It was inevitable that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would have been defeated in his extradition battle with Sweden. To have embarrassed the United States in the way he did will never be forgiven or forgotten. There is the view, debatable though it is, that his cables served as the catalyst for the unrest currently on the go in the Middle East.
The important role the Internet plays in the lifes of individuals, business’ and governments has become an everyday reality. The intimidation of the Internet was manifested in Egypt when the government sought to muzzle freedom of expression by going ‘dark’. Internet penetration, some would say intrusion, in our daily lifes makes it difficult to imagine a day without Internet connectivity.
It is therefore no surprise to read about information circulating on the World Wide Web that the US government is already pursuing measures to be able to shutdown the Internet as a response if civil unrest were to occur. “Experts say it’s unlikely that what’s happened in Egypt could happen in the United States because the U.S. has numerous Internet providers and ways of connecting to the Internet. Coordinating a simultaneous shutdown would be a massive undertaking.” According to this website a bill was proposed last summer by “the controversial submitted by Sen. Joe Lieberman – S.3480 “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010”. If the cybersecurity bill were to be passed it would give wide-ranging power to the President of the USA to shut down parts of the Internet for up to 120 days….
USA occupies the position as a world leader and there is a reasonable expectation that others would follow.
There is another issue which is unravelling in the USA law courts which maybe of interest to the BU family. We will dub it the Chemical Carol Carol Anne Bond Case. Have a listen below, here is the text of the audio.
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