Cannoneer No 4 Issued a request for thoughts on reconstituting the USIA (United States Information Agency) and received several responses. My own response revolved around the major stumbling block to the establishment and effective use of this agency: the great divide over the position of terrorism and non-state actors (ie, terrorists) on the scale of national security imperatives. Until we can come to a consensus as to its status and degree of threat, reconstituting the USIA would be an act of futility.

Somebody high up must read the Cannoneer's site because Gates quotes the Cannoneer in the Landon Lecture yesterday at Kansas State University regarding beefing up spending on diplomatic efforts. He laments the demise of the USIA due to the "peace dividend" and suggests that it be reconstituted, obviously ignoring the problem of the great divide I outlined. However, he does address my pet peeve:

"We are miserable at communicating to the rest of the world what we are about as a society and culture," Gates said. "It is just plain embarrassing that al-Qaeda is better at communicating its message on the Internet than America."

And all that without even half the server space, computer power or fancy digital software of even one low rent television station in BFE, Idaho.

(continued in flash traffic)

Osama bin Laden and his No.2, Ayman al-Zawahiri use periodic video and audio messages (pre-recorded) for motivating their followers, for giving their perception of the state of the world and the global jihad and for carrying on PSYWAR against their perceived adversaries. These messages are recorded in the tribal areas of Pakistan and then got disseminated through Al Jazeera TV channel of Qatar and through the Internet. Al Qaeda has established a separate propaganda wing called As-Sahab, under the supervision of an American convert to Islam, for having these messages recorded and disseminated. In addition to recording and disseminating the messages of Al Qaeda leaders, As Sahab has also started recording and disseminating the messages of the commanders of the Neo Taliban since the beginning of 2007. During 2007, As Sahab disseminated about 90 video messages.

But, it's not only the message that is dangerous, it is actual cyber attacks that continues to be perpetrated against US defense and commercial servers. The danger is outlined in a few key paragraphs:

While U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan engage the enemy with guns, tanks, airplanes and missiles, the American military is quietly fighting a much different kind of war on a new front -- cyberspace.

Military officials say that a cyber-attack by foreign enemies or terrorist groups would result in ''an electronic Pearl Harbor'' that would shut down electricity, banking systems, cellphones and other tools of day-to-day life.

The article indicates thousands of attacks per day that have to be defended against and possibly countered.