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The National Security State, C4, GPS and the Internet
by David Sadler
www.david-sadler.org
Original story found here
Published 2004.12.17
Last revision 2004.12.18
"WASHINGTON - President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology, the White House said Wednesday."U.S. war strategy/capability is married to C4 (Command, Control, Communications, and Computer Systems). (1) This system includes a network of global positioning satellites (GPS) and a World Wide Web (WWW) network.
-- White House wants plans for GPS shutdown, AP, Dec. 15, 2004 --
"I know that these actions will be controversial in this age when we still think the Internet is a free and open society with no control or accountability, but ultimately the Wild West must give way to governance and control ... [Access to networks like the World Wide Web might need to be limited to those who can show they take security seriously]."
-- George J. Tenet, former CIA Director "Tenet calls for Internet security," UPI, 2004.12.02 --
"The big issue here is how much we will feel forced to close down our society now."
-- Stansfield Turner, former CIA Director, commenting on post 9-11 America in "The Nation Reels," by Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor, September 12, 2001 edition --
"We're in a new world where we have to rebalance freedom and security. We're not going to have all the openness and freedom we have had."
-- Richard A. Gephardt (D-MO), House Democratic Minority Leader, commenting on post 9-11 America just days after the attack --
The U.S. military will not deprive itself of this advantage. It can not, and still function as the high-tech, precision, standoff force it has become. So when the White House announced that President George W. Bush had "ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis," the order was not talking about standing down the U.S. military by depriving it of the critical C4 component. Instead, President Bush was telegraphing the government's intention to shut down civilian access to the GPS system at a time of its choosing. (2)
Image from GPS Explained
GPS is based on a constellation of 24 solar-powered orbital satellites about 12,000 miles above the Earth. A GPS receiver on the ground seeks tracking signals from at least three satellites, then interpolates the data to establish latitude and longitude. If a device can pick up four or more signals, it can also determine a user's altitude.
- Text: Department of Defense, IGEB, Smithsonian Institution, Garmin
Image of GPS satellite by Lockheed Martin
When President Bush says he will turn the GPS system off, he means for everyone except government (military, intelligence, law enforcement, Homeland Security, and instruments of centralized power).
Depriving civilians of the GPS fits perfectly well within the context of recent comments made by former CIA Director, George Tenet. Tenet has been selected, evidently, to deliver this very controversial message to the nation as a trial balloon to assess resistance to the idea of limiting access to the World Wide Web to those, “who can show they take security seriously.” (6)
Ordinary citizens will not be placed in the category of taking security seriously. Those employed by a government or corporate entity tied to the enterprise of national security will, however, qualify.
(Note to our progeny: there was little if any protest to Tenet's comments.)
The first thing U.S. forces now do when initiating a war is to take out the C4 infrastructure. This means, among other things, the communication and navigation infrastructure. It is of some concern, then that within the past two weeks, a former CIA director has suggested turning off general access to the World Wide Web, under normal conditions, and now the President has announced plans to turn off civilian access to the GPS system, during an 'national emergency.'
Tenet's World Wide Web announcement followed by the GPS announcement is a coordinated strategy to condition the American people psychologically (psyops) to accept the preservation of government C4 while depriving American citizens, and others, of the same capabilities. All in the name of "security," of course.
If the U.S. were attacked by a foreign power, and if that attack deprived U.S. citizens of access to the World Wide Web and use of the U.S. GPS system, that attack would be considered a strategic strike against the U.S. economy and the civilian navigation, command, control, communications and computer systems infrastructure.
Such a strike would have an immediate and devastating impact upon the U.S. economy, our safety and upon our national psychology. Tens of millions of Americans would immediately feel isolated and vulnerable. A national paranoia would ensue as the ability to communicate was replaced by massive uncertainty. The ability to communicate, share information and make attempts to independently identify outrageous rumors from outrageous facts would be denied.
It should be a sobering realization that these negative impacts upon the civilian population of the U.S. caused by the loss of these civilian C4 systems occur REGARDLESS of who is responsible for taking these systems down. Any government or group that does so will be rightfully regarded as the enemy of the people of the United States.
This equation becomes especially terrifying to contemplate if we consider that the U.S. government might attempt to do this to its own people, just as the President has said and just as a former CIA director is recommending.
It is ludicrous to believe that real terrorists or a foreign military power would not be able to find and target a U.S. nuclear power plant or a major city if the U.S. government simply denied civilian access to the Internet and the GPS system.
There can be only one reason, apart from outright ignorance and incompetence (and our leaders are not that ignorant and incompetent), that our government would deprive American citizens of the ability to communicate and navigate. The intent would be clear. The intent would be to interrupt the ability of citizens to communicate, interact and organize and, thereby, destroy the ability of the people of the U.S. to monitor and counter U.S. government behavior and actions deemed harmful to the American population.
The Garmin Geko 101 - a consumer GPS
Consumer GPS devices such as this would no longer work.
Unfortunately for the European Union and its planned Galileo GPS equivalent, and the Russian GLONASS GPS equivalent, the overall U.S. strategic military plan (SMP) calls for total domination of space and space-based assets. This means that both the Galileo and GLONASS systems would be "turned off" as well. Bush said as much in his announcement.
"The president also instructed the Defense Department to develop plans to disable ... an enemy's access to ... similar systems operated by others." (2)These SMP plans have been in the works and have been announced for years. I wrote about this last year in an article titled, "Oil Wars Part 2: Occupation" (3)
"[Owning space] will provide war-fighting commanders the ability to rapidly deny, delay, deceive, disrupt, destroy, exploit and neutralize targets in hours/minutes rather than weeks/days."I am not opposed to the U.S. ability to control the military situation globally. I favor the U.S. capability of being able to defend our nation from any foe or combination of foes. This means having the military capability to wage a global defense. This capability of providing for the common defense is a U.S. constitutional mandate, and one of the few specified federal responsibilities.
- USAF Strategic Military Plan excerpt --
Control of space is essential to this task. So neither am I opposed to acquiring the capability to deprive other nations, during a time of defense, of their access to space and their use of space-based assets.
We have a problem in the U.S. at this point in time, however. A group of highly aggressive people bent upon world political, economic and military domination is in control of our government. That puts them in control of our global military capabilities, and this is quite worrisome.
Their stated intentions are offensive and have little regard for the sovereign rights of other peoples and their cultures around the world. (4, 5) Indeed, they have little regard for the constitutional rights of their own citizens at home.
Is the United States of America still a government of the people, by the people and for the people? If so, the people had better make certain that if their ability to communicate, navigate and stay informed is prevented by their government, that the denial of service is temporary and in the best interests of the people -- not those in control of their government.
Knowledge is power. Use it while you are empowered to act.
David Sadler
Www.david-sadler.org
2004.12.17
NOTES:
1) Joint Staff Directorate for C4 systems
http://www.dtic.mil/jcs/core/j6.html
Command, Control, Communications and Computers
Head Quarters Marine Corps
http://hqinet001.hqmc.usmc.mil/c4/
2) White House wants plans for GPS shutdown
Global Positioning System
would be disabled during crisis
to keep enemies from using it
By Ted Bridis
Technology Writer
The Associated Press
Dec. 15, 2004
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6720387/
... and ...
Bush prepares for possible shutdown of GPS network in national crisis
By Ted Bridis,
The Associated Press
Dec 15 2004
http://securityfocus.com/news/10140
President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology, the White House said Wednesday.3) Oil Wars: Part 2: Occupation
Any shutdown of the network inside the United States would come under only the most remarkable circumstances, said a Bush administration official who spoke to a small group of reporters at the White House on condition of anonymity.
... The president also instructed the Defense Department to develop plans to disable, in certain areas, an enemy's access to the U.S. navigational satellites and to similar systems operated by others. The European Union is developing a $4.8 billion program, called Galileo.
... The White House said ... the president could decide to disable parts of the network for national security purposes.
The directives to the Defense Department and the Homeland Security Department were part of a space policy that Bush signed this month. It designates the GPS network as a critical infrastructure for the U.S. government. Part of the new policy is classified; other parts were disclosed Wednesday.
By David Sadler
2003.07.21
http://www.david-sadler.org/pages/obx/oilWarsPart2.htm
4) The War Against the Terror Masters
By Michael Ledeen
American Enterprise Institute
"Creative destruction is our middle name, both within our own society and abroad. We tear down the old order every day, from business to science, literature, art, architecture, and cinema to politics and the law. Our enemies have always hated this whirlwind of energy and creativity, which menaces their traditions (whatever they may be) and shames them for their inability to keep pace. Seeing America undo traditional societies, they fear us, for they do not wish to be undone. They cannot feel secure so long as we are there, for our very existence—our existence, not our politics—threatens their legitimacy. They must attack us in order to survive, just as we must destroy them to advance our historic mission."5)
Air Force 2025 Final Report // U.S. Air Force
• Air Force 2025 Final Report Home Page // USAF
• Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025 [PDF] [HTML] // USAF
• Modern Battles Will Be Won By Controlling The Weather // Popular Mechanics
• Controlling The Weather // Weather Channel
Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars // author unknown. One of the most remarkable documents I have read. As a software developer, I would like to have been a part of this software project. As a person devoted to liberty and privacy, I'm conflicted by that desire.
USAF Strategic Military Plan [PDF] [HTML] // U.S. Space Command
Info Operations: A New War-Fighting Capability // USAF white paper
psyops: current and historical // psy warrior
Rebuilding America's Defences // PNAC promoting use of biological warfare as a 'politically useful tool.'
Prospects for Physical-Based Modulation of Global Change [PDF] // Edward Teller et.al. August 15, 1997, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Space Preservation Act of 2001 // U.S. House Bill specifying 'exotic' weapons...
Thomas P.M. Barnett, U.S. Naval War College
• The Pentagon's New Map // "Why we are going to war, and why we will keep going to war."
• Global Transaction Strategy // "Operation Iraqi Freedom could be a first step toward a larger goal: true globalization."
6) Tenet calls for Internet security
By Shaun Waterman
UPI
2004.12.02
http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20041201-114750-6381r
7) China Takes Aim at U.S. GPS System
newsmax.com
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
China has deployed special vans equipped with sophisticated electronics designed to jam U.S. GPS (global positioning satellite) satellite navigation signals. The fear inside the Pentagon is that China will deploy large numbers of these vans to jam GPS signals over large sections of its territory.
Source here
Revisions:
2004.12.18:
-A- added note 6).
-B- Various grammatical corrections.
-C- Added quotes by Stansfield Turner, former CIA Director, and Richard A. Gephardt (D-MO), former U.S. House Minority Leader under George W. Bush.
-D- Clarified and expanded the concept behind the following original paragraph.
If the U.S. general population was considered the enemy, or if the U.S. were attacked by a foreign power, depriving U.S. citizens of the World Wide Web and their GPS system would be a tactical and precision strike against the civilian command, control, communications and computer systems infrastructure.