We have joined your revolution; except Canada

UPDATE: An unprecedented cyberattack on the Canadian government from China has given foreign hackers access to highly classified federal information, and forced at least two key departments off the internet, the CBC has learned.

The information war has begun.

Note to The New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell, academics and professors of journalism who continue to hold to Gladwell's assertion that "the revolution will not be tweeted. The revolution is being tweeted. Why else would the United States so strongly come to the aid of pro-democracy reforms sweeping across the sands of the Middle East by launching an insurgent Twitter attack.

Under-reported in the world's exhilaration over the fall of Egypt's dictator Hosi Mubarak  - and subsequent movements for reform in Bahrain, Yemen, Iran and Libya - was that the U.S. State Department began sending Twitter messages in Farsi on Sunday (Feb. 13) "in the hopes of reaching social media users in Iran."


In this McLuhan age that we are joined in, the U.S. tactic is a strategic first-strike. A smart-bomb, if you will.

1. پرزیدنت اوباما: ما پیام قوی به متحدانمان فرستاده ایم. به الگوی مصر نگاه کنید، نه ایران #Iran#25Jan #25Bahman #Egyptabout 11 hours ago via web

The translation of the preceding tweet is:

President Obama: We have sent strong message to our allies. Look at the pattern of Egypt, not Iran.

Two other tweets, from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton draws a comparison between the U.S. Revolutionary War and the current struggles for freedom in the Middle East, and the sword of the revolution - the internet. As translated from Farsi to English:   

Clinton: Our history has shown that repression often make their way to seed the Revolution Card
Clinton: We believe that an open Internet, reflect strengthening of peace, progress and prosperity is long. It is true pictures 

In an earlier Tweet, Clinton had said: "We want to join in your conversation." 
That's a rather benign way of putting it because by now, nobody with any common sense is denying that this is a network revolution. Are they Professor Blackwell?
Canada is an ally of the U.S. The foreign affairs department in Ottawa probably got the memo. But Prime Minister Stephen Harper remains under a dome of rock insofar as taking a stand and speaking out for democracy. But Mr. Harper has a soft underbelly when it comes to the people, domestically and internationally. Good grief, maybe the man does see himself as a potentate.
Mr. Harper and many of his cabinet ministers, are on Twitter. In fact, the PM announced the decision to over-rule the CRTC on user-based-billing with a tweet. But so far, nothing as forceful as the State Department's feed has been forthcoming from Ottawa in support of Middle East oppositions.
U.S. foreign policy is now directly and publicly engaged on the internet front of liberation. Canada, once a herald of human rights and democracy, has shrugged off that noble record. And, what will be Iran's - and, indeed, terrorists - reaction to the U.S. cyber-attack. Retaliation? If we've learned anything from Wikileaks, government and financial information technology is vulnerable to disruption and hacking.
Late Wednesday, the CBC reported that "Foreign hackers attack government."  
The network is the mobilizing power of the pro-democracy movement in the Middle East right now. But Egypt, with 20 million people online, was severed from the internet by the regime on January 28th - 3 days after the uprising began. Within 5 days - in part because the network found ways to circumvent the disruption - the blackout was lifted. But a government had shown the online world that it processed a kill switch. Do other government's have the same capabilities and, if so, can the same internet explosive device be used against foreign interference?  Does Iran have the switch to kill the west's network?