If you detangle the weasel words, this is basically "emergency executive powers to do whatever we want to people we don't like, as long as we can tie it back to the internet". Combined with the existing surveillance dragnet, that's horrifying.
The cruel creep of tyranny. "Cyber-terrorism" is the new bogeyman, or the new "terrorism" but instead of using a real catastrophe like 9/11, the incident they're going to use to justify this is a "hack" on Sony pictures with probably the weakest links to North Korea that could be?
There was no proof issued that North Korea were behind that attack. All the evidence that came out of it made it look as though they almost certainly were not behind it. So instead we're just going to repeat it as fact until it's accepted as true?
This is horrifying but it's just another turd thrown onto the pile of horrifying things the powers in the US are doing now.
Without even touching the USA's utterly toxic foreign policy:
- NSA mass surveillance that has eroded everyone's privacy on any communication device they may own, stomping on their own people's 4th Amendment rights in doing so.
- NSA lying barefaced to congress and facing no punishment
- CIA overthrowing or attempting to overthrow governments in sovereign countries who aren't explicitly under the thumb of the USA, throwing these countries into disarray
- CIA torturing untried suspects in the most brutal ways that we've seen in modern times.
- CIA arming and training "rebels" abroad who've went on to cause absolute atrocities across the middle east.
- Creating a militarized police force in the USA despite violent crimes decreasing year on year. Hell, the NYPD wanted portable, mounted machine guns to deal with protestors!
- Supporting a police policy of no-knock raids which have lead to the deaths of an unfortunate number of totally innocent people, over nothing.
- Rallied against whistleblowers while at the same time claiming to be working toward transparency and support for whistleblowers.
The list just goes on and on.
The important emails leaked by the Guardians of Peace (their 'Christmas Gift') show that CEO Lynton, a boardmember of the RAND Corporation, had been discussing with the State Department and RAND Corporation specialist on nuclear deterrence, NK and regime change since June the same year how the film should end and what was most likely to cause instability in NK when CSOs introduced them to the NK population.
That is to say The Interview was a 'diplomacy product' of the US government and the NK hacking of SONY was a retaliation for that - and in fact the cyber team retaliating against SONY specifically punishes media outlets for running adversarial messages about the Kim regime.
So the story here isn't that NK probably wasn't behind the attack - they probably were. The reason people are so skeptical is that they don't understand why NK would attack SONY, a movie seeming to be too petty a reason. It's easier to see when you read the leaked emails and ascertain that the US government was involved in crafting the film for its purposes.
There's a lot of toxic stuff in US foreign policy - and not just US but every nation. We believe in myths about our countries because they perform these actions in covert ways, and propel a lofty image of themselves in public interactions and through the media. The US does some very ugly, dirty stuff. But I take exception with some of the things in your list - specifically the characterization that the CIA's torture is or was somehow the 'most' brutal we've seen in modern times. That's some hyperbole and I think you know it. It may seems like picking on details but there is absolutely more heinous forms of torture (dissolving people in acid, using power tools to remove limbs and digits, etc) practiced at large in other nations.
But really the thing I want to leave here is that there is a tragedy at the commons. Torture and rendition, surveillance and propaganda, coups and proxy wars, theft and sabotage - all of these things are alive and well. The US is one of many nations involved in these activities as the planet races to establish water and food security before our planet exhales.
That's a lot of power, but it isn't unlimited power.
You must be new to this brave new world. In 2012 the US seized $26000 from a Danish businessman while being transfered to a German bank within an electronic banking system that the US is not a part of (SWIFT): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWIFT#US_control_over_transacti...
Under the CFAA, accessing a web page as an unauthorized person would probably be justification enough.
There is no check or balance as you imply. The Treasury and Executive are jury, judge, and executioner.
Intent speaks to motivation, which speaks to the internal workings of one's mind. That may be relevant in a criminal trial. But it's far too nebulous of a concept to be considered when they're deciding whether to freeze your bank account. So they won't, no matter what lip service they pay.
They will "freeze first and ask questions later." We all know it's the truth.
When you control the legal system your not going to have much difficulty prosecuting the unpopular.
TPP, this, what's next?