In response to Andrew Herman's question: There is a tremendous amount of information available on this topic. It was first raised in the 1970s under the rubric of "vulnerabilities" of the state presented by the use of new information technologies. By the early 1990s it was a question of "new security theory," and by the middle of that decade it was "information warfare" or "cyberwar." Now of course discussion about doctrine, strategy, and tactics involving the use of digital technologies is part of the discourse on the "war on terrorism." In my view it would be a mistake to limit the question to the internet, but that can be done -- in the 1980s, already, the Rand Corporation was doing research on the spread of rumors in the internet as part of its work on information warfare. My own "Contradictions in Brilliant Eyes" (Brilliant Eyes was the name given to the smart satellites program promoted by Reagan) is available in full text on the website for which the URL is provided below, provides a mid-1990s look at the state of the then-art. Sandra Braman Prof. Dept. of Communication University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee www.uwm.edu/~braman