Battleangel

A summary of not so well documented ICANN-related abuses of 2005 as well as more proof that the US is misusing its privileged position to further its own agenda. Proof that the current organization, as masterminded by the US government, is stifling liberty, free enterprise and possibly in the end free speech itself by a manipulative, authoritarian rule that has gotten worse in the past year. The US has set a disturbing precedent with its shifting of ownership, and marginalization, even trumped up criminal charges and assassination of and against previous owners.

The Register - 2005 will be forever seen as the year in which the US government managed to keep unilateral control of the internet, despite widespread opposition by the rest of the world.

[…] on 28 July 2005 at a special board meeting of internet overseeing organisation ICANN, ownership of both Iraq (.iq) and Kazakhstan (.kz) was changed […]

At that meeting, consciously and for the first time, ICANN used a US government-provided reason to turn over Kazakhstan’s internet ownership to a government owned and run association without requiring consent from the existing owners. The previous owners, KazNIC, had been created from the country’s Internet community.
ICANN then immediately used that “precedent” to hand ownership of Iraq’s internet over to another government-run body, without accounting for any objections that the existing owners might have.

Previously it had always been the case that ICANN would take no action (and only ICANN, through IANA, can actually change ownership of a ccTLD) unless both sides were in complete agreement. Now, ICANN had set itself up as the de facto world authority on who should run different parts of the Internet.

So ICANN and the US has gone gone from “lets talk about it and make sure everyone agrees” to “we do whatever we damn well please.” Apparently the US will manipulate the domain ownership and management just as they do nations and resources, only of course this is not given any media attention, despite its importance.

When the US government took over Afghanistan in 2001, it was fortunate in that the current ccTLD owner was killed during bombing of Kabul. It simple forged the man’s signature on a piece of paper handing over control to the US-created authority and the job was done.

Control of Iraq’s domain was far more complicated however. The .iq domain was registered instead to two brothers living in the US. The Elashi brothers and other members of their family at the time were also in US jail awaiting trial for funding terrorists - which in the end amounted to shipping computer parts to Libya and Syria and for which they all received hefty sentences.

People who cannot understand the dangers of the policy either don’t understand ICANN as well as they claim or they think that politics should oversee the institution. Which I thought would fly in the face of the ideological mindset of those that extoll ICANN. Isn’t that “communist talk” after all? Now how do you like that you right-wing libertarian-leaning scum? Breaking up private enterprises and handing over ccTLD management to political government organizations? Lets see if you can wriggle and flip-flop out of that you slimy bastards.