay fees that would be used to fund mainstream newspapers.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/obama-can-shut-down-internet-for-4-months-under-new-emergency-powers.html

[IndigoSkies 168]

Not Obama, the president of USA. Obama will be in office for another 2.5 years only.

[Peikko 1,575]

Shut off the internet 'on a whim' What sensationalist language.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Maybe I'm just being naive but I thought the purpose of this was to basically sever connections as needed in case of a DDoS? Like on financial institutions or sectors of the government...

[Peikko 1,575]

I do not know, I would imagine it is a complicated issue to legislate effectively but this suggestion that the government is seeking to use these powers for nefarious propaganda issues after the fashion of the Chinese is really silly.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Good. It will cause mass hysteria for all the VJ nutjobs.

[evli1966 88]

Shut off the internet 'on a whim' What sensationalist language.

I agree whim was a poor choice of a word. How about Presidential Descretion?

So what consitutes or what is the policy to declare a National Emergency?

Hear is some reading material..btw I do not fear the abuse of this power but it could be.

Federal law provides a variety of powers for the President to use in response to crisis, exigency, or emergency circumstances threatening the nation. Moreover, they are not limited to military or war situations. Some of these authorities, deriving from the Constitution or statutory law, are continuously available to the President with little or no qualification. Others statutory delegations from Congress exist on a stand-by basis and remain dormant until the President formally declares a national emergency. These delegations or grants of power authorize the President to meet the problems of governing effectively in times of crisis. Under the powers delegated by such statutes, the President may seize property, organize and control the means of production, seize commodities, assign military forces abroad, institute martial law, seize and control all transportation and communication, regulate the operation of private enterprise, restrict travel, and, in a variety of ways, control the lives of United States citizens. Furthermore, Congress may modify, rescind, or render dormant such delegated emergency authority.

More important and very close to present times is this

Emergency powers are not solely derived from legal sources. The extent of their invocation and use is also contingent upon the personal conception which the incumbent of the Presidential office has of the Presidency and the premises upon which he interprets his legal powers. In the last analysis, the authority of a President is largely determined by the President himself.5

Followed by this which has happened before

Finally, apart from the Constitution, but resulting from its prescribed procedures, there are statutory grants of power for emergency conditions. The President is authorized by Congress to take some special or extraordinary action, ostensibly to meet the problems of governing effectively in times of exigency. Sometimes these laws are only of temporary duration. The Economic Stabilization Act of 1970, for example, allowed the President to impose certain wage and price controls for about three years before it expired automatically in 1974.6 The statute gave the President emergency authority to address a crisis in the nation's economy.

http://www.fas.org/s...tsec/98-505.pdf

I am not saying he would be the type of president to assert his authority over the voice of the people to censor anyone that would be outspoken against him or to push measures through with out the congressional approval or use the combined powers he would have to propogate his version of the truth.

Remeber he was on the scene of the Oil spill crisis from day one; he wasn't on vacation or golfing. I mean if he was my goodness he needs to break all the stres he is under how dare anyone try and prohibit his time off.

Edited June 28, 2010 by evli1966

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Yo, grab one.

[luckytxn 2,263]

With this Moron as president it wouldn't surprise me if he does kill it because he had a bad game of golf.