While we wait for Wikileaks.org to come back online (unfortunately, reports of its rebirth are greatly exaggerated), the U.S. Air Force has partly filled the gap by leaking all sorts of interesting headlines in a mock-front-page full page ad in today's NY Times. Here's a sample:
This Could be a Headline About Cyber Attack Causing a Blackout
No, the text does not say that Wikileaks was blacked out by a DOS cyber attack, prior to a fire and then a court order shutting it down. Nor does it refer to the December 28 report of a lost Air Force laptop containing Social Security numbers and other information on more than 10,000 military personnel. Oh no, they are talking about serious stuff: a cyber attack on the government of Estonia in 2007. According to the pseudo-article, "today, America's military and government computers will be threatened by three million malicious code attacks. [Where did they get this number?] You don't see headlines about these attacks because none have caused the chaos they intended. Thankfully, someone saw them coming." Not, I guess, the guy who missed the hacker who grabbed 33,000 records from and Air Force computer on August 22, 2005. Not to mention all the other DOD data breaches and media losses and whatnot. Can't blame the sky guys for what the boat guys lose, can we?
New About a Rogue Leader Making Threats Could Go Here
No, this is not about George W. Bush threatening to bomb Iran or Israel threatening to knock of the next Hezbollah leader by firing rockets into Lebanon, or anything like that. It's about "rebel leaders" who "spew anti-American rhetoric". Right, we need the USAF to deal with the guys in the jungles of Columbia or the or the Sudan desert. "Little known fact" - I love this one - "no modern war has ever been won without air dominance." So, the Vietcong had "air dominance"? Interesting.
Or a Breaking Story on the Latest Terrorist Threat
Well, yes, they got this one right. Only eight pages later (A13) it's right there in b&w: "Utah Home Is Searched for Evidence in Ricin Case". This is about the guy who was found with vials of the deadly poison Ricin in a Las Vegas hotel. How close is that to the Nellis Air Force Base (part of the Air Force's huge, extremely high-security Nevada Test and Training Range? Oh, about 9.7 miles, according to Google Maps! Hey, I'd be worried too!
Well, thanks, USAF, for making me feel more secure with this ad. Just one question: does the timing of this have anything to do with your recently publicized contract for (at least) $40 billion for refueling tankers, which drew congressional ire because you awarded it partly to the European parent of Airbus? Are you trying to win our hearts and minds over for this expenditure of our tax dollars, which reportedly could rise to as much as $100 billion? Are you by any chance trying to wipe out those careless thoughts of schools, health care, affordable housing, and - er, computers? - and other programs which could be funded nationally for the price of your refueling tankers, by raising the spectre of cyber attacks, terrorism and "rogue leaders"? I hope not. Because scaring people in order to get them to support your political goals is generally considered unethical.
If "terrorism" is necessarily pursued by violent means, perhaps we need a just slightly milder term for this sort of nonsense, but I don't have one at hand at the moment. Any suggestions?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment