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U.S. Makes Plans for GPS Shutdown
sailforsingapore writes "Apparently, President Bush is drawing up plans to disable sections of the GPS network in the event of a terrorist attack. The rationale seems to be that it would prevent said terrorists from using the GPS system to direct some sort of attack. The plan would shut down access not only to the GPS satellite network, but projects like the EU's Galileo. Ironically, this comes alongside the President's plan to strengthen the GPS network against deliberate jamming."
Hmm so if you can't jam the system what do you do?
Yes! You make a fake terrorist attack, send a mailbomb or something to the white house, with some luck they will take that as a terrorist attack and shut down the system.
In the event of a terroist attack, cause large scale panic by shutting down a primary means of navigation.
What's next? Cutting off electricity so that the terrorists can't use it against people?
A valid question . As far as I can see the only enemy the USa has is OBL and his gang, and there arent anywhere near as many of them as the media likes to imagine.
The iraqi insurgents are fighting for the US to get the fck out of their country. In fact OBl was fighting to get the US out of saudi. His man beef is with the saudis, not the USA.
As for saddam being an enemy... yeah right, he was gonna throw stones at the US? because he sure didnt have WMDs.
All thsi talk about mysterious 'enemies' is SO similar to the 'red menace' or the 'alien invaders' crap of the sixties. It seems the US govt loves its citizens to stay scared.
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Yes, you do, because that's way more important to the US than the impact of a terrorist attack. You need to have friends if you want a healthy economy, and a healthy economy is of much bigger importance on the average person's life than preventing terrorism.
Unfortunately, people have a really skewed perception of risk.
On 9/11 , about 2800 people (exact number is still unclear) suffered a terrible death in the terrorist attacks. Yes it was horrible. No, we don't want it to happen again.
However, the current measures taken by the US government are going way too far, it's not worth reducing freedom for in any way whatsoever, the risk of being killed in a terrorist attack is extremely small. Yet, somehow, the perception of this risk is inflated enormously.
To put things in perspective, last year there were 41,600 traffic deaths in the U.S. (15,700 alcohol related).
It seems clear to me that unsafe driving and DUI is a MUCH bigger risk to the US people than a 9/11 style terrorist attack.
The amount of money and effort spent on "the war on terrorism" is way out of proportion in relation to the risk involved. At the same time, I hear nothing about a "war on unsafe driving" or a "war on DUI", on the contrary, the government even seems to be promoting the use of SUV's which are proven to be more unsafe then 'regular' cars.
The american people should wake up, kick the idiot out of the Big Chair(tm), and put someone there who has his/her priorities straight.
uh...now who is eating what the media tells us. "he hates us because he hates our freedom" is one of the most retarded things I've ever heard in my life.
how about..."he hates us because we backed him and trained him and his fellow rebels until he was no longer needed to fight the russkies. then we abandoned him and left him to fend for himself."
we have a pretty long history of sticking our nose in complex regional issues, then bailing out after we've got what we needed. read a history book sometime.
IMHO this is a military system that we civillians have been lucky enough to use around the world, and always remember that.
Don't you mean a military funded system that we CITIZENS have been given access to because we paid for it?
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Where do you think the military got the money for GPS? Hint: It's as inevitable as death. Yep, you guessed it. Taxes. And you can bet a private enterprise global satellite navigational system would have been twice as good for a tenth of the money. So I wouldn't count myself too lucky.
I use a GPS when I fly and increasingly when I drive. But I don't bow down to the military industrial complex in gratitude. I paid for my share of the GPS system.
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