Idiosyntactix Strategic Arts and Sciences Alliance The Brand Name of the Media Revolution

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"The political process is moving onto the Internet."

This observation begins a fascinating report prepared last year by Charles Swett, an assistant at the U.S. Defense Department's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict. In the report, which is titled "Strategic Assessment: The Internet," Swett reviews the rise of the internet as a conduit for communication between political and military groups around the world, and discusses the implications for defense strategy. He notes that the Internet "is playing an increasingly significant role in international security, a role that is potentially important to DoD."

The study broaches some touchy topics. "What is most troubling about Swett's paper," David Corn argued recently in The Nation magazine, "is it's preoccupation with left-of-center travelers in cyberspace and domestic political activities." Swett does cite many examples of leftist activism currently being facilitated by the internet, and he presents a detailed discussion (with an appendix of examples) of how progressives organize via computer. Swett's analysis also includes discussion of right-wing activism on the Net, from militia groups to white supremacists.

The evaluation gives considerable attention to how the internet is shaping political debates in the United States. Swett refers to an e-mail urging acts of civil disobedience to protest the Republican Party's Contract With America as "somewhat startling."

The U.S. military needs to understand the role of computer communication in international conflicts, Swett argues, and exploit the potential of the Net in its own operations: "Used creatively as an integral asset, the Internet can facilitate many DoD operations and activities." He recommends several military applications, including intelligence gathering, dissemination of propaganda messages, and internet initiatives designed "to help achieve unconventional warfare objectives."

Swett notes another potential offensive role for the Internet in foreign interventions: "Information could be transmitted over the Internet to sympathetic groups operating in areas of concern that allows them to conduct operations themselves that we might otherwise have to send our own special forces to accomplish." He also makes note of the Internet activism of rebel groups such as Mexico's Zapatistas.

This assessment offers an inside look at some of the emerging strategies of Internet warfare. If Swett's paper is any indication of the Pentagon's concerns, the military's monitoring and use of the Internet will likely increase substantially, and soon.

For more information on the issues addressed in this document, see David Corn, "Pentagon Trolls the Net," The Nation, March 4, 1996, pp. 21-23.

"Strategic Assessment: The Internet," was made available to the public recently by a Washington research group, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). FAS runs a Project on Government Secrecy, and its web site (http://www.fas.org/sgp/) offers an accurate, up-to-date review of developments in the battle for greater official openness.

(c) Copyright 1996 ParaScope, Inc.

... up next: Deutch's Statement CIA Director John Deutch's Statements on Cyberwar

CIA & Cyberwar -- DoD's Evaluation -- Deutch's Statement -- Sources

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