Cyber terrorism

The Internet became the world's newest battleground as online vandalism between the US and China threatened to intensify into a full-blown cyber-war. "The Sixth Network War of National Defence," officially began May 1 at 1200 GMT as Chinese hackers (people who illegally enter computer networks to destroy or deface them) began celebrating May Day with attacks on US websites, according to experts who monitor hacker activity. The Age correctly warned in a news report on May 1 that the cyber attacks would increase throughout the week. Relations between the US and China stretched to the limit during April in the wake of the US spy plane incident, which resulted in US hackers defacing at least 350 Chinese websites, and pro-Chinese hackers targeting 37 American sites.

A weeklong campaign of retribution by the Chinese was aimed at the White House, FBI, NASA, Congress in addition to news sites such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, UPI and MSNBC. On Tuesday, May 1, the White House was hit with e-mail "bombs" which were intended to crash the mail server. Jerry Freese, intelligence director for the technology security firm Vigilinx, said organizers of the attacks "have called for Web defacements but not to damage systems, with one exception - that's US government sites ... but there's no guarantee that will not escalate."  The "war" didn't appear to be state-sponsored, but was considered state-tolerated, with the majority of the incidents originating in Beijing. Hackers from many other countries also joined the fray by aligning themselves with one country or the other.

US security agents downplayed the severity of the "May Day war," as a Yahoo/Reuters news story on May 1 dubbed the situation. "They deface the Web sites, and usually that's the extent of what they do,'' said a technology director at a leading Chinese Web portal who routinely fends off hacker attacks. Another network security company official said he thought the hacking was a childish stunt carried out with very basic skills. The Chinese, however, claimed differently on May 3 according to an Inside China Today report. Chinese hacker Jia En Zhu said, "We are already inside the U.S. government's computers, and we can hurt them if we choose to. What we are doing is not a war though, this is just the way hackers have fun." 

All "fun" aside, the potential for severe economic disaster is a real possibility. China has threatened that the war of the future would be unconventional. On August 8, 1999, the Washington Post alerted readers that China’s military may be planning a strategy of "unrestricted war." In a book of the same title, two Chinese colonels describe this alternative warfare method by stating, "Unrestricted War is a war that surpasses all boundaries and restrictions.... It takes nonmilitary forms and military forms and creates a war on many fronts. It is the war of the future." 

Blanchard Economic Unit issued a report in July called The Chinese Connection that states this new kind of war "advocates terrorism, biochemical warfare, environmental damage and computer viruses as a means to pitch the West into political and economic crisis." The report went on to say that “the blueprints for the 'dirty war' say the Chinese army should infiltrate and sabotage key pillars of Western society, including banks and the public sector...The increasingly global world economy is pinpointed as a weak point which could be exploited.” (Italics and bolding original) Stratfor intelligence on November 8, 2000 defines this threat more specifically. Such an attack, states the report, would "create sewage backups, poison water, shut off electrical grids, disrupt air traffic control and truck transport or even destroy gasoline refineries."

As horrifying as these potential cyber attacks may be, however, they pale in comparison to terrorism by electromagnetic pulse.

EMP terrorism

One alarming weapon in this unconventional arsenal is electromagnetic pulse technology (EMP). A May 7 Insight article, provides the horrifying potential for EMP devices to be used as terrorist weapons to cripple the US for years. EMP consists of powerful radio waves generated by nuclear weapons which are designed to disable electronics as quickly as a lightening bolt. Far beyond the scope of the devastation predicted by Y2K, an EMP attack could instantly end life as we know it in the United States, by knocking out all communications, computers, electricity, medical equipment, and even modern automobiles. A nuclear EMP attack detonated hundreds of miles above the US without the missile ever striking our territory "could make the United States go dark, silent and cold for months," according to the article.

“A major EMP attack would lead us back a century in our technology,” Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) told Insight. “And the technology of 100 years ago couldn’t support the population we have today. Just imagine our country with no power and no communications.” Even our military is in danger. The Clinton administration, according to Insight, stopped the military from hardening its electronics equipment because China and Russia had become "strategic partners" rather than enemies. Consequently, only pre-Clinton military electronics will be relatively immune to this kind of attack. The US would be vulnerable to outside attack.

At least ten countries are currently working on EMP weaponry, including Russia and China. China would likely avoid confronting the US militarily with conventional weapons, but has written frequently of their intent to wage “asymmetrical warfare” against the US to exploit its vulnerabilities, and this nation is totally unprepared, again thanks in large part to the Clinton administration. 

The current cyber-shenanigans are only a minor sample of the chaos that could eventually erupt, but there is no public indication that a full-scale, government- sponsored electronic war is imminent. Nevertheless, the possibility remains that the worst is yet to come. Russia and China are going to be signing their Economic and Friendship Treaty in July, which is nothing more than the old Military Cooperation Treaty. The treaty commits each nation to cooperate in exactly this kind of effort if the US does not voluntarily back down from their perceived cavalier hegemonic efforts to dominate the world by controlling the emerging world government. 

Although, as individuals we cannot do anything to defuse that threat, perhaps it is part of God's grand scheme of things to bring the US down so that His plan for the last days can be fulfilled. Numerous Bible commentators have noted that there are no direct prophecies that concern the United States during the seven year tribulation. Although several oblique prophecies could pertain to the US, the links are nebulous at best. If the US is not involved, the question becomes, why not? Is it because the US is no longer a global power during the last days? The Bible is strangely silent.