Richard Clarke on Cyberterrorism and Iraq

An anonymous reader writes "Richard Clarke, former counter terrorism advisor to the US National Security Council, has revealed that before invading Iraq, the U.S. government used the Internet to communicate directly with Iraqi soldiers by sending them personalised messages saying, "We're about to invade. We're going to overwhelm you and if you resist us we're going to kill you. But we don't want to do that. So really the best thing for you to do when we invade is to go home." He said the soldiers got the message and most of them went home. Clarke, who many will remember for publicly criticizing the Bush administration, also emphasized the importance of cybersecurity. "Just because it doesn't create a lot of body bags, doesn't mean it's not important. It's vitally important for our economies," Clarke said."

Comments

I can't put much faith in Richard Clarke

[winkydink]

If you read his book, the guy sounds a lot like Forest Gump. Not in the idiot way, but that, if you believe how he tells it, he was involved in every national security crisis in the past 30 years and if it wasn't for him, by golly, we'd all be doomed. He almost single-handedly saves the day every time!

Re:No, it was like

[replicant108]

I mean, here we have a country filled with and ruled by fascists and Islamic fundamentalists, where women are looked down upon

You appear to be somewhat confused. Iraq under Saddam was certainly not an 'Islamic fundamentalist' state, and women were well treated.

The US may be claiming that democracy is its goal, but few in the outside world believe that claim.

People see the occupiers as the 'bad guys' largely because they committed the supreme crime against international law - an unprovoked war of aggression.

Are the Iraqi resistance worse that the occupiers of Fallujah?

http://www.cnduk.org/pages/UNletter.htm

Too bad Clark is disrepuptable

[Timmy D Programmer]

Otherwise it might have been an interesting story. But that boy makes up too much to know when he's telling the truth and when he's Yarnspinning.

Re:No, it was like

[Dr. Spork]

Look, just because you have a nice gun doesn't mean you can troll here (more specifically, repeat essentially verbatum the Pentagon's tired propaganda and present is as "eyewitness testimony"). I'm sure you served with some good people, but please, give me an estimate of how many cents of every dollar we spend in Iraq goes to building schools and sanitation and powerplants, and other humanitarian projects. Seeing that Baghdad has more blackouts now than it did under Saddam, my guess is, it's not even one cent. So don't whine when TV doesn't cover it. It's essentially a sideshow. They do stories about where the other 99c go.

And now tell me this: did we fix more than we broke? Are we going to before we leave? I wasn't in Falluja but I saw some pretty scary pictures and heard some testimony to the effect that evey building has some sort of a hole in it. Those holes weren't there in 2003. Don't tell me we're all humanitarian and stuff unless you know that we are going to fix those holes with US money.

Your predictable lines make me think the next one will be something to the effect that "sure they now breathe uranium dust and don't have roofs on their houses or hinges on their doors... but they have freedom. At least don't say that while Iraq is under marshall law ("state of emergency") which will last into January according to their new Saddam named Allawi.