[WSIS CS-Plenary] "transfer Internet control into the hands of intrigue-plagued bureaucracies" - quote

[Jean-Louis FULLSACK]

I strongly suggest the US gouvernment to send immediately the Marines and the 183th Airborne to Tunis for protecting the beleagered "US driven" Internet. 
Jean-Louis Fullsack






> Message du 09/11/05 11:14
> De : "Rui Correia" 
> A : plenary at wsis-cs.org
> Copie à : 
> Objet : [WSIS CS-Plenary] "transfer Internet control into the hands of intrigue-plagued bureaucracies" - quote
> 
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> _______________________________________
> 
> From
> http://www.news.vu/en/business/Tech/051108-Vanuatu-tech-news-Beware-a-Digita
> l-Munich.shtml, a news web site for Vanuatu news. 
> With this to say in their "About us": news.vu is a reliable source for
> Vanuatu news, sourced both locally and internationally.
> 
> I wonder if this was the only place willing to give space to this piece of
> ........ I suppose the caveat does say "reliable source for Vanuatu news,
> not WSIS news - Rui
> __________________________________________________________________________
> Beware a 'Digital Munich' - Internet Under threat
> 
> By Norm Coleman - Mr. Coleman is a Republican senator from Minnesota. 
> Posted Tuesday, November 8, 2005
> 
> It sounds like a Tom Clancy plot. An anonymous group of international
> technocrats holds secretive meetings in Geneva. Their cover story: devising
> a blueprint to help the developing world more fully participate in the
> digital revolution. Their real mission: strategizing to take over management
> of the Internet from the U.S. and enable the United Nations to dominate and
> politicize the World Wide Web. Does it sound too bizarre to be true?
> Regrettably, much of what emanates these days from the U.N. does.
> 
> The Internet faces a grave threat. We must defend it. We need to preserve
> this unprecedented communications and informational medium, which fosters
> freedom and enterprise. We can not allow the U.N. to control the Internet.
> 
> The threat is posed by the U.N.-sponsored World Summit on the Information
> Society taking place later this month in Tunisia. At the WSIS preparatory
> meeting weeks ago, it became apparent that the agenda had been transformed.
> Instead of discussing how to place $100 laptops in the hands of the world's
> children, the delegates schemed to transfer Internet control into the hands
> of intrigue-plagued bureaucracies.
> 
> The low point of that planning session was the European Union's shameful
> endorsement of a plan favored by China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Cuba that
> would terminate the historic U.S. role in Internet government oversight,
> relegate both private enterprise and non- governmental organizations to the
> sidelines, and place a U.N.- dominated group in charge of the Internet's
> operation and future. The EU's declaration was a "political coup," according
> to London's Guardian newspaper, which predicted that once the world's
> governments awarded themselves control of the Internet, the U.S. would be
> able to do little but acquiesce.
> 
> I disagree. Such acquiescence would amount to appeasement. We cannot allow
> Tunis to become a digital Munich.
> 
> There is no rational justification for politicizing Internet governance
> within a U.N. framework. The chairman of the WSIS Internet Governance
> Subcommittee himself recently affirmed that existing Internet governance
> arrangements "have worked effectively to make the Internet the highly
> robust, dynamic and geographically diverse medium it is today, with the
> private sector taking the lead in day-to-day operations, and with innovation
> and value creation at the edges."
> 
> Nor is there a rational basis for the anti-U.S. resentment driving the
> proposal. The history of the U.S. government's Internet involvement has been
> one of relinquishing control. Rooted in a Defense Department project of the
> 1960s, the Internet was transferred to civilian hands and then opened to
> commerce by the National Science Foundation in 1995. Three years later, the
> non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers assumed
> governance responsibility under Department of Commerce oversight. Icann,
> with its international work force and active Governmental Advisory
> Committee, is scheduled to be fully privatized next year. Privatization, not
> politicization, is the right Internet governance regime.
> 
> We do not stand alone in our pursuit of that goal. The majority of European
> telecommunications companies have already dissented from the EU's Geneva
> announcement, with one executive pronouncing it "a U-turn by the European
> Union that was as unexpected as it was disturbing."
> 
> In addition to resentment of U.S. technological leadership, proponents of
> politicization are driven by fear -- of access to full and accurate
> information, and of the opportunity for legitimate political discourse and
> organization, provided by the Internet. Nations like China, which are behind
> the U.N. plan to take control, censor their citizens' Web sites, and monitor
> emails and chat rooms to stifle legitimate political dissent. U.N. control
> would shield this kind of activity from scrutiny and criticism.
> 
> The U.S. must do more to advance the values of an open Internet in our
> broader trade and diplomatic conversations. We cannot expect U.S. high-tech
> companies seeking business opportunities in growing markets to defy official
> policy; yet we cannot stand idly by as some governments seek to make the
> Internet an instrument of censorship and political suppression. To those
> nations that seek to wall off their populations from information and
> dialogue we must say, as Ronald Reagan said in Berlin, "Tear down this
> wall."
> 
> Allowing Internet governance to be politicized under U.N. auspices would
> raise a variety of dangers. First, it is wantonly irresponsible to tolerate
> any expansion of the U.N.'s portfolio before that abysmally managed and
> sometimes-corrupt institution undertakes sweeping, overdue reform. It would
> be equal folly to let Icann be displaced by the U.N.'s International
> Telecommunication Union, a regulatory redoubt for those state telephone
> monopolies most threatened by the voice over Internet protocol revolution.
> 
> Also, as we expand the global digital economy, the stability and reliability
> of the Internet becomes a matter of security. Technical minutiae have
> profound implications for competition and trade, democratization, free
> expression and access to information, privacy and intellectual-property
> protection.
> 
> Responding to the present danger, I have initiated a Sense of the Senate
> Resolution that supports the four governance principles articulated by the
> administration on June 30:
> 
> • Preservation of the security and stability of the Internet domain name and
> addressing system (DNS).
> 
> • Recognition of the legitimate interest of governments in managing their
> own country code top-level domains.
> 
> • Support for Icann as the appropriate technical manager of the Internet
> DNS.
> 
> • Participation in continuing dialogue on Internet governance, with
> continued support for market-based approaches toward, and private- sector
> leadership of, its further evolution.
> 
> I also intend to seek hearings in advance of the Tunis Summit to explore the
> implications of multinational politicization of Internet governance. While
> Tunis marks the end of the WSIS process, it is just the beginning of a long,
> multinational debate on the values that the Internet will incorporate and
> foster. Our responsibility is to safeguard the full potential of the new
> information society that the Internet has brought into being.
> 
> Mr. Coleman is a Republican senator from Minnesota.
> 
> ________________________________________________
>  
>  
> Rui Correia
> Coordinator, Southern Africa WSIS Partnership
> (Media Institute of Southern Africa, SACOD, Highway Africa)
> 38 Finch St, 
> Ontdekkers Park, Roodepoort, 
> Johannesburg, South Africa
> Tel/ Fax (+27-11) 766-4336
> Cell (+27) (0) 83-368-1214
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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