[governance] Government oversight (was Vixie ...)

[Norbert Klein]

Avri Doria wrote:

>On 10 okt 2005, at 20.45, Laina Raveendran Greene wrote:
>
[snip]

>>I was very concerned about this kind of baseless rumour
>>mongering to raise people;s emotions that was being done both on  
>>the gov side as well as on CS side.
>>    
>>
>
>I don't think that mentioning a possibility is baseless rumor  
>mongering.  Now you may argue it is impossible, while others may  
>believe it is inevitable, but that is a matter of opinion and a  
>matter for discussion.  Putting down another persons argument as  
>baseless rumor mongering doesn't seem particularly helpful.
>  
>
Well, it is not baseless rumor mongering anyway. And it is not only 
mentioning a possibility - something like this actually did happen.

(sorry, the URL given here does not seem to work any longer - I copied 
it down a long time ago)

"Thu, Nov 22"  must have been 2001
 
= =
AP Via Excite - Updated: Thu, Nov 22 5:27 PM EST

http://news.excite.com/news/ap/011122/17/int-attacks-somalia
Somali Web Co. on US Suspects List
By OSMAN HASSAN, Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Somalia's only Internet company was forced to 
close it offices Thursday, two weeks after appearing on a U.S. list of 
organizations with suspected links to terrorism. Somali Internet Co. 
shut down after the United Arab Emirates' state-owned Internet service, 
Etisalat, canceled its international access, said Abdulkadir Hassan 
Ahmed Kadleh, administrator for the Somali firm. "I first thought it was 
a technical problem, but then when I called the Etisalat company in 
Dubai, the engineers informed us that it was an intentional freeze 
down," Kadleh told The Associated Press.

Somali Internet Co. is among 62 organizations and people the United 
States believes are funneling funds for international terror suspect 
Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network. The list was issued Nov. 7. 
The Mogadishu-based firm, created in 1998, is jointly owned by three 
Somali companies - Telecom Somalia, NationLink and Al-Barakaat. It has 
offices throughout southern Somalia. Al-Barakaat, Somalia's largest 
company, also is on the list and was forced to close its financial 
businesses, including a money transfer service vital to hundreds of 
thousands of impoverished Somalis, after its assets were frozen. On Nov. 
14, it also closed its international telephone service after U.S.-based 
Concert Communications, a joint venture between AT&T and British 
Telecom, cut off its international gateway. Al-Barakaat and Somali 
Internet Co. officials denied having links to terrorism. "This Internet 
company has nothing to do with terrorism," said Abdulaziz Haji, managing 
director of Telecom Somali. "It was losing money and it's only this year 
it just covered itself, so how can it provide somebody else with money?" 
Etisalat officials could not be contacted for comment Thursday. The Horn 
of Africa nation's banking and telecommunications systems collapsed 
during the decade of clan-based fighting that followed the ouster of 
dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

A transitional government elected in August 2000 but has yet to 
re-establish state institutions. In the meantime, private companies have 
offered some of Africa's cheapest phone services. "Many people are now 
losing their jobs, others will suffer because the services are now in a 
total stagnation," Somali Internet customer Mohamed Ali Farah said. "We 
will have to go back to the old days of using fax and expensive 
telephones so as to transmit our messages."
= =

Norbert
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