http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/535091.html By CHRIS LAMBIE Staff Reporter October 20, 2006 Defence scientists plan to spend up to $4 million keeping secrets from Uncle Sam. The proposed three-year project, dubbed Secure Access Management for Secret Operational Networks, is aimed at changing existing military computer networks shared with the United States so some information can only be accessed by Canadians. "Contemporary and future Canadian Forces operations are conducted, and will likely continue to be conducted, within a coalition," say government documents released Tuesday. "However, the Canadian Forces and the Department of National Defence currently do not have a capability to handle national information effectively on their operational networks. This hampers their ability to plan Canadian participation in coalitions, and their ability to participate in those coalitions when decisions involving national sovereignty must be made. The worlds major military powers view the ability to protect national information as an important strategic capability. Canada has chosen to collaborate with the U.S. on its overall information protection needs but still requires the capability to protect Canadian-eyes-only information." The proposed changes could prove useful for Canada in disputes over Arctic sovereignty, said Denis Stairs, a political scientist at Dalhousie University in Halifax who specializes in Canada-U.S. relations. Last November, the USS Charlottes voyage through the Arctic sparked a political firestorm in Ottawa. Opposition parties, including the Conservatives, criticized the government for allowing the nuclear-powered U.S. navy attack submarine to make a two-week trip under the polar ice that included a surfacing at the North Pole. This year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper clashed with U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins after an American challenge to Canadian sovereignty over the Northwest Passage, the routes through the Arctic Archipelago. "Now that its beginning to open up, our sovereignty claim there becomes a more sensitive issue in a Canada-U.S. context," Mr. Stairs said. "One can imagine a situation in which the Americans were testing us again on this issue. They have never agreed that is an inland waterway and were resisting them." That could require sending Canadian warships or planes to the Arctic, he said. "Nobody wants to get into fisticuffs, and I dont think it will come to that," Mr. Stairs said. "But I can certainly imagine a situation in which wed want to be able to communicate without their knowing what were saying to one another." The link would allow Canadians to electronically discuss the merits and details of proposed international missions among themselves, said Eric Lerhe, a retired commodore. That means Canada could negotiate an internal position on how many troops could be sent, without letting on that the military is stretched by other missions, said Mr. Lerhe, a research fellow at Dals Centre for Foreign Policy Studies. "We dont wish to advertise that around the world or even to our close allies," he said. "We dont want our minimum position to be known to others." The proposed network changes would also be useful if the military was called in to do something like quell a riot, Mr. Lerhe said. "The U.S. has absolutely no need to be apprised of how were managing an internal aid to the civil power situation," he said. Reginald Stuart, a history professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax who specializes in Canada-U.S. relations, doubts changing a computer network so it can shut out the Americans on some issues would cause any friction between the two countries. "I dont think that would create any policy problems between our two governments or any lack of trust on the level of the military," Mr. Stuart said. _________________________________ Visit the InfoSec News store! http://www.shopinfosecnews.org
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