Slashdot Mirror
Rebuilding Iraq's Internet
Anselm writes "According to this article at Wired.com, "The war has left Iraq's Internet infrastructure in shambles. Now, a British ISP hopes to fund the reconstruction through sales of domain names ending in .iq." While I have no use for an IQ domain, the article does make me wonder: Should geeks around the world take the lead in getting Iraq back online?"
Try and feed them first.
Boo freakady who. Iraq has so many other problems right now. Why dont geeks send MONEY, FOOD to local companies like CARE that help the people of Iraq. By providing food, 100% of the people can use it. how many iraq's have a computer much less have ever been online? Yeah, in a year or two from now, when people are feed and they are dying for disesases, then worry abou rebuilding the internet systems...
...Iraq is going to become a world power in open-relays and general SPAMishness?
Blar.
Geeks should definitely get involved and they should do it through GeekCorps since that works through the PeaceCorps and international organizations.
Suicide Booth: You are now dead! Thank you for using Stop and Drop, America's favorite since 2008.
Does it mean that geeks are the group of people running around with a lotta cash in hands to do this sort of thing?
Also it makes me wonder what kind of an internet infrastructure Iraq had in the first place! The article is sketchy on that!
Yes, because, God knows, getting on the 'Net is every Iraqi's first priority at the moment.
How does this help the Iraqi people? All this does is give the rest of the world more domain space, while not giving Iraq the full value of their "property".
Why couldn't it be an Iraqi company that sells the domains? This would allow the country to keep all of the proceeds, instead of only getting some of the value.
I'm not against the UK, the US, France or anybody, but I think this might be one area where this company is being opportunistic.
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base!
Online Starcraft RPG? At
Dietary fiber is like asynchronous IO-- Non-blocking!
I thought Halliburton had a lucrative contract to do this too?
evil adrian
I am sure Internet access for non government use is pritty low on the list. things like Food, Rebuiling infrastructure, maintaining political stability. Is more of a priority. But after that getting a good Internet connection is important if they want to compeet in todays buisness market. Who know if you do it right they will have a better country network layout then the rest of the world. I am just more aftraid of getting spam from mighty.iq or something.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I'd like to know what happened to this Iraqi's web blog. It was an interesting read at the beginning of the war.
--
Does anyone remember
Here's a weblog by an Iraqi citizen living in Baghdad: "Where is Raed?" I think all of you will find it to be of great interest. (BTW, I hope he survived the war. His last post was Mrch 24.)
The Iraqi people have been living without adequate food and water under an oppressive regime for the past 20 years.
Apparently, they've also been living without adequate access to online pornography, too.
We'll wait for someone else to fix those first two things.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Speaking of which, anyone have any info on the whereabouts of Salem Pax?
My
Limekiller
I see Iraq as a great oppurtunity to experiment. You've got this large area of land that isn't infected with shitty phone lines, yet full of people that could use the internet. I'd say lay plans for an extensive cable network, or perhaps try out a wireless mesh / hive method.
After that, at least one country is not going to be held back by crappy monopolies, technology-wise at least. It'd be great to point at Iraq and say, "See, this works. We should do this." At the same time, the Iraqi people are gonna have a piping fast internet connection, or at least one that can handle a load of 20 million people hitting the porn sites all at once.
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
The oppurtunity after the situation stabilizes is great. In Afghanisthan a man with a 10,000 $ investment made 500,000 $ in a matter of 6-8 months buying property and selling it.
Trying to fund the reconstruction through this effort is fine but one has to be aware that there are also chances that domain name squatters will take over.
They don't need our money to build an isp or some such thing. There really are, you know, more important things than the internet. They need food, medicine, and a little help rebuilding a government. Once that's done, they need to be left alone, and they need us as far away from them as possible. And I say that, having been in support of our actions from even before we started ;)
Doesn't rebuilding the Internet in Iraq require other critical resources first?
You know.... like ELECTRICITY?
Seriously, this is pathetic! Basically some company trying to profit off selling country code domain names to sites not in the country, while there's still too much chaos for anyone inside the country to take notice!
You're asking one of two questions:
Q) "I'm planning to do something to help rebuild Iraq's communications. Is that a good idea?"
A)That's great! Bless you!
Q) "Should "we" / "the community" / hackers / geeks do something to help rebuild Iraq's communications?"
A) Uhhh, sure. Go open a Sourceforge project.
Re: .iq domains -- I can see high.iq and low.iq going, and probably sex.iq. I suspect oil is going to continue to drive their economy, though.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
.IQ... No, not for Iraq. Maybe like a .NEWB
If you can't say something nice, make sure you have something heavy to throw.
Because I could make it the next Darwin Awards and Computer Stupidities site. And bash.org, LOOK OUT!
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
Because it was so absolutely fantastic even before the first cruise missile was launched at Baghdad.
Typical leftie FUD.
Just like Afghanistan, except that over there at least they managed to dig out their C64's and connect over a 2400 baud modem and email Katz with alacrity.
In any case, I'm sure Iraq has bigger problems right now, like, oh, food and water.
why don't we give the contract to Halliburton.
1. Sell .iq domains (incidentally making fistfuls of money)
2. ???
3. Rebuild the Iraq infastructure
Together, we will drive the rats from the tundra.
Should geeks around the world take the lead in getting Iraq back online
Before Gulf war 1 Iraq wasn't that badly off. 2 episodes of having the stuffing knocked out of them by the USA, with a decade of brutal sanctions in-between have reduced them to poverty. I'd say that the USA owes the ordinary people of Iraq big time.
Is food, water, electricity, abcense of falling bombs and no armed bandits or looters more important? Well duh. But if and when you get past rebuilding those, the Internet is a marvelous communications mechanism. Communications aid free speech and democracy, or so I'm told.
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
No one said they should spend the money they receive for food and health instead on Internet access. They simply want to build the Internet infrastructure in Iraq into something that can be used by the masses. I would say freedom of information coincides quite nicely with the coalitions effort to build Iraq into a land free people. Pulling these people out of the knowldege embargo imposed by Saddam Hussein and his regime will help freedom survive in an area of the world that is known for it's denial of free information to citizens. Knowledge _IS_ power. When Iraqi citizens can get equal acess to information they can see other side of the coin, instead of the state controlled side only. Why do you think so many totalitarian governments want to control the Internet access to their countries (CHINA)? So it does coincide with the freedom initiative quite well.
Besides you have to start the plans now to rebuild if you want to get it done later. This type of rebuilding is going to last a lifetime and take a tremendous amount of planning and effort.
If people in the US and the UK value their lives, they will resist the impulse to try to turn Iraq into a colony that is run for corporate profit. (And yes, that's what this is, even though these guys are masquerading as a charity: they intend to take a cut from selling the "high.iq" domain). Iraq's domain namespace belongs to the Iraqi people, not to a clever British IT consultancy. Similarly, the decision as to whether to deploy GSM or CDMA belongs to the future Iraqi government, not to a congressman in the pocket of Qualcomm. Next, we'll see a bunch of Midwestern farmers clamor to get the government to buy up their grain and dump it on Iraq, thereby setting back efforts to rebuild Iraqi agriculture (which employs far more Iraqis than the oil industry does).
We're now at a tipping point: we can either insist that Iraq be run in the interest of Iraqis, or we can allow it to be taken over by a bunch of cronies and lobbyists. If the latter happens, we'll generate so much hate that it will be unsafe for Americans and Brits to travel abroad.
This is the perfect opportunity to allow AOL to try and get a monopoly in a new market!
...Of course it can't be called AOL... because the A stands for America, and we don't want to give the impression that we're colonizing the place
and well.. IOL (Iraq Online),,, might offend others who have connote the word Iraq with Saddam...
Well perhaps we could just tear something down and put it on ebay!
Why can't we set up kind of a geeky Red Cross to deliver free or heavily subsidised computer equipment and internet connections to war torn countries?
Surely it would go a long way to helping such countries as Iraq get back on their feet.
Of course, we have yet to see how things will turn out there, and with the power vacuum it might well turn out that the people put in place a lunatic like they did in Iran, but that's certainly no reason for us to be cautious before we give them plenty of things that many U.S. communities don't even have yet. Lets take from our own people and give to the people that hate us, just look at how well that has served us throughout the world.
But don't just go by my opinion, ask our good friends the French.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Anybody heard of the Iraqi blogger since the end of March?
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
The .iq TLD should belong to the people of Iraq. They should have the final say as to who gets access to it. Selling it off like .tv and .cx today would basicly mean that this ISP is taking advantage of these people because their government is in shambles. Shame on them.
-molo
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
Why should "geeks around the world" take the lead on this? Why shouldn't we let the Iraqis do this? Granted, the present owner is having issues...one of the technical contacts for .iq is presently being held by the feds for contact with Hamas, but I really think that this would be better handled by the Iraqis themselves.
If they want help, we should absolutely offer it, but I don't like the implied statement of "Let's take this thing of the Iraqis, make something that we think is cool out of it, and then claim we're helping them with it."
mcdonalds.iq, yahoo.iq, and amazon.iq
Shall we start the bidding at $1 million each?
"Should geeks around the world take the lead in getting Iraq back online?"
i'll donate a few copies of RedHat
Is it important for your child to succed in life?
3 hf02
Want to raise your childs IQ?
Visit http://raiseyourchilds.iq/?2lj0398lkj4f2nhni2o3f2
...The one way for Slashdot Trolls to up their IQ past 20.
If American, British, and Aussie geeks formed a coalition and ...
- A real programmer uses $ cat > a.out
Would make for great datacenters. Does any other place in the world have a higher density of nuclear resistant underground bunkers?
I am sure the US bunker buster bombs didn't get them all.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
I'd say there would be enough problems keeping the general population alive after a destructive war. Focus on that first! I don't think you'll find a single Iraqi who gives a shit about the internet at present..
Learn from the mistakes of others. There isn't enough time to make them all yourself.
genius.iq is already taken?
Kind thoughts do not change the world
The reconstruction of Iraq has already been handed off to politically-connected construction and contracting companies, and thus is inherently completely corrupt. If you get involved with it, you are contributing to a corrupt situation and are, by extension, tainted by it.
The correct thing to do here is to let international aid groups move in and give the Iraqis what they actually need: dependable sources of drinking and bathing water, rebuilt housing and infrastructure (IE roads and electric power), food they're accustomed to, and a little dignity. THIS means, fire Halliburton and let the U.N. handle the reconstruction (with generous funding from us). We shouldn't have started this war in the first place; now that it's over we should pull out and fund a U.N. driven recovery.
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
FOOD/ELECTRICITY FIRST!
Well, duh. But Iraq is no third or fourth world country. This is a fairly rich country with a pretty educated work force. Do they need Internet first? No, but will internet infastructure improve life? YES.
Internet access is very much like phone lines. It's not just for leisure anymore-it moves information REALLY efficiently.
Anyone who suggests otherwise should get their heads out of the 90s.
So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
Just wait until the first time they click on a goatse link.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Here is a link to view sites under the (former) Iraqi government controlled ISP.
Rich
I'm quite sure that people are aware of the fact that damn near all of the Iraqi infrastructure is pretty well hosed.
We're not that dumb.
Instead of pissing and moaning about a company that seems to be acting like vultures circling over roadkill, perhaps consider the possibility that they might be looking into the long term?
Yes the Iraqi people need food and water, that's a given. Yes they need stable power before the 'net can be rebuilt (that qualifies as a "no shit Sherlock"). But these are short term goals. If you want stability in the area you need to build (or in this case help build) a stable government and you need an economic foundation.
It's a wonderful thing that SoDamn Insane is either dead or so far in hiding that they have to import sunlight. It's the greatest thing in the Iraqi world since sliced bread that the regime is falling down under the "Rolling Victory" of the US/UK troops. It's a blessed thing that food, water and other humanitarian aid is starting to trickle in as areas get cleared out.
But without some way to build an economy, then it's all for naught. The Iraqi love us now. If we left them as a bombed out huck of a country then the attitude would change, they would hate us and we would probally end up once again with another warlord like Saddam and more terrorist acts against us.
Frankly I'd like to think that by helping them re-build and to become a player in the global economy (for which the internet is a damn handy tool), then the goodwill for the US/UK will grow and we'll have another ally in the middle east.
Or did you think that we'd just go over there, blow a whole lot of shit up for fun and oil profits then bugger back home in time for the summer trips to Disney World?
Phoenix
-- Wiccan Army, 13th Airborne Division "We will not fly silently into the night"
just let me know when i can buy www.high.iq
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
There is extensive fiber oprtics networks all through baghdad- of course they were used for military purposes.
The best thing to do would be to repair the damaged sections and use that as a starting point after they have a government.
low.iq
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
Next Archer Daniels Midland will 'volunteer' several Tonnes (tons ?) of gene mod grain that will displace the native grown stuff, AND not reproduce, thereby completing the dependency cycle set up by the WMF, and WTO.
Everyone knows when it is done for your own good everything always comes out in the end, right ?
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
SonOfTheSnake.saddam.iq
MrBush.saddam.iq
ChemicalAli.saddam.iq
Damn, that'd make some cool naming for a warez se--- errr, linux distribution site.
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Well, there IS a stockpile of unused AOL CDs in the US, many of them in stylish metal jewel cases. (Which by the way if you spray paint to remove the offending logo, become useful and are quite durable).
SCO to Hell
telnet smtp.mail.iq 25 mail from: geek@high.iq rcpt to: ...
data
hehe
.
quit
www.potablewater.iqi rstaid.iq
www.wheretogetfood.iq
www.f
www.stopthelooting.iq
Which will not matter one bit until all the electricity is on and some sort of infrastructure is set up. From what I understand, very few Iraqis had access to the Internet.
Andrew Borntreger
Champion of cinematic disasters
Excellent. Someone actually got that joke.
The preceding comment has been reviewed and declared to be compliant with HIPPA Phase II regulations.
I mean, really.
First of all, the war is not over. Yet.
Second, what the hell kind of question is Should geeks around the world take the lead in getting Iraq back online? "Take the lead"? Yeah, let's all go to Home Depot and pick up spools of cat5e cable and get on one of those "human shield" buses that aren't needed any longer and get to stringing. Not only are there many other priorities as others have pointed out but more likely than not you're calling on people that don't do volunteer work in their own communities to do some unspecified good deeds far far away.
You don't need to ask slashdot if there are things to be done. If you want to help, then help, but you're asking the wrong people. You need to ask the Iraqis what they want and need (see above link on human shields). Perhaps you can contact the Iraqi Forum for Democracy or take a look at iraqipages.com for other contacts. If you are of a mind to do good works, help in your local community, which probably needs it since international attention is not focused on it and there are no lucrative contracts to be had.
I'm not knocking your willingness to help. I think it's great. I think posting here is barking up the wrong tree though. Perhaps you can find out what really needs to be done and make a page for others to visit and contribute what they can.
Can't wait to see some of the new domain names.
And of course a 90.iq pointing to goatsex
The true needs of the Iraqi people, like food and water, are what's most important right now. But things like Internet cafes seems like something we should be pushing for. The more that anybody knows about how the rest of the world works, the less likely it is that they will want to destroy it.
If Iraqi's knew, for example, how peaceful life is in America, even for people like them, perhaps the few who hate us would be more likely to want to bring the same peace to Iraq, rather than deprive us of it.
Yeah, look how well .tv did.
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
I don't understand the sentiment of posters who complain that this is a dumb idea because they need help with food/water first, etc... blah.
/. readers wouldn't be able to physically help deliver meal packets or dig wells (ay least not as ably as the Red Cross or United Way could), so why not do something else that you CAN do?
The best way to help the Iraqi's is to contribute whatever you can the best you can. If you're a skilled IT professional who can donate time to help rebuild their IT infrastructure.. GREAT! Why should anybody be complaining about that?
Sure they need food. But there are PLENTY of agencies that can help with that and if you can donate some money to that cause, wonderful. It shouldn't stop you from contributing your niche knowledge too.
When it comes to hands on skill I'll bet the vast majority of the
As a community the readership does have a skill in a particular industry and to suggest that the Iraqis won't need that kind of help because of other problems is nonsense. The sooner everyone does what they can according to their abilities the sooner we'll all be better off.
We should get Junis over from Afghanistan to help them out. I hear he's a pro at getting the internet up and running on the crudest of devices.
Sure, they need food and safe water first, but there is a future in Iraq that people can think and talk about. There's already huge aid packages being put together.
Iraq needs an economy in order to become self-sufficient. Things like this ARE going to be important. Let's try to make Iraq into a prosperous country.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
I'm not too sure that Arabs, Persians, Kurds and Turkmens would like lots of western carpet baggers running around making barrels of money and taking it all out of thier country. That is what a bunch of geeks going to Iraq would basically be. There's pleantly of locals in the area that attended western schools that can do the job.
As long as we can do a special DNS trick or proxy trick to Al-Jazeera :P
StarTux
Excellent plan. That's what you did in Afghanistan (the first time, and probably this time too as they seem to have dropped off the media). Then you created a breeding ground for the Taleban and a home for bin Laden.
They'll still have the 2nd (?) largest reserves of oil in the world, unless you steal it, and so be able to rearm in no time.
Try to keep a longer attention span. You've destroyed two countries so far (Iran, Syria, North Korea in the queue). Now rebuild them, or be watching your backs forever after. Life is not a video game, it isn't "GAME OVER" when you take the presidential palace, it's just beginning.
And hand them a big fat pile of money to start off from scratch again. No strings attached. Ok? That is the only thing that would be fair.
I was thinking of taking my soon-to-be-printed CS diploma to Iraq and start an ISP or something. In fact, I even wrote e-mail to the Iraqi embassy a few weeks ago and asked how to get a Visa. Funny thing: they never answered me.
I'm seriously looking into GOING THERE to work with setting them up on Linux before someone else goes in and f*cks them all up on winblows!
There's a fortune to be made there and NOW is the time to get in on it!!
I would be interested in buying some *.iq address's from an Iraqi owned/based registrar.
I am NOT interested in an auction.
Nor in sending my money to a 3rd party.
Ensure that the profits and control are in the hands of Iraqis, and I'm in.
----- LoboSoft specializes in Digital Language Lab
However I would like to register high.iq
"If you have done 6 impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways" -- hhgg
I have seen too many people making references to Iraq by appending other country's values to it. So read this from the CIA
/ iz.html
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos
It has information like literacy rates, religions, etc. I was surprised by a few things, for example, I thought all Iraqis were Arabs, but it turns out there are a fair amount of Turks, Assyrians etc.
I hope they can become a shining example of democracy in a region that is dominated by dictators.
After all, Italy, Germany and Japan have it pretty well now!
--Joey
...and probably this time too as they seem to have dropped off the media...
Bzzzt. Wrong. The fact that whatever media you are paying attention to is too inadequate to prevent this misunderstanding on your part tells me a great deal right off the bat.
Try to keep a longer attention span
I am. Here's my long term plan; every now and then we invade, wipe out whatever troublemaker regime has managed to evolve and then leave. Again. Has this not been the normal state of affairs throughout Iraqi history? Who are we to presume to change this?
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
Maybe you might want to send them the actual cash rather than buy an extra domain name.
C'mon. Next you'll be suggesting that we buy big cars that get 15 mi/gallon so stimulate Iraq's economy
Just last night I was listening to the shopping list of problems at Baghdad hospitals right now and thought to myself "well, I'm no help with that, but if they've got IT problems, I'd go help."
I realize there are far bigger issues in the conflict, and the world; but as another poster said, I'm a lot better at fixing technology then at fixing people or giving away food.
I'm not sure if there really is a requirement for an IT Peace Corp, but it's a nice idea. Post-war nerd squad to setup communications infrastructure. Internet, TV, radio, cell phones, we can do all that stuff.
Geeks Without Borders. Attractive idea.
Democracy? Internet? These are not the traditional ways of the Iraqi people. Let's restore Baghdad to the grandeur it has as capital of the Arab Empire, and visit it as a theme park. Best of both worlds: they get their traditions restored, and we get another Disneyland.
But seriously, we won the war largely because of strategies enabled by our information systems. The advantage of good information systems also applies to economic opportunities, not just military. And to rebuild a simple oil economy is a recipe for disaster just as soon as oil runs short or new technologies greatly lessen the use of it.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
This really is a social issue. That makes it the last thing you want geeks involved with. They'll almost be as bad as one of those military types.
Sounds like a good idea. Mensa would be all over www.high.iq
"EyeL.iq" (I like you... seriously, I do)
and "retarded.iq"
I might actually want the second one.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
... in an area where children die from drinking water from the local river. Get the "life support" infrastructure back to "up and running" state, then think about getting the internet up.
Because, you know, the most efficient way for water engineers, doctors, and all the other people who make "life support" infrastructure work involves communication via messengers in jeeps. Get real! There are massive challenges facing the people trying to rebuild that infrastructure, and they're going to need access to information and expertise from outside of their local area. Setting up an improved telecommunications infrastructure could help get those water treatment plants, hospitals, etc up and running again faster than would otherwise be possible.
0 1 - just my two bits
That would be the LAST thing on my list of what needs to be done/rebuilt in Iraq. Lets start by 1) Start taking care of the refugees and rebuilding new housing 2) Organizing the new government and placing leaders in areas 3) Creating a defense system for the new government so a new dictator doesn't just come back 4) Figure out who runs the Oil - Once all these are done then we can worry about luxuries like the internet, television, etc...
Ave Molech Setting
From the office of Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf (aka Baghdad Bob):
"Republican guards have secured in Iraqi Internet services!"
More at 11.
Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.
I think before CITRI plants their flag in Baghdad, they might want to consider the fact that somebody already owns the .iq root server.
From linked page:
Sponsoring Organization:
Alani Corp.
c/o InfoCom
630 International Parkway
Richardson, Texas 75081
United States
I'll pass up expected comment about Texans owning a chunk of Iraq... </troll>
"[T]he single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom." -- Barry Goldwater
Perhaps I should have specified the popular media. But even on the BBC, you're lucky to hear one Afghan story a day.
I am. Here's my long term plan; every now and then we invade, wipe out whatever troublemaker regime has managed to evolve and then leave.
Go for it. Every twelve years elect a sockpuppet, invade, bankrupt your economy, knock a few points off global GDP, and create another million potential suicide bombers. Much more fun than the tedious work of building up a real democracy, as worked tolerably well in Germany and Japan after WWII.
In any case, the backroom boys' plan is to have a long term base in Iraq where you can base troops and bombers to project power throughout the Middle East. They know that Saudi Arabia is the real problem, (that's where Osama and his buddies come from, after all), and that would be an excellent way to keep them in line. Maybe you should just gas all the Iraqis and blame Saddam for that to prevent any interference.
The fall of Sadam-net?
That has been the case since the fall of the Soviet Union and will be true for at least another decade, when China gets its legs.
The point being, now everyone knows it. The gloves are off and the neo-cons will strike while the iron is hot. On the one hand, the U.S. denies that it intends to hit Syria and Iran next and on the other hand they're already setting up to do exactly that.
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.
Actually I agree, but I dont think the UN should set foot in Iraq if we are footing the bill both in dollars and blood to free Iraq
How does having an internet infrastructure improve the odds of freedom of information? China has quite the infastructure, judging by all the spammers, yet they don't have freedom of information. Also, the US had freedom of information (to one degree or other) before computers, although they didn't have as much knowledge.
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
I can almost picture the meeting between Bush and Blair. "We get the oil, you can have the domain names!"
- find the guy behind Dear Raed and get him back online. (And find out if the story's true)
After that we can talk email access for Baghdadis trying to contact relatives abroad.
Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.
!Sig
Absolutely, but not before giving at least a small contribution to the World Food Programme, which is in desperate need of funds to combat starvation in both Iraq and sub-Saharan Africa at the same time. Then there will be enough people alive to use the internet!
"Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
Just stick a pipe into the ground and pump the oil. They'd live like kings if it wasn't for embargo imposed on them by the rest of the world. I'm not saying the embargo wasn't necessary, it was, but it would be stupid to think that they're poor. Second largest oil reserves in the world - that's a lot of dough sitting under them.
Iraq's people have just emerged from a 25+ year unjust prison sentence.
We were willing to inflict upon them the horrors of war, in an effort to win them a better life. Anyone who hesitates to give whatever they can to help them win through to happiness is either a hypocrite, a coward, or simply a scoundrel.
No disrespect to the soldiers risking their lives, but the hard work for everyone ELSE begins NOW.
-Styopa
I will help them by giving them a free domain: www.i-have-no.iq I wonder if someone whould want it...
the bush administration secretly bought a few .iq domain names:
weaponsofmassdestruction.iq
chemicalweapons.iq
nuclearweapons.iq
official cited the domain names as clear evidence of banned Iraqi weapons program. Mr Bush was overheard saying "I told you so." It was unclear as to whether Mr. Bush was commenting on the Iraqi weapons domain names or a domain name registered by Mr. Bush: my.iq
From the CIA World Factbook:
Population:
24,001,816 (July 2002 est.)
Internet users:
12,500 (2001)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
1 (2000)
Government IS the problem.
Yes - let's squat on all the .iq domains. That should help them immensely.
The war has not left the Iraqi internet infrastructure in shambles. It was in shambles before we got there.
-- Grow up and use mutt.
This embarrassing project is doomed to fail for two very obvious reasons:
1) Very few (non-Iraqi) people or organizations will want a domain name visibly associated with an ignoble war, death and destruction, and a long-term dictatorship.
2) Very few people (and I include the members of Mensa which are mentioned as an example in CITRI's web page) will want a domain name that broadcasts how proud they are of their ability to pass standard intelligence tests. You see it's just not cool to be clever. Not that way, anyway.
I suspect the only takers - at a knock-down price - will be the tasteless owners of shoddy porn, gambling and con-merchant websites. And spammers great and small.
I guess we could register drhi.iq for the Secretary of the Stratosphere!
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
This is absolutely disgusting. These people are clearly taking advantage of someone else's (Iraq's) misfortune to try and make a buck. This group does not already control the .iq domain, but they know that if they can steal it, it'll be like having a licence to print money. Absolutely nothing is being said on their website about how much of this money they're collecting would actually be going to Iraq, and frankly, I suspect that "paying big salaries at Citri" will somehow also be considered to be an important part of the general welfare of Iraq's IT infrastructure.
Let's see, there's also the small matter of it's not necessarily the desire of the Iraqi people that their domain space be sold off to people outside Iraq. For all we know, they could want a more conservative approach to be taken with it, and have it only be allowed for use by companies and organizations that reside within Iraq.
From their web page:
"The auction is set to continue over an intense two month period, after which funds will be called upon from the winners of each bid, and registrations formalised."
Translation:
s/auction/looting/;
"In the case that a registration is not successful, no funds will be charged, unless the individual wishes to make a donation to the fund."
Translation:
"If the piles of money offered for domains doesn't change the minds of the people in the IANA and get us Iraq's domain, then you won't be out a penny."
Is this some company owned and operated by some of Blair's "close" friends?
This just goes to show that the politicians just wanted to profit in as many ways as possible from this supposed war of liberation.
Help them rebuild their infrastructure that is also part of a strategy because that way it will be easier to spy on their networks and if they try blocking something then cry about freedom of speech. That is one thing people in US are specially concerned about and when it comes to accepting the hardly realities of life they are the first to back out and they don't know what the fuck freedom of speech is.
bush.iq
Such a paradox could destroy the fabric of cyberspace as we know it...
All people should help folks. All good people will help humanity.
To punish others for the evil done by another individual shows a lack of intelligence, ethics, and humanity. Expressing humanity by helping other people proves we are mentally and emotionally healthy, and civilized.
Also, for france, germany, russia, vatican, and china and US when you know that humans are suffering under extreme oppression/depravation and you do nothing then evil is being expressed.
HAVE FUN
OldHawk777
Reality is a self-induced hallucination.
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
is that the Iraqi people need a lot of other things before they need the internet. Why don't we start from the ground up. CLEAN WATER, FOOD, WORKING HOSPITALS, HOMES, FUNCTIONAL GOVERNMENT, AN ECONOMY, POWER, EDUCATION.... and then when we get everything they need to live and take care of themselves, let the Iraqi's, with the help of the rest of the world if they want, build THEIR corner of the internet.
down, all over the place, from small individual sites to big mega sites (especially hotmail and things like that), and even medium sized gaming sites. Does this have something to do with Iraq, or at least a hacker attack against the US from some peeved hackers? Does anyone else have this problem?
Afterall, it is so much more important than giving the innocent civilians hurt in the multitude of crossfires (regardless of whether or not it is because Saddam and buddies planted their weapons in civil neighborhoods or not). The internet clearly should sit at the top of the list of things to fix. The best way to make the Iraqi's friends is to give them DSL, etc. Then, that teenager who got both his legs blown off while he and his father sat down for breakfast (due to an errant bomb) can forget that his Dad is dead and he no longer has legs can browse ebay and download mp3s. There, all better.
In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq as they increasingly merge the two in America.
Is how anyone can sell off a country's domain to a non-entity in that country. In Canada, at least, I believe that you must have a legitimate business presence in this country in order to have a .ca domain? I could be wrong, but this is what I remember being said about localized domains.
What happened to Salam Pax of http://dearraed.blogspot.com?
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Dictatorships must be destroyed. (TM) (R) GWB et al.
Really? Well that certainly is a refreshing change, given the USA's long history of propping up dictators such as Noreiga when it is in their interest to do so, or even removing a democratically elected government in Chile and installing the dictator Pinoche. Oh didn't you know that? Wake up and stop parroting. I look forward to the USA removing Robert Mugabe from power in Zimbabwe, and then I look forward to the nuclear war you will have with North Korea and Mainland China, during which you will hopefully be obliterated.
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
Will September never end?
Rich
Good questions! No one seems to consider the possibility that entire population of human beings could be into a form of national BDSM or D/s where they enjoy the brutal, criminal oppression from a power hungry tyrant vs. a democraticly based government that allows the people a peaceful form of self-determining government.
Clearly it is the outdated old fuddy duddy hyperconservative morals of the west that assumes people around the world want to be free. Next time instead of being so arrogant we Westerners should REALLY take the time out to listen to the state sponsored media that conveys to us the will of the totalitarian governements...uh....I mean the "people" of the countries we're trying to reform.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
Seriously though, why on earth should .iq get to be handled by a British ISP. I'm sure there are plenty of people in Iraq capable of running a name service. This British firm taking a resource from Iraq (it's TLD) in order to 'help' it (and skim a little off the top) is terrible, especially that money from Iraqis wanting a domain in their own country will have their money leave and then only have a part of it come back, and for what? Running a few name servers?
I'm sure this is only a small part of what's going to happen to Iraq's resources (namely, oil), and it's very disappointing.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
This site may be overloaded, but is has good quotes:s ter.com/
... they are
http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationmini
Like:
"Iraq will not be defeated. Iraq has now already achieved victory - apart from some technicalities."
"There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!"
"My feelings - as usual - we will slaughter them all"
"Our initial assessment is that they will all die"
"I blame Al-Jazeera - they are marketing for the Americans!"
"God will roast their stomachs in hell at the hands of Iraqis."
"surrender or be burned in their tanks."
"No I am not scared and neither should you be!"
"They're not even [within] 100 miles [of Baghdad]. They are not in any
place. They hold no place in Iraq. This is an illusion
trying to sell to the others an illusion."
the people of Iraq and the rest of the world have stated clearly that the Iraqi people WILL be in charge of this democracy regardless of the current US administration's agenda.
Well, GWB has said that he wants there to be stability and democracy in Iraq. The government of Saddam Hussein was extremely stable. There were no riots in the streets, crime was not running rampant, and the few public services (electricty, water) worked as well as could be expected, given Iraq's status as a third-world nation.
Democracy is another matter altogether. How do you suppose the US would respond if the people of Iraq gave GWB the middle finger and freely re-elected the Baath party lead by a relative of Saddam? Or what if they freely elected a militant Islamic government. Would the democratic will of the Iraqi people be respected?
Not a chance...
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
Yes, you see, trusting populace, the reason that no weapons of mass destruction have been found is clear: they have all been moved to Syria.
Can you say "Lather, Rinse, Repeat?"
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Anyone know if this guy is ok? - I think he's got a bit of a following since running that site....... but no updates in a while :(
Hope he's not got a bomb in his ass.....
http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/
Thanks to everyone for there support for the CITRI project.
.IQ domain about redelegation. This process can take a number of months, and may not be to ourselves (Uncle Sam may already have a plan - if it is better than ours, then we would back this). We have so far received a great deal of goodwill, and thank everyone for it, but we can not take pre registrations / bids at this time.
Given the massive number of postings of comments and replies, I feel I should set a few things straight.
1) CITRI is a non profit organisation - and by that we mean charitable - there will be no 'skimming' or 'fat salaries' taken out of raised funds. We intend that as much of the money raised as possible should go towards the implementation of information infrastructure in Iraq. We are asking people and companies to support us with their own resources, as has been done by Onega & others so far. If there is any payback, it is in the knowledge that we are working for the good of humanity. If and when we need to hire full time staff on the ground (In Iraq), they will be paid a reasonable local salary. Onega has stated publically that they will not take a penny / dime from the project, and accounting will be completely open book.
2) Some people have questioned our calculations and projections of revenue. They are based upon financial models, but one key thing to bear in mind is that traditionally registrars have charged a flat fee for each domain. So that when initially registered, sports.com is charged the same as asdrgneofrnvg.com, although the former is considered more desirable. Vast sums of money have passed hands on domains after initial registration - we believe that by conducting an open auction at the point of initial registration, this premium goes where it should - into CITRI projects. Whether the amount raised is higher or lower than target, it would all make a difference.
3) We completely agree with all the comments about food coming first. This is what the Red Cross / US / UK / UN are doing right now, and will continue to do. CITRI is a longer term plan to help the development of the country through the use of IT.
4) Registrations & the auction process are not open yet (and are not guaranteed ever at this early point)- we are currently talking to IANA / the current controller of the dead
5) CITRI is all about partners. We have big partners, from IT firms and others, who will help with the hosting, infrastructure, the domain auction etc. If you have any time or resources to offer, and are willing to do it for the PR alone / absolute cost (remember funds to the projects), please do send us an email, or get in touch. We are particularly keen in making contact with technically literate Iraqi's who intend to head back soon.
Our sincere thanks to everyone for their support and comments.
Ben
Please stop your selective use of history to back up your ignorance. The FACT is that the USA has supported dictatorships in the past but it has also oppossed them. Ever hear of Castro, Mussolini?
Yeah. The point is, assuming you are the same coward as the other coward, that this "dictatorships must be destroyed, period" rhetoric is bilgewater. The USA attacked and invaded a particular dictaorship for particular ends that didn't have that much to do with the fact of dictatorship. It's a smokescreen.
As far as looking forward towards nuclear war
The point I was making, in between the dubious pleasure of flaming the uncomprehending, is that if you are now suddenly in the business of being global cop and removing dictatorships (tm), go right ahead. After fixing those nasty problems in Africa that you'ver never given a shit about (wrong colour, no oil or something), you will run into serious nuclear trouble in Asia. It's not a teneable worldview.
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
Read Salam Pax's Weblog. It's apparently a weblog from a man living in Baghdad, who wrote, in English, about his life in the months leading up to this war. It's full of details that makes Baghdad feel much more human than the prison city our media portrays it as. However it still is not biased, and is equally skeptical of Saddam and Bush. Since few Americans can get Al Jazeera, which is still biased in its own way, this weblog may be the closest Americans can get to a true insider's view of Iraq. One insider, anyway. His last post was on March 24, hopefully because his ISP went out, rather than because of anything happening to him. The sooner Baghdad gets back its internet access, the sooner we'll hear more first person accounts unfitered by any media interest.
We should have never been there in the first place. Any corporate intrusion from UK or USA will reek of carpet bagging. Help the Iraquis decide what they want- don't force more upon them.
Ahhh, beautiful irony! I complain about the moderation of my post, then my complaint is marked as TROLL-1. Sweet. Meanwhile, the post that called me a "cock gobbler" remains unmoderated. Nice work, there, moderators! Soon another Slashdot fan and active reader will be moderated down into oblivion.
The preceding comment has been reviewed and declared to be compliant with HIPPA Phase II regulations.
That would certainly help Mr. Bush in convincing the rest of the world of the legitimacy of this war.
Hee-hee. Dying tickles!
"Much more fun than the tedious work of building up a real democracy, as worked tolerably well in Germany and Japan after WWII."
While you deserve credit for acknowledging allied successes in Japan and Germany, your analogy has fundamental holes. In the case of Japan we attacked not only the Japanese military, but also their population and religious icon, the Emperor. We pulled their heads out of the theocratic sand and watched as the light slowly dawned. In the case of Germany, their living god killed himself, after we bombed the crap out of the population.
In Iraq, we chose to spare both the population and the theocracy. There is no hope for these people.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
When you go to iraq to repair the infastructure, remember this flyer:
You've got a tough job ahead of you
Before I saw this, I never considered Iraq's fiber infastructure. This really could account for all those bombing missions.
Urgo: "I want to live. I want to experience the universe and I want to eat pie!"
Jack: "Who doesn't??"
Until this whole thing started, Kuwait was one of many small countries that I'd never seen a formmail scan from. (Most come from .cn, .ca, New York, and Texas ISPs.) But soon after the beginning of the war, scans started coming in from Kuwait of all places.
I haven't heard of hactivists using formmail.pl to spread their message - so I doubt if they're behind these recent attacks. But scans coming from the Hard Rock Cafe in Kuwait City suggest that it might be allied forces or the press who are getting some extra money by spamming from the War Zone.
Probably along the lines of this and this .
Thank you, please pull forward to the second window.
Well MENSA should be some of the first to buy domains in iraq with the .IQ they have :-)
-.sig sauer-
So the moral of this story is, don't invade the country next door if you don't want to wind up getting the stuffing knocked out of you.
When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
I could blame ordinary American's for the actions of GWB, but I won't.
You are conflating the Iraqi people with the Saddam Regime. The USA owes Saddam nothing except a bullet to the back of the head to finally finish what they started 1991. The USA owes the ordinary Iraqis a lot for all the bombs that have fallen on them, for the lack of hospital care etc that they, not Saddam and his cronies, suffered during the 1990s.
You could at this stage start saying that the USA legally owes the USA citizens only and no one else. Well fine, but if you act as if your military might is the only important thing, don't be surprised if it's the only thing about your country that is respected.
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
If they don't have Net access, they will continue to get their news from the likes of al-jazeera and Baghdad Bob.
Both the Pentagon and the Baath party hated Al-Jazeera.
They must have been doing something right.
Never trust a news source that one of the partys in a conflict actually likes (CNN, Iraqi national TV etc.) that's a friggin' guarantee of severe bias.
Not saying that you can trust Al-Jazeera, but them pissing off both sides is definitly a good sign.
"First lesson," Jon said. "Stick them with the pointy end."
Their new Internet infrastructure cannot have any equipment from Alcatel or Siemens - Nya nya nya
...and now the winners will loot the country for everything it's got. First a UK firm steals the domain. Next will be US oil companies snatching the oil fields. Iraqi people will never see more than 1 cent for ever dollar earned from selling Iraqi oil. Before the war Iraqis were poor, sick, hungry and oppressed. After the war they are poor, sick and hungry.
Freedom of information? You mean, freedom to watch FoxNews.com? How is it better than the Ba'ath Ministry of information, I'm still wondering ...
Something terrible happened on Highway 8
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
I'm inclined to like aisle.iq. :-)
But Anselm asks, "Should geeks around the world take the lead in getting Iraq back online?" Of course! That's the thing you and I, as programmers, administrators, designers, tech writers, etc., have to offer the situation.
People in every profession have a particular skill or trait to bring to the table in situations like this. Rebuilding Iraq's information infrastructure is what /.'s can do. A simple, snappy answer like "we should feed them first," a) completely ingnores the poster's question and b) ignores what geeks really can do to make the world a better place - besides port "Doom" to microwave oven control panels and digital watches.
...to be working to build out the information infrastructure in places like Syria, Lybia, North Korea et. al.? It seems we may be able to save a bunch of cash (well, and lives) sending over laptops and WAPs instead of bunkerbusters and MOABs... I'm not so naive as to think that fostering communication is a panacea for totalitarian rule, but it is certainly a powerful tool for bringing democratization. Iran, despite our current administration's rhetoric, has been a powerful example of this... While our threats have in effect bolstered the hardline mullahs' regressive tactics, there's a strong argument to be made for the student population's use of the net as informational and organizational tool in bringing about concessions over the past decade... Not to mention the fact that it serves as a pipeline for bringing western information and culture into these otherwise (to varying degrees) closed societies, the power of which, while certainly not as rapid, is easily as mighty as that of the 'coalition' forces...