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Communists, Control of the Internet

Castro hoards internet access for Fidel

By Judi McLeod
Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Fidel Castro, whose country was hooked up to the Internet, courtesy of a 501(a) american charity, wants Internet control out of U.S. hands.

Now there's gratitude for you, Teresa Heinz.

Even though Uncle Sam officially broke off relations with Havana under the 1961 Trading with the enemy act, in 1991, Teresa Heinz, using a Canadian connection funded by her Tides Foundation, linked the Communist country up to the Internet.

The Toronto-based Web/NIRV, Canadian affiliate of the Institute for Global Communications (IGC) and its offshoot, the association for Progressive Communications (aPC) used a 64 KBPS undersea cable linking Cuba to the information highway.

IGC, incidentally keeps the United Nations online.

What might appear to be an act of generosity by the Tides Foundation may be more a political act.

In Cuba, only people with government permission can access the Internet. Owning computer equipment is prohibited, and online writers have been imprisoned according to Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based free speech watchdog group.

"Fidel Castro, the unflinching promoter of the use of new technologies" believes "it is necessary to create a multinational democratic (institution) which administers this network of networks," the delegate from Cuba told the recent UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunisia.

Siding with Castro was Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe,

"The U.S. and other Western nations "insist on being world policemen on the management of the Internet," said Mugabe. "Those who have supported nihilistic and disorderly freedom of expression are beginning to see the fruits" of their efforts, Mugabe said, adding that Zimbabwe will be "challenging the bully-boy mentality that has driven the unipolar world."

Mohammad Soleymani, Iran's minister of communication and information technology also chose the WSIS summit to grouse about US control of the Internet.

Too often, the Internet is used for the "propagation of falsehoods", Soleynmani said.

Nobody can heave a sigh of relief that the Tunisia summit did not see management of the worldwide net changing hands.

The deal resulted in the creation of another opportunity to wrest Internet governance from the California-based Internet Corporation for assigned Names and Numbers (ICaNN).

The UN Internet Governance Forum is expected to meet in Greece in 2006.


Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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