Jay Honeck wrote:

I didn't say they could shut down the internet. I said they would shut
down
your ACCESS to the internet. Surely you aren't so gullible as to believe
that the government couldn't shut down AOL, Mediacom, Qwest, and the dozen
or so other ISPs that provide 95% of Americans with internet access in
time of national emergency?

After dealing with numerous backbone firms: I seriously doubt that Qwest
could easily/quickly shut down Qwest. THe same is true for any of the
other backbones. AOL...maybe. It's a different kind of service, and one
could probably "attack" it via the mechanism it uses for
authentication/authorization.

- Andrew