AW: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Fwd: Comments made this week in Washington - not helpful

[Wolfgang Kleinwächter]

Tahnks Veni for pointing to the Burns Statement in the Confirmation Hearing. Do you have the full text?
 
Burns is one of the key players in the Congress with regard to ICANN. He chairs the Senate Communication Subcommittee. He has outlined his general strateggy in early 2004 here: 
http://burns.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=1067
 
A lot of issue are very relevant to WGIG issues.
 
One point refers directly to ICANN
 
........
 
ICANN Reform 

STRENGTHENS AND SECURES THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE INTERNET 

Sen. Burns will continue to exercise vigilant oversight over ICANN following the most recent extension of the Memorandum of Understanding with the Commerce Department last September. Sen. Burns remains concerned at the organization's lack of accountability and due process, particularly given its core role in ensuring American national security. 

....
 
Veni,
 
as you have pointed out, Burns sees this as an issue of "American National Security". And the DoC with its readiness to terminate its oversight role over ICANN is itself overseen by the Congress. 
 
During the PTC 2005 Conference last week in Honolulu, when FCC Chair Powell announced his withdrawl, there was a lot of discussion around the need of a new telecommunications law, replacing the 1996 Act. Such a new act could probably include all relevant Internet related aspects, including VoIP, Spam and others. The interesting thing for me was, that the debate centered to a high degree on "security issues" in relation to the subject. Telecommunication Policy in the 21st Century is Security Policy, one panelist said. And another was afraid, that the new law will be drafted less by the FCC and more by the FBI.
 

Best regards
 
wolfgang
 

 
________________________________

Von: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org im Auftrag von veni markovski
Gesendet: Fr 28.01.2005 06:15
An: plenary at wsis-cs.org
Cc: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Betreff: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Fwd: Comments made this week in Washington - not helpful



I think this should bring some soberness to the community.

The quote is from Warren's Washington Daily:

>Capitol Hill
>The Commerce Dept. should reconsider cutting loose ICANN, Sen. Burns
>(R-Mont.) said in remarks on the  Senate floor.  In a statement supporting
>confirmation of Carlos Gutierrez as Commerce secy., Burns said ICANN
>is  in danger of "mission creep" and has turned into a "mini-international
>organization."  ICANN's last ties to the DoC  are scheduled to expire in
>2006.  "The U.S. government has played a crucial and positive role in the
>creation of the Internet and in Internet governance, and I do not think
>that such a decision as this should be taken without thorough  review and
>understanding of its implications," Burns said.

One of the things I was thinking after last year's elections in the US was
that George W. Bush is fully capable of bringing back the root servers and
DNS under the Dept. of defence - after all the Internet was created for
military purposes. The statement of this senator is precisely in that
direction.

So, when I refer to some of you as to be cautious about challenging ICANN,
you have to be aware that I am not speaking for the sake of speaking.
I have some experience (unfortunately) of how road to Hell is paved with
good intentions. And why the actions of some of the Westerners here may
cause more harm to the Internet and its self-management, than anyone else
from a developing country can cause.

best,
veni

p.s. Oh, and by the way, do not try to say publicly that exactly because of
such statements, we need to move everything to the UN, ITU, or other
intragovernmental organization. Quite the contrary - if people try do that,
then FOR SURE the self-management is OVER.

v.

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