What’s This Swine Flu

If we are to believe what our trusted international media report, the world is on the brink of a global pandemic outbreak of a new deadly strain of flu, H1N1 as it has been labelled, or more popularly, Swine Flu. As the story goes, the outbreak of the deadly flu was first discovered in Mexico. According to press reports, after several days, headlines reported as many as perhaps 150 deaths in Mexico were believed caused by this virulent people-killing pig virus that has spread to humans and now is allegedly being further spread from human to human. Cases were being reported hourly from Canada to Spain and beyond. The only thing wrong with this story is that it is largely based on lies, hype and coverup of possible real causes of Mexican deaths.

	Pig Factory Farm Industrial Production is a classic breeder of disease and toxins but little attention is being paid to this source.

One website, revealingly named Swine Flu Vaccine, reports the alarming news, ‘One out of every five residents of Mexico’s most populous city wore masks to protect themselves against the virus as Mexico City seems to be the epicenter of the outbreak. As many as 103 deaths have been attributed to the swine flu so far with many more feared to be on the horizon. The health department of Mexico said an additional 1,614 reported cases have been documented.’ We are told that the H1N1 ‘shares genetic material from human, avian and swine influenza viruses.’1

Airports around the world have installed passenger temperature scans to identify anyone with above normal body temperature as possible suspect for swine flu. Travel to Mexico has collapsed. Sales of flu vaccines, above all Tamiflu from Roche Inc., have exploded in days. People have stopped buying pork fearing certain death. The World Health Organization has declared  a ‘a public health emergency of international concern,’ defined by them as ‘an occurrence or imminent threat of illness or health conditions caused by bioterrorism, epidemic or pandemic disease, or highly fatal infectious agents or toxins that pose serious risk to a significant number of people.’2

What are the symptoms of this purported Swine Flu? That’s not at all clear according to virologists and public health experts. They say Swine Flu symptoms are relatively general and nonspecific. ‘So many different things can cause these symptoms. it is a dilemma,’ says one doctor interviewed by CNN. ‘There is not a perfect test right now to let a doctor know that a person has the Swine Flu.’ It has been noted that most individuals with Swine Flu had an early on set of fever. Also it was common to see dizziness, body aches and vomiting in addition to the common sneezing, headache and other cold symptoms. These are symptoms so general as to say nothing.

The US Government’s Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta states on its official website, ‘Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza viruses that causes regular outbreaks in pigs. People do not normally get swine flu, but human infections can and do happen. Swine flu viruses have been reported to spread from person-to-person, but in the past, this transmission was limited and not sustained beyond three people.’ Nonetheless they add, ‘CDC has determined that this swine influenza A (H1N1) virus is contagious and is spreading from human to human. However, at this time, it is not known how easily the virus spreads between people.’3

How many media that have grabbed on the headline ‘suspected case of Swine Flu’ in recent days bother to double check with the local health authorities to ask some basic questions? For example, the number of confirmed cases of H1N1 and their location? The number of deaths confirmed to have resulted from H1N1? Dates of both? Number of suspected cases and of suspected deaths related to the Swine Flu disease?

Some known facts

According to Biosurveillance, itself part of Veratect, a US Pentagon and Government-linked epidemic reporting center, on April 6, 2009 local health officials declared a health alert due to a respiratory disease outbreak in La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico.

They reported, ‘Sources characterized the event as a ‘strange’ outbreak of acute respiratory infection, which led to bronchial pneumonia in some pediatric cases. According to a local resident, symptoms included fever, severe cough, and large amounts of phlegm. Health officials recorded 400 cases that sought medical treatment in the last week in La Gloria, which has a population of 3,000; officials indicated that 60% of the town’s population (approximately 1,800 cases) has been affected. No precise timeframe was provided, but sources reported that a local official had been seeking health assistance for the town since February.’ What they later say is ‘strange’ is not the form of the illness but the time of year as most  flu cases occur in Mexico in the period October to February.

The report went on to note, ‘Residents claimed that three pediatric cases, all under two years of age, died from the outbreak. However, health officials stated that there was no direct link between the pediatric deaths and the outbreak; they stated the three fatal cases were “isolated” and “not related” to each other.’

Then, most revealingly, the aspect of the story which has been largely ignored by major media, they reported, ‘Residents believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to “flu.” However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms.’4

Since the dawn of American ‘agribusiness,’ a project initiated with funding by the Rockefeller Foundation in the 1950’s to turn farming into a pure profit maximization business, US pig or hog production has been transformed into a highly efficient, mass production industrialized enterprise from birth to slaughter. Pigs are caged in what are called Factory Farms, industrial concentrations which are run with the efficiency of a Dachau or Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. They are all conceived by artificial insemination and once born, are regularly injected with antibiotics, not because of illnesses which abound in the hyper-crowded growing pens, but in order to make them grow and add weight faster. Turn around time to slaughter is a profit factor of highest priority. The entire operation is vertically integrated from conception to slaughter to transport distribution to supermarket.

Granjas Carroll de Mexico (GCM) happens to be such a Factory Farm concentration facility for hogs. In 2008 they produced almost one million factory hogs, 950,000 according to their own statistics. GCM is a joint venture operation owned 50% by the world’s largest pig producing industrial company, Smithfield Foods of Virginia.5 The pigs are grown in a tiny rural area of Mexico, a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and primarily trucked across the border to supermarkets in the USA, under the Smithfields’ family of labels. Most American consumers have no idea where the meat was raised.

Now the story becomes interesting.

Manure Lagoons and other playing fields

The Times of London interviewed the mother of 4-year-old Edgar Hernandez of La Gloria in Veracruz, the location of the giant Smithfield Foods hog production facility. Their local reporter notes, ‘Edgar Hernández plays among the dogs and goats that roam through the streets, seemingly unaware that the swine flu he contracted a few weeks ago — the first known case — has almost brought his country to a standstill and put the rest of the world on alert. ‘I feel great,’ the five-year-old boy said. ‘But I had a headache and a sore throat and a fever for a while. I had to lay down in bed.’’

The reporters add, ‘It was confirmed on Monday (April 27 2009-w.e.) that Edgar was the first known sufferer of swine flu, a revelation that has put La Gloria and its surrounding factory pig farms and ‘manure lagoons’ at the centre of a global race to find how this new and deadly strain of swine flu emerged.’ 6

That’s quite interesting. They speak of ‘La Gloria and its surrounding factory pig farms and ‘manure lagoons.’’ Presumably the manure lagoons around the LaGloria factory pig farm of Smithfield Foods are the waste dumping place for the feces and urine waste from at least 950,000 pigs a year that pass through the facility. The Smithfield’s Mexico joint venture, Norson, states that alone they slaughter 2,300 pigs daily. That’s a lot. It gives an idea of the volumes of pig waste involved in the concentration facility at La Gloria.

Significantly, according to the Times reporters, ‘residents of La Gloria have been complaining since March that the odour from Granjas Carroll’s pig waste was causing severe respiratory infections. They held a demonstration this month at which they carried signs of pigs crossed with an X and marked with the word peligro (danger).’7 There have been calls to exhume the bodies of the children who died of pneumonia so that they could be tested. The state legislature of Veracruz has demanded that Smithfield’s Granjas Carroll release documents about its waste-handling practices. Smithfield Foods reportedly declined to comment on the request, saying that it would ‘not respond to rumours.’8

A research compilation by Ed Harris reported, ‘According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to ‘flu.’ However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms.’9 That would imply that the entire Swine Flu scare might have originated from the PR spin doctors of the world’s largest industrial pig factory farm operation, Smithfield Foods.

The Vera Cruz-based newspaper La Marcha blames Smithfield’s Granjos Carroll for the outbreak, highlighting inadequate treatment of massive quantities of animal waste from hog production.10

Understandably the company is perhaps more than a bit uncomfortable with the sudden attention. The company, which supplies the McDonald’s and Subway fast-food chains, was fined $12.3 million in the United States 1997 for violating the Clean Water Act. Perhaps they are in a remote tiny Mexican rural area enjoying a relatively lax regulatory climate where they need not worry about being cited for violations of any Clean Water Act.

Factory Farms as toxic concentrations

At the very least the driving force for giant industrial agribusiness outsourcing of facilities to third world sites such as Veracruz, Mexico has more to do with further cost reduction and lack of health and safety scrutiny than it does with improving the health and safety quality of the food end product. It has been widely documented and subject of US Congressional reports that large-scale indoor animal production facilities such as that of Granjos Carroll are notorious breeding grounds for toxic pathogens.

A recent report by the US Pew Foundation in cooperation with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health notes, ‘the method of producing food animals in the United States has changed from the extensive system of small and medium-sized farms owned by a single family to a system of large, intensive operations where the animals are housed in large numbers in enclosed structures that resemble industrial buildings more than they do a traditional barn. That change has happened primarily out of view of consumers but has come at a cost to the environment and a negative impact on public health, rural communities, and the health and well-being of the animals themselves. 11

The Pew study notes, ‘The diversified, independent, family-owned farms of 40 years ago that produced a variety of crops and a few animals are disappearing as an economic entity, replaced by much larger, and often highly leveraged, farm factories. The animals that many of these farms produce are owned by the meat packing companies from the time they are born or hatched right through their arrival at the processing plant and from there to market.’ 12

The study emphasizes that application of ‘untreated animal waste on cropland can contribute to excessive nutrient loading, contaminate surface waters, and stimulate bacteria and algal growth and subsequent reductions in dissolved oxygen concentrations in surface waters.’13

That is where the real investigation ought to begin, with the health and sanitary dangers of the industrial factory pig farms like the one at Perote in Veracruz. The media spread of panic-mongering reports of every person in the world who happens to contract ‘symptoms’ which vaguely resemble flu or even Swine Flu and the statements to date of authorities such as WHO or CDC are far from conducive to a rational scientific investigation..

Tamiflu and Rummy

In October 2005 the Pentagon ordered vaccination of all US military personnel worldwide against what it called Avian Flu, H5N1. Scare stories filled world media. Then, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced he had budgeted more than $1 billion to stockpile the vaccine, Oseltamivir sold under the name, Tamiflu. President Bush called on Congress to appropriate another $2 billion for Tamiflu stocks.

What Rumsfeld neglected to report at the time was a colossal conflict of interest. Prior to coming to Washington in January 2001, Rumsfeld had been chairman of a California pharmaceutical company, Gilead Sciences. Gilead Sciences held exclusive world patent rights to Tamiflu, a drug it had developed and whose world marketing rights were sold to the Swiss pharma giant, Roche. Rumsfeld was reportedly the largest stock holder in Gilead which got 10% of every Tamiflu dose Roche sold. 14 When it leaked out, the Pentagon issued a curt statement to the effect that Secretary Rumsfeld had decided not to sell but to retain his stock in Gilead, claiming that to sell would have indicated something to hide.’ That agonizing decision won him reported added millions as the Gilead share price soared more than 700% in weeks.

Tamiflu is no mild candy to be taken lightly. It has heavy side effects. It contains matter that could have potentially deadly consequences for a person’s breathing and often reportedly leads to nausea, dizziness and other flu-like symptoms.

Since the outbreak of Swine Flu Panic (not Swine Flu but Swine Flu Panic) sales of Tamiflu as well as any and every possible drug marketed as flu related have exploded. Wall Street firms have rushed to issue ‘buy’ recommendations for the company. ‘Gimme me a shot Doc, I don’t care what it is…I don’ wanna die…’

Panic and fear of death was used by the Bush Administration skilfully to promote the Avian Flu fraud. With ominous echoes of the current Swine Flu scare, Avian Flu was traced back to huge chicken factory farms in Thailand and other parts of Asia whose products were shipped across the world. Instead of a serious investigation into the sanitary conditions of those chicken factory farms, the Bush Administration and WHO blamed ‘free-roaming chickens’ on small family farms, a move that had devastating economic consequences to the farmers whose chickens were being raised in the most sanitary natural conditions. Tyson Foods of Arkansas and CG Group of Thailand reportedly smiled all the way to the bank.

Now it remains to be seen if the Obama Administration will use the scare around so-called Swine Flu to repeat the same scenario, this time with ‘flying pigs’ instead of flying birds. Already Mexican authorities have reported that the number of deaths confirmed from so-called Swine Flu is 7 not the 150 or more bandied in the media and that most other suspected cases were ordinary flu or influenza.

(To be continued)

Notes

1 Health Advisory, accessed in http://www.swine-flu-vaccine.info/.

2 Ibid.

3 Centers for Disease Control, Swine Influenza and You, accessed in
http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/swineflu_you.htm.

4 Biosurveillance, Swine Flu in Mexico- Timeline of Events, April 24, 2009, accessed in
http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine-flu-in-mexico-timeline-of-events.html.

5 Smithfield Foods website, accessed in
http://www.smithfieldfoods.com/our_company/our_family/Norson.aspx.

6 Ruth Maclean in La Gloria and Chris Ayres in Mexico City, I had a headache and fever’ says boy who survived, London Times, April 28, 2009.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Ed Harris, Bloggers Examine Environmental Role in Mexico Swine Flu Outbreak, April 27, 2009, accessed in

http://www.planetthoughts.org/?pg=pt/Whole&qid=2870.

10 Ibid.

11 The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm

Animal Production in America, accessed in http://www.ncifap.org/_images/PCIFAPFin.pdf.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.

14 F. William Engdahl, Is Avian Flu another Pentagon Hoax?,

JSF Program Gets Hacked

Computer spies have repeatedly breached the Pentagon’s costliest weapons program, the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper quoted current and former government officials familiar with the matter as saying the intruders were able to copy and siphon data related to design and electronics systems, making it potentially easier to defend against the plane.

The spies could not access the most sensitive material, which is kept on computers that are not connected to the Internet, the paper added.

“Yea Right, Tell Us Another!”

Citing people briefed on the matter, it said the intruders entered through vulnerabilities in the networks of two or three of the contractors involved in building the fighter jet.

Lockheed Martin Corp is the lead contractor. Northrop Grumman Corp and BAE Systems PLC also have major roles in the project. Lockheed Martin and BAE declined comment and Northrop referred questions to Lockheed, the paper said.

The Journal said Pentagon officials declined to comment directly on the matter, but the paper said the Air Force had begun an investigation.

The identity of the attackers and the amount of damage to the project could not be established, the paper said.

The Journal quoted former U.S. officials as saying the attacks seemed to have originated in China, although it noted it was difficult to determine the origin because of the ease of hiding identities online.

The Chinese Embassy said China “opposes and forbids all forms of cyber crimes,” the Journal said.

The officials added there had also been breaches of the U.S. Air Force’s air traffic control system in recent months.

Beware The ATM Skimmers

Earlier this month, the 33-year-old Microsoft employee, who lives in New York City, stopped in the closest Chase bank to get some cash to pay his barber. But when he inserted his ATM (automatic teller machine) card in the machine, he noticed a bit of resistance.

The screen said the machine was unable to read his card. So he tried again. But a second time, the machine gave him an error message.

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He was about to give up and try another machine, when a thought popped into his head. He had heard about devices that fraudsters attach to the outside of card readers on ATM machines and, though it seemed unlikely, wondered if that was the source of his problem.

“I’m looking at the thing and thinking this can’t be,  no way,” he said. “There are all these stories and myths about it, but I actually found one in the wild.”

With a combination of fear and exhilaration, he tried to pull on the green plastic surrounding the card slot and found that it peeled right off.

“I’m like WOW,” he said. “My heart’s beating fast but I’m also now freaked out.”

Behind an extra mirror attached to the machine, he also found a hidden camera positioned right over the key pad, to capture the PIN codes as victims type them in.

He notified the branch manager who contacted bank security and later shut down the machine and alerted other area banks.

Three Skimmers Found in One Week

But that same week Nick McGlynn, a 26-year-old photographer, also spotted an ATM skimmer at a different Chase bank in New York City. He had just read about Seibel’s experience on a technology blog, when he walked by a set of Chase ATMs that looked peculiar.

“From the window, I could see a mirror centered on one ATM but no mirror on another,” he said.

A woman was using the machine, but he politely asked her if he could check on something. When he pulled at the mirror, it came right off and, like Seibel, he found a hidden camera behind it.

According to the blog the Consumerist, in one week, three of its readers — Seibel, McGlynn and another man in Los Angeles — each found a different ATM skimmer, raising questions about the frequency of this supposedly rare kind of crime.

And though experts say hard data on the phenomenon is difficult to come by (banks are wary of reporting incidents for fear of alarming customers), some think changes in the industry are making bank ATMs in the United States increasingly vulnerable.

Losses From Skimming Total $1 Billion a Year

“ATM skimming has been and will continue to be the number one type of ATM-related fraud,” said Tracy Kitten, editor of ATMMarketplace.com. “It’s something that the industry has been fighting for a very long time.”

The fraud involves accessing bank accounts by capturing the data off customers’ bank cards. Criminals attach skimming devices over the card slots on ATMs to steal the information as the machine reads the card’s magnetic strip. Hidden cameras — like those recently found behind extra mirrors — record victims typing in their PIN codes. More sophisticated criminals use wireless keypad overlays, that transmit a person’s PIN to a nearby laptop, instead of the cameras.

Once criminals have that information, they can send it to others who can make illicit transactions anywhere in the world.

The U.S. Secret Service estimates that annual losses from ATM skimming total about $1 billion each year, or $350,000 a day.

Kitten and others emphasize that ATM transactions are mostly secure. According to the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA), just .0016 percent of the billions of worldwide ATM transactions are affected by crime or fraud. But they also think that as Canada and European countries abandon the magnetic strip system for a microchip-based approach that is thought to be more secure, ATM fraud in the U.S. could increase.

Consumers Not Responsible for Charges or Withdrawals They Didn’t Initiate

For their part, banks stress that they are taking the necessary precautions to protect their customers.

“Consumers should know that they would not be responsible for any charges or money taken out that they didn’t do,” said Tom Kelly, a spokesman for Chase.

As for the skimming attacks recently reported in New York, Kelly said, “There are a number of security measures that we take that we can’t really talk about. We’ve stepped up our efforts.”

Consumers Concerned About ATM Fraud

Still, despite assurances that their money is safe, U.S. consumers say ATM security is a major concern.

A February study commissioned by Level Four, an ATM software company, found that 67 percent of American adults would consider switching to a competitor if their bank suffered an instance of ATM fraud. Steven Lund, president of Level Four Americas, LLC, told ABCNews.com that rising fraud in many European countries is what led them to replace the magnetic strip technology with the “chip and PIN” approach (also known as EMV for Europay, Mastercard and Visa).

But, “since the U.S. has not adopted EMV, it’s our feeling that we’ll see increasing fraudulent activity,” he said. “Criminals will go to where to commit fraud is easiest.” The ATMIA says that countries that have adopted the chip and PIN technology have reduced cash losses, but because of the major expense involved in rehauling the system and the relative rarity of ATM skimming, U.S. banks have been reluctant abandon the magnetic strip.

Bank ATMs More Vulnerable Than Stand-Alone ATMs

Lana Harmelink, chief operating officer of the ATMIA, also told ABCNews.com that another change has increased the vulnerability of ATMs stationed at bank branches.

As ATMs located in grocery and corner stores (and stand-alone machines on the street) switch to technology that encrypts the PIN pad, criminals are finding it harder and harder to hack into those machines, she said. Also, because they’re often positioned near a cash register, under the watchful eye of cashier or store owner, it’s more difficult for fraudsters to install skimmers without being caught.

“We’re seeing it move from ATMs off-premise to ATMs at banks,” she said. “Banks are more the target.”

Bank ATMs are also more highly trafficked, which means a bigger potential payoff for the criminals, she said. In a given month, a convenient store ATM might see 150 to 200 transactions, while a bank branch ATM might have 1,500 to 2,000 transactions.

Anticipating an increasing threat, security and surveillance firm ADT Security Services unveiled new antiskimming technology just this March.

Each year, the company hosts a symposium for its biggest banking customers and said that, more recently, interest around skimming has grown.

Tips to Stay Safe From ATM Skimming

“We did notice over the last couple of years that more and more of our customers were beginning to raise concerns about skimming,” said Hank Monaco, vice president of commercial marketing for ADT. The company’s antiskimming system is invisible from the outside, but detects the presence of skimming devices near the card entry slot and alerts the bank without disrupting the transaction. As the technology is new, Monaco said he couldn’t disclose how many banks use their system.

But as banks ramp up their security measures, he and others recommend that customers do what they can to secure their transactions.

6 Tips for Consumers: Spotting ATM Skimmers

1. Be aware of your surroundings. Be extra careful of machines in dark areas or in places that don’t look well guarded and monitored.

2. Pay attention to the front of machines. If it looks different from others in the area (for example, it has an extra mirror on the face), has sticky residue on it (potentially from a device attached to it) or extra signage, use a different machine and notify bank management with your concerns.

3. Notice how it feels to type in your PIN code. If it’s difficult to punch the keys or you feel resistance, it could mean that a keypad overlay is present.

4. Cover your hand as you type in your PIN. If a camera is present or someone is trying to look over your shoulder, this will obstruct their view.

5. If you think the area around the card entry slot looks peculiar, pull on it. If it comes off or loosens, alert bank management but try to leave the machine as you found it. Leaving the evidence in place could help authorities track down the criminals.

6. If you find a skimming device, in addition to notifying bank management, the ATMIA says to notify local law enforcement.

Britain Drops Privacy Invasion Plan

The British government said Monday it wants communications companies to keep records of every phone call, email and Web-site visit made in the country. But it has decided not to set up a national database of the information, a proposal civil liberties group had been condemned as a “Big Brother”-style invasion of privacy.

The government said in October it was considering a central database of phone and Internet traffic as part of a high-tech strategy to fight terrorism and crime. But Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said Monday the plan had been dropped.

A document outlining the department’s proposals said the government “recognizes the privacy implications” of a database and “does not propose to pursue this approach.”

Instead, the government said it was backing a “middle way” that would see service providers store and organize information on every individual’s phone and Internet traffic so that it could be accessed by police and other authorities upon request.

The Home Office estimated introducing the new system would cost up to £2 billion ($3 billion).

Under current rules, British Internet service providers are already required to store records of Web and e-mail traffic for a year. The new proposals would also require them to retain details of communications that originated in other countries but passed across British networks — for example if someone in Britain accessed a U.S.-based e-mail account.

The government said providers wouldn’t store the content of calls, e-mails or Internet use. They would retain details of times, dates, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and Web site URLs.

Ms. Smith said officials had to strike “a delicate balance between privacy and security,” but insisted police and intelligence agencies needed more tools to fight crime and terrorism in an increasingly complex online world.

“Advances in communications mean that there are ever more sophisticated ways to communicate and we need to ensure that we keep up with the technology being used by those who would seek to do us harm,” Ms. Smith said.

The proposals are still a long way from becoming law. The government is seeking public comment until July, and widespread opposition is expected.

The government said there would be strict safeguards on who could access the information, but critics say existing surveillance powers have been abused by local authorities investigating relatively trivial offenses such as littering. That led the government in December to say it would clamp down on abuses of surveillance laws.

Trust in the government also has been hit by a series of lost-data incidents. In November, a government department lost a disk that contained the names, addresses and bank details of 25 million people.

NSA Chief May Head Cyber Command

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to nominate the director of the National Security Agency to head a new Pentagon Cyber Command, which will coordinate computer-network defense and direct U.S. cyber-attack operations, according to a draft memo by Mr. Gates.

The move comes amid rising concern in the government about attacks on U.S. networks. The command will run military cybersecurity operations and provide support to civil authorities, according to the memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

NSA Director Keith Alexander, a three-star general, is expected to earn a fourth star when he moves to his new job at the Cyber Command. The memo doesn’t state that directly, but says that his deputy at the new command will be of a three-star rank. It isn’t clear who will succeed him at the NSA.

The Department of Homeland Security is charged with securing the government’s nonmilitary networks, and cybersecurity experts said the Obama administration will have to better define the extent of this military support to Homeland Security. “It’s a fine line” between providing needed technical expertise to support federal agencies improving their own security and deeper, more invasive programs, said Amit Yoran, a former senior cybersecurity official at the Homeland Security Department.

The new command is necessary, the memo says, because “our increasing dependency on cyberspace, alongside a growing array of cyber threats and vulnerabilities, adds a new element of risk to our national security.” At least initially, it will be part of U.S. Strategic Command, which is currently responsible for securing the military’s networks and waging attacks on the Internet.

An announcement of the new command is expected after the Obama administration finishes its recommendations for cybersecurity policy, which could come as soon as next week.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Mr. Gates is “planning to make changes to our command structure to better reflect the increasing threat posed by cyber warfare,” but “we have nothing to announce at this time.” The NSA referred calls to the Pentagon.

Mr. Morrell said cybersecurity is a major priority for Mr. Gates and his 2010 budget proposal calls for hiring hundreds more cybersecurity experts.

Gen. Alexander sought to quell concerns about NSA’s role in domestic cybersecurity in a speech Tuesday at a computer-security conference in San Francisco.

“We need to dispel the rumors,” he said, adding that NSA didn’t want to run all the government’s cybersecurity operations but would help Homeland Security secure government civilian networks. NSA has “tremendous technical capabilities,” he said. “What we need to do now is learn how to use that.”

Gen. Alexander also catalogued a few of the “things that are broken” in the government’s efforts to protect its networks. The government can’t monitor intrusions on its networks in a timely manner. It detects compromises of private-sector networks but sometimes can’t disclose the problem because its information is classified.

The new command will be located in Maryland at Fort Meade, which is home to the NSA’s headquarters just outside of Washington. It will open by October, according to the memo, and will be at full strength the following year.