StratCom & the Domination of (Cyber) Space
Global Network
By Tim Rinne
State Coordinator, Nebraskans for Peace
It seems an unlikely place from which to try to dominate the world.
A remote Air Force base in rural Nebraska, twelve miles south of
Omaha.
There's even a cornfield across the road.
But it's where George Bush was rushed for safekeeping on 9/11. And
today, it's where the White House continues to wage its international
'War on Terror' and to pursue its goal of dominating space.
And, as it now turns out. cyber space.
Ten years ago, U.S. Strategic Command was a weapon in search of a
foe. The collapse of the Soviet Union had left the headquarters
for the U.S.'s nuclear arsenal without any real purpose. Things
had reached such a dismal state for the Pentagon's 'doomsday machine'
that the command's name was even popping up on some base-closing
lists.
But 9/11 changed that. Virtually from the moment President Bush
was shuttled to StratCom's underground command center, its role and
mission began to morph.
By the time the first anniversary of the attack rolled around, "U.S.
Space Command" had been moved under StratCom's control. Over the
next three years, the command picked up the missions for "Intelligence,
Surveillance and Reconnaissance," "Information Operations,"
"Full-Spectrum Global Strike" and "Missile Defense" (a misnomer if
there ever was one, given it's offensive capability). In 2005,
"Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction" was added to its mission
quiver. And finally, in 2007, it was given the hazily defined task
of "Cyberspace."
In the space of five years, the command had gone from just one
mission (its half-century-long responsibility of "Nuclear Deterrence")
to a total of eight.
It had gone from being nominally defensive to offensive: from being
a purported weapon of last resort that hopefully would 'never be
used'-to 'being used for everything.' If before, Strategic Command
had represented an end-of-the-world nightmare straight out of "Dr.
Strangelove," this 'New StratCom' (with now conventional as well
as nuclear war-fighting powers) was 'Dr. Strangelove on steroids.'
Never in the history of the world had there been a military instrument
of such power and global reach.
In testimony before Congress in February 2008, the current StratCom
Commander (four-star Air Force General and former astronaut Kevin
Chilton) went so far as to suggest that the name actually be changed
from "Strategic Command" to "Global Command" to better reflect the
scope and nature of the command's new duties.
If what these eight missions have in common, though, is their
'global' scope and nature, what knits them together is 'space.'
Fifteen years ago-during the Clinton Administration-the Pentagon
began systematically 'wiring' the U.S.'s entire military infrastructure
around the use of space technology. Today, space has become medium
through which the U.S. now wages war, whether we're talking
satellite-guided drones piloted from a trailer 7,000 miles away or
foot soldiers on the frontlines in Afghanistan.
And U.S. Strategic Command-as the mission agent for space-has become
the linchpin for virtually every military action the U.S. now
undertakes.
As the chair of the Colorado Springs-based "Space Foundation" bluntly
expressed it at the "Strategic Space and Defense 2006" conference
in Omaha, "StratCom is a laboratory for the future of warfare."
Right this instant, StratCom is flying those Predator and Reaper
drones over Afghanistan and Pakistan. It's in charge of the missile
'defense' installations proposed for Poland and the Czech Republic.
Through its "Component Command" of the National Security Agency
(NSA), StratCom is eavesdropping on our phone calls, monitoring our
emails and textings and tracking our financial activities. It's
shooting down errant satellites, lobbying for new generations of
nuclear weapons and actively planning the next war-whether against
so-called 'rogue states' like Iran and North Korea or a geo-political
rival like China. With a simple 'go-ahead' from the White House,
StratCom is now authorized to attack any place on the face of the
earth in one hour-using either conventional or nuclear weapons-on
the mere suspicion of a threat to the U.S. national interests.
Sixty minutes from now, StratCom could have started the next war,
and the first Congress would hear about it would be on CNN.
Unlikely as it sounds, the military command center for America's
global empire is buried out on the Nebraska prairie six stories
down. It's from here that the U.S. flexes its global muscle and
seeks to enforce its will. And it's why we say that StratCom is
the most dangerous place on the face of the earth.
But there's an Achilles heel in this imperial design, for which
StratCom acts as the hub.
Strategically, the U.S. has pursued a policy of space dominance
because space is the ultimate 'high ground.' Whoever controls space
can control the earth beneath.
As StratCom is quickly discovering, however-in today's world-to
'control space' you also have to be able to control 'cyberspace.'
If you can't protect your space assets and communication network
from cyber attack, you can't control space.
And to hear Commander Chilton tell it, at present, the U.S. can't.
The most powerful war machine ever assembled is vulnerable-not from
incoming ICBMs, some looming chemical-biological attack or a terrorist
insurgency-but from hackers. Nowadays, enemies and rivals don't
need to match the U.S.'s $740 billion annual military budget to be
a viable threat. They just need a good computer.
And the specter of an attack that could hack into military battlefield
systems or blind aerospace defense networks is now haunting StratCom
and Pentagon officials' sleep.
In an interview with reporters on May 8, 2009, Chilton disclosed
that the Pentagon's unclassified networks are probed thousands of
times a day, as hackers try to steal information on military programs
or planning. And the number of intrusions is on the rise. "I
worry," he said, "when I see important information is taken from
our networks."
The Pentagon itself disclosed in April that it had spent more than
$100 million in just the last six months responding to and repairing
damage from cyber attacks and other computer network problems.
But the military information 'grid' is just half of the problem.
The civilian information grid is equally at risk.
Former Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, warned
last year that "the ability to threaten the U.S. money supply is
the equivalent of today's nuclear weapon." A successful attack on
a single large U.S. bank, he said, would have an "order-of-magnitude
greater impact on the global economy"
than the attacks of 9/11. Earlier this spring, the National
Intelligence Director (NID) reported that it had evidence that the
electrical grid itself had been compromised. "Do I worry about
those grids, and about air traffic control systems, water supply
systems and so on? You bet I do," said Joel Brenner, who oversees
counter-intelligence operation for the NID office.
In response, StratCom has come out swinging.
Commander Chilton asserted in his interview that the U.S. would
consider using military force against an enemy who attacks and
disrupts the nation's critical networks. "A good defense also
depends on a good offense" he told a reporter with the AP. "'I
don't think you take anything off the table when you provide options'
to the defense secretary or president, in the wake of an attack,
whether the weapon is a missile or a computer program."
At this point though, StratCom's "Cyber Command" is more virtual
than real.
Although the NSA's headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, has been
proposed as the new command's new home (and its director, Air Force
General and StratCom Component Commander Keith Alexander, as the
new head of operations), Secretary of Defense Robert Gates hasn't
yet given his approval and no timeline has been set.
That will change. Soon.
With the Pentagon having put all its network eggs in the basket of
space, no expense will be spared to seek to gain dominance in
cyberspace (just as none was spared to dominate space).
Count on StratCom, accordingly, becoming bigger, more powerful and
even quicker on the trigger.
And expect the command center for the U.S. military empire to be
in Nebraska for a long time to come.
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Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011 (207) 443-9502 http://www.space4peace.org
glob...@mindspring.com http://space4peace.blogspot.com (Blog)
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