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[ga] Fwd: ICANN prepares a Congressional fix with Rick White's GIPinspired candidacy
>X-Sender: cook@pop3.netaxs.com
>Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 12:40:22 -0400
>To: Mikki Barry <ooblick@netpolicy.com>
>From: Gordon Cook <cook@cookreport.com>
>Subject: ICANN prepares a Congressional fix with Rick White's GIP inspired
> candidacy
>
>
>Miikki would you be kind enough to post this to the GA list on my
>behalf? Note that I fixed the at the very end what Bret had
>complained about. Of course please remove this sentence from post.
>
>>
>>
>>As ICANN moves to break its by laws one more time by nominating and
>>then placing ex congressman Rick White on its board lets look one
>>more time at its origins.
>>
>>They begin with Larry Landweber's October 1, 1995 memo to the ISOC
>>board detailing an ISOC master plan successfully carried out over
>>the past 4 years to place ISOC at the center and control of DNS and
>>the IANA functions. I published this memo in my report
>>http://cookreport.com/isoccontrol.shtml
>>
>>Who was at the table? Nick Trio of IBM and ISOC. Mike Nelson,
>>long time aide to Al Gore and about to be moved to the FCC for
>>"safekeeping" until the beginning of a Gore Administration. I can
>>pesonnally attest to Nelson's loyalty to IBM from my 1990-1992
>>experience with him at OTA. And how shocking when he finally went
>>to work for Cochetti and Patrick as part of the Global Internet
>>project earlier this year. Among his early duties fund raising for
>>ICANN.
>>
>>Who else? Ira Magaziner who, in early 1995, was assigned by
>>future ICANN fund raiser Tom Kalil to study the impact technology
>>developments on economic issues that could be leveraged by American
>>business and help ensure Clinton's re-election. What did Magaziner
>>focus on almost at the very beginning? The Internet. On a 15 city
>>tour of private meetings in late 95 early 96 he went in front of
>>businessmen to hear their concerns and get some sense of the policy
>>issues that would make electronic commerce take off. One key was
>>rejigering the telecom laws in a way that could be sold as allowing
>>more competition but would, in essence, allow unprecedented
>>concentration of the nation's telecommunications into a handful of
>>oligopolies that could use entities like the Global Internet
>>project as means for coordination of a world wide strategy. Al
>>Gore and Rick White gave us the 1996 telecom reform act and told us
>>how proud of themselves they were.
>>
>>With Clinton elected again in November of 1996, Magaziner told me
>>in September of 1998, that representatives of two large American
>>companies (IBM and ATT I'll bet) came to him in in November or
>>December of 1996 and warned him that internet commerce would never
>>get of the ground if the problem of misuse of corporate trademarks
>>in the DNS was not settled. This led to Lynn Beresford at PTO
>>getting ready to bring PTO and WIPO into the fray in january
>>1997. Magaziner would give the large corporations whatever they
>>needed to get the job done.
>>
>>One of these was an attorney from Wilmer Cutler - DC's consumate
>>political law firm. These folk get their credentials as corporate
>>lobbyists on the conveyor belt that moves back and forth between
>>firms like Wilmer Cutler and federal agencies. Becky Burr,a
>>Wilmer Cutler lawyer, who was at the FTC, was choosen and was moved
>>in January 97 into OMB under Sally Katzen where she was groomed to
>>head the nascent federal working group on DNS.
>>
>>Later in the Spring Burr was quietly moved to NTIA in the Commerce
>>Department where she would use agency cover to carry out the
>>Clinton administration's part of the bargain of extra legally
>>asserting her right to hand over control of internet names, numbers
>>and protocols to an industry group that would take on Jon Postel's
>>functions and provide him legal protection that he had long sought
>>and never received from ISOC. (At some point - a year later? David
>>Johnson, another Wilmer Cutler attorney would move to the growing
>>legal staff at NSI and, having established independent credentials
>>via his attack by George Conrades in Berlin, would become
>>responsible during the summer of 99 for bringing NSI into the
>>ICANN fold - a mission acheived only a week ago.)
>>
>>The brilliance of the Gore, Nelson, IBM strategy has been to
>>create, by stealth, an industry led group that could step in and
>>exert control over the net while keeping dissent bottled up and
>>Congress under control. One of the issues that had to have
>>occupied a percentage of the time of the IANA transition advisory
>>group put together in a private mail list by Jon Postel in February
>>98 was the selection of an attorney to, as Dave Farber has told me,
>>give Postel legal protection and plan for the creation of what
>>became ICANN.
>>
>>The makeup of ITAG was interesting. Not surprising -- all were
>>close friends Jon Postel. Jon Klensin was a member. Jon's other
>>tie was to Vint Cerf who had hired him as a consultant shortly
>>after movng to MCI from CNRI in 1994. And Vint's loyalties were
>>to ISOC and the IBM - MCI joint effort known as the GIP. Vint was
>>also a firm advocate of an early failed ISOC effort known as the
>>gTLD-MOU to declare Domain Name space a public resource that need
>>to be managed by a group like ISOC (see landweber's master plan)
>>or by ICANN.
>>
>>Geoff Huston of Telstra (the Australian PTT) was another ITAG
>>member. I suspect that he was the link to giving one of the two
>>"Asian" board seats to an Australian.
>>
>>Brian Carpenter was a key ITAG member. Brian worked at CERN
>>before, in 1995 or 96, he joined IBM and became chair o the
>>Internet architecture board. Brian moved to IBM's research center
>>in England and now has been brought to a new IBM funded internet
>>technology center in Chicago where he reports to the GIP's John
>>Patrick.
>>
>>R andy Bush one of Postel's closest followers and key technology
>>person at Verio was a member. Randy has now turned up as the key
>>member of the Non commercial domain name constituency within the
>>domain names supporting organization of ICANN.
>>
>>Steve Wolf ex director of DNCRI at NSF and now employee of Cisco
>>was a member. On December 10 1997, at the last minute I invited
>>Steve to join me in a meeting with Magaziner at the white house.
>>Steve accepted.
>>
>>Dave Farber Jon Postel's dissertation supervisor was also a
>>member. Farber a UPENN professor occupies a position in the
>>telecommunications world similar to that of Esther Dyson. He runs
>>a private one way mail list called "Interesting people" which by
>>his own admission goes to 25,000 subscribers globally. You can not
>>auto join this list but have to apply to him personally. One or 2
>>years ago Farber was named by Network World as one of the 25 most
>>influential people in the world in networking. The only academic
>>to make the list. Farber has been critical of ICANN, but his
>>critcism has strict limits.
>>
>>One of those directly involved told me last year that a "group of
>>Jon's friends got together and found him an attorney." As everyone
>>knows by now the attorney was Joe Sims formerly of the US justice
>>department and for the last 18 years with Jones, Day another power
>>house corporate law firm. Sims started off pro bono but has now
>>played the key role in creating ICANN as a legally protected entity
>>that can operate largely outside of civil law. Try finding someone
>>with standing to sue ICANN. You won't be able to.
>>
>>So where are we?
>>
>>One of the most perplexing things about the ICANN coup d'etat
>>against the Internet is the veiled warnings that ICANN has a task
>>and it must be allowed to finish it or the internet and electronic
>>commerce will fail. Patrick and Cerf have said it privately in
>>the strongest terms in their fund raising correspondence in June
>>but they have steadfastly refused to stand up in public and say
>>what they meant. This despite Patick Townson's tongue lashing of
>>them in front of 65,000 subscribers to telecom digest.
>>
>>In early November of last year I was told:
>>the DNS problem is a predictor of future public sector not for
>>profit organizations
>> it raises the issue of the existence of a community and it's stability
>> it will decide whether "adult" supervision is needed
>>
>>On August 22, 1999 Dave Farber sent the following to his IP list:
>>
>>Farber: After I sent out the two notes re the extension of the
>>Board, I am moved to explain my position on this extension. .
>>
>>I wish the Board had moved more rapidly to do the job they assumed
>>when they agreed to take office. What ever the reasons for the
>>delay, it would be unconscionable for the Board to stop doing its
>>task. Therefore I personally support the extension with two
>>provisoes. They are:
>>
>>1. Effective immediately all Board meetings be open . The only
>>closed meetings should be those dealing with personnel issues.
>>
>>2. The Board agrees to step down as soon as the properly
>>appointed/elcted board can take its seats. I would also personally
>>feel that all current Board members should terminate (with great
>>thanks from the community (I mean that) ) at that time.
>>
>>Dave [end of Farber quote.]
>>
>>When I asked on a private list (BWG) what Dave considered to be
>>the board's task that it would be unconsionable for them to stop
>>doing and what was the job they assumed when they agreed to take
>>office, I got no direct answer. When a couple of weeks later, I
>>asked for a specific scenario that cold be examined and tested as
>>to what might happen should ICANN fail, I receive a response that
>>ave was busy with classes and when he had his scenario ready he'd
>>publish it but not before.
>>
>>I responded that you would think that he and Vint and john Patrick
>>would have their arguments done by now. I suggest that in view of
>>the inability of these men to defend their assertions one may look
>>for the real reason as being too dangerous to discuss in public.
>>
>>I wrote the following in my december newsletter:
>>
>>The Answer to Why ICANN Must not Fail
>>
>>But now the other part of this picture also begins to come into
>>focus. This is the curious insistence of folk like Vint Cerf, John
>>Patrick and Dave Farber to say that if ICANN does not succeed, the
>>Internet and electronic commerce will fail. When asked for a
>>thorough and reasoned explanation of why, none of these men have an
>>answer. I suspect that I know why. The answer is that the
>>authority for DNS, IP number allocation and port assignment rested
>>not in law but in the consensual agreement of the Internet
>>community with Jon Postel. Now Postel is gone. The Department of
>>Commerce, without a shred of legal authority to do so, has stepped
>>up to and asserted, like General Haig, that it is in control now.
>>It will hold the reigns of power until it can turn them over to
>>ICANN. This is why ICANN must not fail because it would then be
>>revealed to the world and especially to investors in the high
>>flying Internet stocks that no single legal authority existed over
>>the operation of the Internet's address system.
>>
>>Network Solutions had the financial and legal muscle to bring a
>>court case challenging DoC's authority. Therefore, ICANN and DoC
>>had no choice but to give in and guarantee Network Solution's
>>future. Behind the scenes in Washington a frenzied search for
>>anything that could be used to grant DoC authority over the DNS and
>>the other IANA functions has been carried out duing the months o
>>July and August. It has been a failure. There is no authority to be
>>found. Consequently, Cerf, Farber, and Patrick plead that ICANN
>>must finish the task, but are silent when asked why. They simply
>>cannot afford to call attention to the fact that the king at
>>Commerce has no clothes. With a naked king, they are desperate to
>>clothe the ICANN crown prince until it can transfer power.
>>
>>(I have recently published to several lists Glenn Manishen's
>>draft of a brief on why commerce has no legal authority to do what
>>it is doing. I won't repeat that here.)
>>
>>The Geatest Danger Facing ICANN
>>
>>At this point only a serious examination by the United States
>>Congress could derail ICANN. In June NSI used its influence on the
>>Hill and got the commerce committee to issue a series of nasty
>>requests to ICANN. On July 22 NSI's new CEO Jim Rutt got his head
>>handed to him by behaving in front of the committee as he had been
>>coached to behave. I have primary evidence that the attorney's who
>>prepared past NSI CEO's for their congressional appearances did not
>>prep Rutt. Rutt had handlers and the handlers betrayed him. I
>>suspect but cannot prove at this point that Wilmer Cutler's David
>>Johnson was the chief handler. From two separate sources I know
>>that he was critical (once Rutt blew his congressional opportunity)
>>in crafting the agreement with Commerce that put NSI and ICANN in
>>bed with each other on October 1.
>>
>>I also have known and complained about since September of 1997 of
>>the extraordinary access to Becky Burr that Marilyn Cade on behalf
>>of ATT and Roger Cochetti on behalf of IBM (both of the GIP)
>>enjoyed. People in both companies told folk outside their
>>corporations about the inside track their firms had gained in
>>access to ms. Burr. Those folk confided in me two years ago and
>>their stories now check out totally.
>>
>>If the republicans had the basic intelligence to add two and two
>>and get four, they could issue a raft of subpoenas for future
>>hearings that would bear eloquent testimony to the clinton
>>administrations use of Burr in an alliance with ISOC to give away
>>control of internet to an extralegal inter-governmental entity
>>whose masters are more comfortable with OSI and the ITU than with
>>the technology responsible for the success of the Stupid Network.
>>
>>Cade came out of Woody Kerkeslager's office at ATT. Kerkeslager
>>(since retired) was ATT Vice president of governmental affairs and
>>as such was responsible for seeing that things went the regulatory
>>way that benefitted AT&T.. He also was well known in 1990-1992 for
>>deriding this rediculous Interrnet as a technology that was dead
>>end, would never go anywhere and should be put out of its misery.
>>
>>But CADE and Cochetti on the outside, with Burr as their mole at
>>NTIA, have now found through Rick White's cultivation of the GIP in
>>97 and 98 their perfect shill to silence republican members of
>>commerce. You will remember that Jon Cohen touted White's Icann
>>board candidacy ten days ago as Marilyn Cades "secret candidate."
>>Cade meanwhile pulled out all the stops to propel White into office
>>despite the fact that White has no legal standing for the position
>>for which he is being promoted.
>>
>>In the Friday teleconference where candidates presented their views
>>White in the opinion of observers was coached. White, it is said,
>>asserted that ICANN should try to succeed in the long term by
>>recognizing that there were boundaries it its mandate. It must not
>>fail because, if successful, the ICANN model could be used****
>>for "another" private body *****that might do more and address
>>other issues. White allegedly was adament that ICANN has and should
>>respect a limited focus. Where he believed the bodes of ICANN's
>>authority to lie was unclear. White, as a grade-a shill whom his
>>critics believe says what ever keeps his constituents happy, will
>>be put on the ICANN board to shut congress up. (IN my opinion this
>>will happen dispite a well aimed requestion from Ellen R ony on
>>Monday october 11 that elizabeth portneuve certify whether White's
>>candidacy was legal.)
>>
>>ICANN will spawn successor groups as White predicted. Content
>>control of the internet will be next on the ICANNite agenda. Web
>>site licensing anyone?
>
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