Chertoff condemns the Web
Homeland Defense secretary Michael Chertoff lambasted the Web yesterday while giving a speech at the International Association of the Chiefs of Police.
He said that the Web could become a Terrorist training camp because the technology enables the individual to learn new skills without traveling to a camp. He also said that spies and satellites were going to be less useful in tracking these new online terrorists.
Well, duh.
Where has Chernoff been? The potential to use the web for nefarious purposes has always been there. All technology is agnostic; if it can be used for good, then it can be used for...less than good.
Certainly the government needs to develop abilities to monitor what's going on on the Net, but it won't help much. The nature of the Net unfortunately, makes it all too easy to facilitate groups of people talking and planning things in secret. That's actually one of its attractive qualities, IMHO.
Posted on October 17, 2006
