Sunday, January 03, 2010

Congress Holding Up Cyber Command

According to this story by Ellen Nakashima in The Washington Post today, the new cyber command that is expected to be located at Fort Meade “has been slowed by congressional questions about its mission and possible privacy concerns.”

“Although officials stress that the cyber command, as it is known, is an effort to consolidate existing offensive and defensive capabilities under one roof and involves no new authorities or broadening of mission, its potential for powerful new offensive capabilities -- some as yet unimagined -- have raised questions on Capitol Hill about its role, according to national security experts familiar with the concerns.”

This past summer, Secretary of Defense Dr. Robert M. Gates had expressed a desire to have the new command fully operation by October of this year.

Confirmation hearings for the President Obama’s nominee to lead the new command, Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, have yet to be scheduled.

“Alexander, who would become a four-star general, must be confirmed in that position before the command can launch at "initial operating capability."

Hopefully Congress can get comfortable with their privacy concerns before there is another major attack on the defense department computer networks.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Based on what we have seen out of Congress in the past year, who would be surprised if we lost all hope that this Congress will ever do anything constructive toward protecting us from "people who would cause manmade calamities" (terrorists) or ensuring our freedom and privacy.
HH

Tom said...

Every Congressman who doesn't have a Cyber Command in his/her district has questions. Duh. So what's new.