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

[veni markovski]

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.