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'Divide' and Conquer?
OpinionJournal ^ | November 16, 2005 | CLAUDIA ROSETT

Posted on 11/16/2005 12:08:28 PM PST by Daralundy

If Paul Revere were alive today, he'd have his midnight work cut out for him. Most likely he'd be spreading the alarm not on horseback, but by Internet: The U.N. is coming! The U.N. is coming!

The United Nations' so-called World Summit on the Information Society opens today in Tunis, Tunisia, proposing to set up U.N. sway over the Internet under the slogan of bridging the "digital divide." But that's the wrong metaphor. This three-day jamboree is a U.N. turf grab: the latest case of the U.N. misinterpreting its noble mandate to promote peace as a license to take a piece of anything it can get.

For anyone who cares about the vast freedoms and opportunities afforded by the Internet--for pajama-clad bloggers, for journalists, for businessmen and especially for people in the poorest countries--it is time for a call to arms. Sen. Norm Coleman, whose investigations into U.N. corruption have provided him with more insight than most into the cracks and chasms of that aging institution, has already warned in The Wall Street Journal against the possibility of Tunis becoming a "digital Munich." Whether America retains control over the root directory or some other setup ultimately evolves, the clear bottom line right now is that allowing the U.N. to involve itself in these questions is the wrong answer. A U.N. unable even to audit its own accounts or police its own peacekeepers has no business making even a twitch toward control of the Internet.

Worse, the corruption and incompetence at U.N. headquarters, however disturbing, are the least of the problems linked to the U.N.'s bid to control interconnectivity. The deeper trouble is that the U.N. has embraced the same tyrants who in the name of helping the downtrodden are now seeking via Internet control to tread them down some more.

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: internet; tunis; unitednations; wsis

1 posted on 11/16/2005 12:08:29 PM PST by Daralundy
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To: Daralundy

Another example of the U.N. trying to wrest power and control for themselves, and away from the United States. Thank God we have John Bolton at the U.N. He has already fought their plans for Global taxes on everything from telephone calls to airplane flights, along with the plan for the U.S. to pay a percentage of our GDP to them. Let's make John Bolton permanent!


2 posted on 11/16/2005 12:29:31 PM PST by Slow Lane (Nill Illigitimi Carborundum)
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To: Daralundy
The UN taking over the Internet? Up until just a few months ago I would have said: "It's never going to happen". However ... you never know what our "Republicans" are going to do to appease the left to take away our freedom of speech. They gave us McCain/Feingold, didn't they?
3 posted on 11/16/2005 12:39:40 PM PST by manwiththehands
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To: manwiththehands

i think the Muslems will not be the only ones we will need to fight to win the war on terror.


4 posted on 11/16/2005 12:52:46 PM PST by Khepera (Do not remove by penalty of law!)
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