As we contemplate launching either a cruise missile attack or air attack against the Syrian regime in retaliation for their alleged chemical attack that killed hundreds of people in three Damascus suburbs last week, the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem warned that any U.S. or European military intervention would also be met with force through “all available means.” See http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/08/27/syria-war-clouds-gather.html Those means could include asymmetric warfare.
It was almost a dozen years ago today that a bunch of guys with box cutters shut down our financial system and attacked our nation’s military headquarters, the Pentagon, in one version of asymmetric warfare. Well, in another form of asymmetric warfare, retaliation for our likely strike against the Syrian regime may have already begun. At this moment, the New York Times website is down and a group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army, an online group that supports Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, has claimed responsibility for that attack on Twitter. See http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/new-york-times-hacked-syrian-electronic-army-suspected-8C11016739 In fact at this moment a “whois” search of the Times’ website identifies the Admin Name as
“Admin Name……….. SEA SEA” and the Admin Address as Admin Address…….. SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC
So when our weapons fall in Syria, the blowback may come to every one of us who uses the Internet or whose business uses the Internet. We are no longer protected from the unforeseen consequences of our foreign adventures by the oceans that separate our continent from the rest of the world.
