Online Dissent Under Attack
By: The Invisible Hand

There is an organized attack underway. Many websites hosting views critical of the US Government and the policies of Israel have been subject to various forms of harassment. Some harassment has come in the form of forged spamming. Other harassment has come through electronic mail and posts on Internet forums. Many have suggested that these attacks are the work of lone individuals or pernicious non-governmental organizations. These suggestions may be true. However, I am aware of some information that may point the finger directly at the US Government. I am remaining anonymous for my protection. I have received death threats in response to my political writings. Other sanctions have been imposed upon me as well, but I leave the details out in order to make more difficult my identification. I am supplying you with inside information.

Immediately following the 9/11 attacks, various agencies of the US Government reached out to corporate America for "help." Various defense contractors were asked to make suggestions about what they could do to help in the "war on terror." However, in addition to the suggestions, various intelligence and defense organizations within the US Government approached specific corporations in possession of tools that could assist a black operation that had in mind. I do not know all of the details of this request. However, I will share what I do know.

Intelligence agencies and DISA (The Defense Information Services Agency) were interested in recruiting private corporations in an illegal effort to wage electronic warfare against US enemies. What was meant my "US enemies" was left unclear, at least at my level of awareness, but the corporation for which I worked turned down the request out of fear of future embarrassment should the operation be revealed.

I have been monitoring harassment on various Internet forums. One individual engaged in harassment had the following IP address: 216.177.41.70. A reverse lookup of this address at that time revealed that the IP address is owned by The Technology Advancement Group (TAG). Visiting TAG's site, you will see that TAG is an asset of the NSA. I speculate that TAG is one entity involved in online harassment against dissent. This individual had access to much private information that is not publicly available, dogged forum dissidents, and in time the harassment was followed by death threats, at least in one case. Much of the harassment had a pro-Israel tone.

There is a corporation in Austin, Texas called Cycorp. Cycorp is almost wholly dependent upon grants and contracts from the Department of Defense. Cycorp has a product called CycSecure. CycSecure, ostensibly, exists to provide network security. It employs a knowledge base of rules for detecting network vulnerabilities. Cycorp is a corporation specializing in Artificial Intelligence. CycSecure relies upon its product, Cyc, as a knowledge base and inference engine. The Department of Defense, DISA, and various intelligence agencies have approached Cycorp about using this tool in reverse. Specifically, using it to attack networks. Cycorp recently won a contract with DISA. TAG has a DISA contract as well. DISA wishes to use CycSecure. I suspect that this indicates that DISA is engaged in electronic warfare against the US Government's enemies.

I suspect that one source of these attacks is TAG and another source is DISA. However, this may not be the comprehensive set of Governmental entities attacking dissent. Several articles have come out that claim that Freedom Corps is training individuals and retirees in cyber warfare through Cyber Corp as part of its volunteer program.

One other interesting note about Cycorp. Cycorp has been proposing, to DISA, the creation of a computer center where hundreds of computers will run copies of Cyc. Each copy of Cyc will specializing in modeling a specific "terrorist." Given the wide definition in current use for the concept "terrorist," will it be long before individual dissidents and dissident organizations have their an artificial intelligence working 24/7 on collecting information about them and predicting their actions?