Now We'll Find the WMD

The president's choice for new defense secretary believes in "cyberterrorism." From this 2004 AP article. (Emphasis added.)

Cyberterrorism could be the most devastating weapon of mass destruction yet and could cripple the U.S. economy, former CIA Director Robert Gates said at a terrorism conference Saturday.

We interrupt this block quote to say: please!, let that be hyperbole by the AP, and not an accurate reflection of what's in our next defense secretary's head. Continuing ...

Gates, who became Texas A&M University's president in 2002 about a decade after he left the CIA, cited as an example the "love bug" virus that overwhelmed computer systems around the world in 2000.

"When a teenage hacker in the Philippines overnight can wreak $10 billion in damage to the U.S. economy by implanting a virus, imagine what a sophisticated, well-funded effort to attack the computer base of our economy could accomplish," said Gates, addressing the two-day conference at Rice University.

Wealthy people often think terrorists are after their money, just as I think they're after my parking spot. So far, though, real terrorists seem mostly bent on killing and terrorizing people, while cyber attacks have yet to claim a single life.

Gates' views would be quaint in John Hamre/Curt Weldon circa 1990s kinda way, if they weren't coming from our next defense secretary. If Gates really believes computer viruses are weapons of mass destruction -- more devastating than nuclear and biological weapons -- the list of countries we'll have to invade is long indeed.

(Hat tip: Simple Nomad)