Law
Professor: Counter Terrorism Czar Told Me There Is Going To Be
An i-9/11 And An i-Patriot Act
By Steve Watson
06/08/08
Infowars"
Tuesday, August 5, 2008 -- Amazing revelations have emerged
concerning already existing government plans to overhaul the way
the internet functions in order to apply much greater
restrictions and control over the web.
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Lessig also revealed there
is already in existence a cyber equivalent of the
Patriot Act waiting for a cyber terrorism event in order
to implement its provisions. |
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Lawrence Lessig, a respected Law
Professor from Stanford University told an audience at this
years Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Half Moon Bay,
California, that “There’s going to be an i-9/11 event” which
will act as a catalyst for a radical reworking of the law
pertaining to the internet.
Lessig also
revealed that he had learned, during a dinner with former
government Counter Terrorism Czar
Richard Clarke, that there is already in existence
a cyber equivalent of the Patriot Act, an “i-Patriot Act” if you
will, and that the Justice Department is waiting for a cyber
terrorism event in order to implement its provisions.
During a group
panel segment titled “2018: Life on the Net”, Lessig stated:
There’s going
to be an i-9/11 event. Which doesn’t necessarily mean an Al
Qaeda attack, it means an event where the instability or the
insecurity of the internet becomes manifest during a
malicious event which then inspires the government into a
response. You’ve got to remember that after 9/11 the
government drew up the Patriot Act within 20 days and it was
passed.
The Patriot Act
is huge and I remember someone asking a Justice Department
official how did they write such a large statute so quickly,
and of course the answer was that it has been sitting in the
drawers of the Justice Department for the last 20 years
waiting for the event where they would pull it out.
Of course, the
Patriot Act is filled with all sorts of insanity about
changing the way civil rights are protected, or not
protected in this instance. So I was having dinner with
Richard Clarke and I asked him if there is an equivalent, is
there an i-Patriot Act just sitting waiting for some
substantial event as an excuse to radically change the way
the internet works. He said “of course there is”.
Watch Lessig reveal
the details at 4.30 into the following video:
Lessig is the
founder of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and
Society. He is founding board member of Creative Commons
and is a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and
of the Software Freedom Law Center. He is best known as a
proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark
and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology
applications.
These are clearly
not the ravings of some paranoid cyber geek.
The Patriot Act, as well as its
lesser known follow up the Domestic Security Enhancement Act
2003, also known as USA Patriot Act II, have been universally
decried by civil libertarians and Constitutional scholars from
across the political spectrum. They have stripped back basic
rights and handed what have been described by even the most
moderate critics as “dictatorial control” over to the president
and the federal government.
Many believed that
the legislation was a response to the attacks of 9/11, but the
reality was that the Patriot Act was prepared way in advance of
9/11 and it sat dormant, awaiting an event to justify its
implementation.
In the days after
the attacks it was passed in the House by a majority of 357 to
66. It passed the Senate by 98 to 1. Congressman Ron Paul
(R-Tex) told the Washington Times that no member of Congress was
even allowed to read the legislation.
Now we discover
that exactly the same freedom restricting legislation has
already been prepared for the cyber world.
An i-9/11, as
described by Lawrence Lessig, would provide the perfect pretext
to implement such restrictions in one swift motion, as well as
provide the justification for relegating and eliminating
specific content and information on the web.
Such an event could come in the
form of a major viral attack, the hacking of a major city’s
security or transport systems, or some other vital systems, or a
combination of all of these things. Considering the amount of
unanswered questions regarding 9/11 and all the indications that
it was a covert false flag operation, it isn’t hard to imagine
such an event being played out in the cyber world.
However, regardless
of any i-9/11 or i-Patriot Act, there is already a coordinated
effort to stem the reach and influence of the internet.
We have
tirelessly warned of this general movement to
restrict, censor, control and eventually completely shut down
the internet as we know it, thereby killing the last real
vestige of free speech in the world today and eliminating the
greatest communication and information tool ever conceived.
Our governments
have reams of legislation penned to put clamps on the web as we
know it. Legislation such as the
PRO-IP Act of 2007: H.R. 4279, that would create an
IP czar at the Department of Justice and the
Intellectual Property Enforcement Act of 2007: S. 522,
which would create an entire ‘Intellectual Property Enforcement
Network’. These are just two examples.
In addition, we
have already seen how the major corporate websites and social
networks
are decentralizing and coming together to implement
overarching identification, verification and access systems that
have been described by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as “the
beginning of a movement and the beginning of an industry.”
Some of these major
tech companies have already joined efforts in projects such as
the
Information Card Foundation, which has proposed the
creation of a system of internet ID cards that will be required
for internet access. Of course, such a system would give those
involved the ability to track and control user activity much
more effectively. This is just one example.
In addition, as we
reported yesterday, major transportation hubs like
St. Pancras International, as well as libraries, big businesses,
hospitals and other public outlets that offer wi-fi Internet,
are blacklisting alternative news websites and making them
completely inaccessible to their users.
These precedents
are merely the first indication of what is planned for the
Internet over the next 5-10 years, with the traditional web
becoming little more than a vast spy database that catalogues
people’s every activity and bombards them with commercials,
while those who comply with centralized control and regulation
of content will be free to enjoy the new super-fast
Internet 2.
We must speak out
about this rampant move to implement strict control mechanisms
on the web NOW before it is too late, before the spine of the
free internet is broken and its body essentially becomes
paralyzed beyond repair.
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