By Harold Gray
JustGetThere | Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig made a troubling prediction at this years Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Half Moon Bay, California. During his group panel segment titled "2018: Life on the Net", he stated “There’s going to be an i-9/11 event.” “An event that demonstrates the instability of the Internet, and that inspires the government to a response.”
He said he believes the event will not necessarily have to be from a terrorist group like Al Qaeda, but could be some form of digital disaster or major hacker attack that will prompt government to implement radical changes to shutdown freedoms on the internet similar to the Patriot Act.
Lessig, said he came to this conclusion after having dinner with former federal counter-terrorism and cyber-security adviser Richard Clarke. Clark said the Justice Department had written much of the Patriot Act years before the 9/11 terror attacks, and that there is equivalent legislation ready in case of an Internet catastrophe.
Since the Clinton administration, Clark has been vocal about the possibility of an "digital Pearl Harbor". After serving as the the top counterterrorism advisor on 9/11/01, he was demoted for focusing to much on cyber-terrorism at the expense of physical terrorism. Being treated like a cyber "Chicken Little", the media has labeled him a fearmonger for his statements and focus on a cyber threat on a huge scale.
I believe that Clark was on to something, but his timing was a little off. Now, there are several key mechanisms being finalized to create the solution for an internet attack. This could be a false-flag style manufactured event in order to put more government control on the internet. Once implemented, it will create the synthesis for complete control of the internet by government and corporations.
You would first need to establish a new internet backbone such as Internet2, which is on a newly created hub shielded from the attack. Next, you create an Internet ID card that will be required for internet access and gives you the ability to track users much easier. Finally you draft legislation such as 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’.
Combined, all of this seems like the skeleton structure for an "i-Patriot Act". Even if there isn't any pending "i-9/11", looking at what is happening behind the scenes, the planned destruction of what we know as the internet is already in the works.
