Pentagon Prepares For Economic Warfare

Politico:

The Pentagon sponsored a first-of-its-kind war game last month focused not on bullets and bombs -- but on how hostile nations might seek to cripple the U.S. economy, a scenario made all the more real by the global financial crisis.

The two-day event near Ft. Meade, Maryland, had all the earmarks of a regular war game. Participants sat along a V-shaped set of desks beneath an enormous wall of video monitors displaying economic data, according to the accounts of three participants.

Read the whole story: Politico

Comments

[bikerdude]

Good old Ike Eisenhower described the military industrial complex very well. Look at the total mess they have made of things since the Korean War...We can't even for a moment, consider letting them have any control over the economy.
They have a job to do and lets see to it that they get that right.

[CAP6]

I understand your reservations concerning the Pentagon and control of our economy. On the other hand, asymmetrical warfare is still warfare. Cyber-warfare is still warfare and must be waged by entities prepared to defend our interests. Until and unless we develop a national entity to do that, we may be relegated to depending on the Pentagon, sad to say. Keep in mind, China’s military history has been defined by asymmetric warfare, they are artful masters of the game and have been practicing it for centuries longer than the US has been a national entity. Cyber-warfare is just one of the more recent tactics in the asymmetric arena.

[BlackSwan13]

Sounds pretty hawkish to me.

[veritasor]

The military-industrial complex are trying to stay relevant, joining with the banking complex. Both are ruinous as we so painfully learned. Just add the financial industry to the wise words:

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. "

Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

[bikerdude]

Thank you for that one. I remembered some of the comments Ike made about the military industrial complex, and they weren't pleasant.

[JoeBlough]

"an alert and knowledgeable citizenry " - and there is the downfall. They don't discuss this on American Idol or Dancing with the Stars. Therefore, the citizens will be bamboozled once again.

[zitlight73]

The best way to totally destroy the United States' economy is to let Geithner and his bankster allies keep running it. The best way to save it is to let the military take out the Federal Reserve Board.

[mouselion]

Eight years too late on that exercise.

[jeanrenoir]

Average Americans are way too deep in American Idol, ignorance, and denial to realize the economic tsunami from China and India which will soon enough drown this country, no matter how much we "war-game" our competition with these huge countries, both of which will be much richer and more powerful than little America in 2100. People talk about all the poor people in both countries. But so what? First, that just guarantees cheap labor against which Americans can't compete, and a fire in the belly that only poverty can provide, which the fat and lazy American workers haven't had since a hundred years ago. Second, the genuine middle classes of China and India are already bigger than our entire population, so their much larger pools of students priming themselves for the most technically advanced work on earth in the 21stC will make even our IT industry a relative backwater within a few decades, as thoroughly defeated by Asia as our manufacturing is now. Thirty years from now, Microsoft and Intel may well look like GM and Chrysler today, simply unable to hack it anymore in a world whose Asian standards our population is simply unequipped to meet. Finally, recall that if the best American universities didn't have informal quotas against Asian-Americans, as they used to have quotas against Jews, there would be hardly any non-Asian-American students able to gain admission to these places. Non Asian-Americans, in effect, need "affirmative action." We're toast.

[HamletsMill]

A little late now don't cha think to start sorting this out? With AIG and the Nine Protected Banks plus Paulson and Gethner who needs foreign enemies?

Gawd, I wish I was writing for SNL the last ten years. We are led by total idiots and jack asses for ten straight years. People from the military just like our ruling Wall Street and business elite could not run a drive thru at McDonalds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWP_rEWG2xk

[TXfemmom]

Excuse me, but why in the world would the United States have a FOREIGN bank, such as UBS, which was involved up to their neck in ILLEGALLY assisting people in transferring their funds to their bank to AVOID paying taxes, be involved in such a meeting? Have they lost their minds?

[StupidIsAsStupidDoes]

"Have they lost their minds?"

No. Thats called business as usual. You're not really surprised are you?

[bluemike]

Disgusting !!!

[StupidIsAsStupidDoes]

Thats hilarious. The military's very existence depends on loans from China and Russia and yet they're talking about some economic warfare nonsense? We've truly reached stratospheric levels of absurdity.

[BlackSwan13]

I agree. I expect this stupidity from the military but it is amazing that people are taking it seriously.

[CAP6]

The US Government, including the Pentagon, as well as grid operators, have been aware of Chinese and Russian attempts to infiltrate our electrical grids as well as our communication infrastructure for a number of years. The Chinese do appear to be more aggressive than the Russians in this effort. The US concerns were reportedly discussed with then Chinese President Hu Jintao during the APEC summit in Sydney in 2007. Russian hackers staged a cyber attack on Estonia in February 2007 and brought down much of that country's major banking, government websites, and telephone communications. Sami Saydjari, who has been working on cyber defense systems for the Pentagon since the 1980s, told Congress in testimony on April 25, 2007 that a mass cyber attack could leave 70 per cent of the US without electrical power for six months. This is serious business. The Chinese effort is reportedly part of an aggressive push by Beijing to achieve “electronic dominance” over each of its global rivals by 2050, particularly the US, Britain, Russia and South Korea. China’s ambitions extend to crippling an enemy’s financial, military and communications capabilities early in a conflict, according to military documents and generals’ speeches that are being analyzed by US intelligence officials. Describing what is in effect a new arms race, a Pentagon assessment states that China’s military regards offensive computer operations as “critical to seize the initiative” in the first stage of a war.

[BlackSwan13]

Let me see if I understand. Russia, with the help of Jeffrey Sachs, becomes capitalistic. China lends us money and is owed huge sums by the United States. China "hoards" money because they know what the US and IMF did to Russia, even surprising Jeffrey Sachs. And now they are intent on undermining our grids? Are we still in the cold war? George Lakoff is correct about the Progressives and NeoCons ="Why you Cna't Understand 21st Century American Politics with an 18th Century Brain."

[CAP6]

Look, as far as my comments on this thread with respect to potential cyber attacks on the US electrical and electronic banking infrastructures, I am simply reporting what has been widely published in the media for a number of years from a number of different sources. If you want to view my comments as progressives versus neocons, that's your prerogative. However, I am proudly a non-aligned Independent, intent on assessing the positions of the left and right on any issue, unbounded by partisan rhetoric, with no agenda other than to see this country and its citizens stay safe and to prosper.
With respect to Mr. Sachs let me just say he and his ilk, along with much of our political elite, on both sides of the aisle, have felt the sting of my criticism on multiple occasions. You may feel free to label me a neocon, lib, wingnut, rethug, lefty, righty, or one of the many disparaging labels partisans seemingly enjoy attaching to anyone with an opposing viewpoint, but if you wish to label me a pragmatic centrist, you would be spot on.

[BlackSwan13]

Does anyone know of some economic reporting about what the situation is for the poor around the world with what the Banks have done? I know that Amy Goodman is reporting from the poor in America, but are there reporters helping us to understand the global situation?

[veritasor]

The bankers have committed the cardinal sin to all and must be taken out.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/27/global-crisis-impact-poor

[elcojonu]

I wonder if they had a scenario in which countries start demanding they be paid in Euros rather than Dollars for their goods and services ?

[Coyote2]

U.S. concerns about the potential for cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure extended to the American electrical power grid on Wednesday and experts pointed the finger anew at Chinese hackers, among others.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters the power grid is vulnerable to potentially disabling computer attacks, while declining to comment on reports that an intrusion had taken place.

"The vulnerability is something that the Department of Homeland Security and the energy sector have known about for years," she said. "We acknowledge that ... in this world, in an increasingly cyber world, these are increasing risks."

Napolitano spoke after the Wall Street Journal reported that cyberspies had penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090408/tc_nm/us_cyberattack_usa

[CAP6]

Yes, I did see that report but actually, concerns were raised about our infrastructure's vulnerability to cyber attack as early as 1995. In 1998, President Clinton issued a directive that set ambitious infrastruc­ture-prote­ction goals. “I intend that the United States will take all necessary measures to swiftly eliminate any significant vulnerability to both physical and cyber attacks on our critical infrastructures, including especially our cyber-systems,” Clinton wrote. Policy directives such as these over the last 10 years have not transformed into practical reality. The Bush administration largely ignored the potential vulnerabilities until 2007 when the Pentagon began a real effort to counter reportedly aggressive Chinese infiltration efforts. That effort has been expanded and continues even today.

[RRG64]

"As part of the assessment, the Fed, the SEC, the major investment banks, mortgage banks and hedge funds will be asked to hand over confidential documents to the IMF team. They will be required to answer the questions they are asked during interviews. Their databases will be subjected to so-called stress tests -- worst-case scenarios designed to simulate the broader effects of failures of other major financial institutions or a continuing decline of the dollar.

Under its bylaws, the IMF is charged with the supervision of the international monetary system. Roughly two-thirds of IMF members -- but never the United States -- have already endured this painful procedure.

For seven years, US President George W. Bush refused to allow the IMF to conduct its assessment. Even now, he has only given the IMF board his consent under one important condition. The review can begin in Bush's last year in office, but it may not be completed until he has left the White House. This is bad news for the Fed chairman.

When the final report on the risks of the US financial system is released in 2010 -- and it is likely to cause a stir internationally -- only one of the people in positions of responsiblity today will still be in office: Ben Bernanke."

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/06/end-of-exceptionalism-imf-to-examine-us.html

I am curious as to why THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION would not let this be completed until they left the White House?

[Rule Of Law]

Because they didn't want the onus of the Third World-ification of America to fall on Any Republican shoulders. And any time the IMF gets involved, you can kiss your independence goodbye, and say hello to Colonial status.

[RRG64]

So in other words, the Republicans sabotaged the economy through de-regulation and lack of oversight, willfully prevented the IMF audit and raided the coffers before they left office and sabotaged the next President, regardless of who it was going to be.

[streak of rin tin tin]

Lars Larson is m0r0n.

[streak of rin tin tin]

*a*

[bikerdude]

Didn't you mean maroon?