"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:v1Cwd.276204$R05.193754@attbi_s53...

But there are only a few dozen major computer networks providing the
backbone of the internet in the U.S. This is all speculation, of course,
but I would bet you ten bucks that there is an NSA task force whose main
job
is to maintain the capability of (a) monitoring (b) defending, and (c)
disabling these networks, as needed.

Could they take down the whole internet? No. But could they prevent 90%
of
Americans from seeing the internet? You bet -- at least for a time.
--


In the late 1980s the military split off from the Internet and onto what, I
believe, they call Mil-net. However, I wonder how much of Mil-net (routers,
backbone, etc.) is truly seperate from the Internet. Since there are always
bugs in software/hardware (especially if it has never been tested as is the
case in shutting down the Internet) I would expect that a shutdown of the
Internet will have totally unanticipated effects on the military networks.
Since so much of society is now interwoven into the Internet we probably
will be shooting ourselves in the foot if we shutdown the Internet in a time
of crisis.

Earl G