Is the cyber war a "sleazy new way to take taxpayer money?"

From - Arnie Arneson's hot column in InsiderIowa.com

"The “war du jour” – cyber space - has the government and the military industrial complex hell bent on demanding and, of course, spending billions on monitoring critical infrastructure from the electricity grid to nuclear power plants to subway systems to air traffic control via their internet connectivity let alone their computer control systems. While the defense department is focused on recreating themselves in the frame of cyber safety to ensure that defense dollars keep rolling in (note the new Naval Cyber Forces Command or the Army’s ingenious Network Warfare Battalion), the military defense contractors are way ahead of them. Major General William Lord, the provisional head of AFCyber (Air Force Cyber) was late to the game when he told representatives from the defense industry in May that “ the cyber arena is filled with new business opportunities.”

What, Lord should have known, is that the private boys were plugged into the “necessity” for cyber monitoring years ago because it was their well placed military contractors that planted those seeds and developed the concept. If you want to follow just one actor in this insidious kabuki theater, then check out Glenn Greenwald’s piece in Salon.com entitled: Mike McConnell, the WashPost and the Dangers of Sleazy Corporatism.

Glenn follows the “work” of Mike McConnell, a former high ranking official who suffers from the “classic never ending revolving door syndrome”. McConnell went from head of the National Security Agency under the first Pres. Bush and Bill Clinton to Booz Allen (“one of the nation’s largest private intelligence contractors) and then in “classic syndrome style” became the Director of National Intelligence under son of Bush and then went back to Booz Allen landing a job as Exec. VPresident.

As Greenwald brilliantly points out, McConnell’s job, both in the Executive Branch and the Executive Suite was the same, ensuring that the public role of government intelligence and surveillance was outsourced to corporations who operate in the private sphere, guaranteeing less public scrutiny, less accountability and billions in profits."