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NORFOLK, Va. -- To combat the expanding threat of cyber-warfare, the Pentagon established a new center Thursday to defend the United States from hackers and to plot ways to attack an enemy's computer network.
``This is an acknowledgment that in the world where communication is critical, our ability to protect our systems and potentially get inside an adversary's system and affect his decision is critical,'' said Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The cyber-warfare center will take over what is now a scattered series of operations and will have headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., under Gen. Richard Myers of the Air Force.
Thursday, Shelton confirmed that the United States tried to mount electronic attacks into Serbian computer networks throughout the air campaign over Kosovo.
``We only used our capability to a very limited degree,'' he said.
Government officials disclosed over the summer that U.S. intelligence was mounting computer attacks on foreign bank accounts held by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and other Serbian leaders, with the goal being to drain assets or alter banking records.
In future wars, U.S. cyber-warriors will try to disable air-defense systems, upset logistics and infect software through advances made by the Colorado center, according to a Pentagon official.
At ceremonies in Norfolk, Adm. Harold W. Gehman Jr. was put in charge of another new center that will coordinate military actions if an enemy targets this country with biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.
The idea has been criticized strongly by civil libertarians who argue that any homeland defense plan might open the door for the military to assume the role of domestic police, which is prohibited by law.
Defense Secretary William Cohen described both centers as answers to the newest threats facing the United States.
Saying the United States must be prepared to fight the full range of modern warfare, Cohen said the joint task force to coordinate military actions would be ready to respond in the event of an attack on U.S. soil, but under the direction of a civilian agency like the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
``We are stepping into the future, to deal with the kind of threats we are likely to face from chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons,'' Cohen said.
But officials of civil liberties organizations said they were wary.
``Our concern is that there be a bright line drawn between law enforcement and the military,'' said Gregory Nojeim of the American Civil Liberties Union. ``This not only blurs that bright line but virtually guarantees further involvement of the military in civilian law enforcement activity.''
In an interview with the New York Times last year, President Clinton voiced support for such a task force to strengthen the nation's defenses against new kinds of terrorism.
``What I want us to do is everything within reason we can to minimize our exposure and risks here,'' Clinton said.
In the past several years, Clinton has highlighted his fears of the growing threat from cyber-warfare and of terrorists using weapons of mass destruction in the United States. He approved these new changes made by the Pentagon's top officials as part of a routine revision of the responsibilities and roles of its nine commands scattered across the globe.
As part of those changes, the Atlantic Command in Norfolk will now be known as the Joint Forces Command, to reflect new responsibilities to train and create new doctrines for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps in joint operations.
But the new cyber-center in Colorado is to have far-ranging responsibilities in future wars, according to Shelton, who said the Pentagon detected unauthorized efforts to enter its computers during the Kosovo campaign.
``During Kosovo, there is no question that day in and day out we got hundreds if not thousands of hits,'' he said, saying classified U.S. computer systems were well-protected.