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Texas Company's Legal Troubles Hold .iq In Limbo
aducore writes "According to The Inquirer, the (American) company running the Iraqi .iq domain name .iq is under criminal indictment and cannot transfer control. So no Iraqi organization can get a .iq domain name, including the government. Iraq's National Communications and Media Commission and the U.S. administrator in Iraq are trying to get ICANN to free up the domain."
So does this mean that the Iraqi BitTorrent trackers won't be up? Now how am I supposed to download the latest episodes of "This Old Palace"???
Keep the faith, share the code
why is an american company running the iraqi tld?
eden.h4xx.com - whacky free for all image board
Why was a Texan company managing the .iq domains anyhow? Shouldn't have this been in the control of at least some kind of Iraqi authority in the first place?
The revolution will not be televised. It won't be on a friggin blog either
How about puppet.gov.iq
I am not quite sure what state the infrastructure of Iraq is in, but I guess that fresh water, electricity and roads comes higher on the priority list.
.iq!"
"Hey, someone is blocking
"Hey, someone is blocking our watersupply!"
It would show the true color of the current "independent" government.
If ICANN can remove control from Saddam and grant it to InfoCom, it can take it back as well..?
It's not as though they would have got permission to take it in the first place, so, why would they need it this time?
I've never shoed a horse, but I once told a donkey to piss off!
How can some yanks hold an entire country to ransom?
Oh wait, you call that Government in America.
InfoCom got control of the domain because they sell computers and services to the middle east, but they are in trouble because they sold computers to particular countries in the middle east. On an aside, I have to stop myself typing iRaq - you can tell than I use Macs :)
Firstly, they were indicted shortly after 9/11... whether it was based on the fact that the US were targetting every possible arab owned company because of terrorist scares or whether they indeed committed crimes that included, (quote) "charges that they exported computer equipment to Libya and Syria and funneled money to a member of the Islamic extremist group Hamas. ", is a decision I leave up to you.. since there has been no progress or update on the case..
Second, "to a member of the Islamic extremist group Hamas" draws doubt to me. Ok, they were sending computer parts to Libya and Syria.. (oh no.. embargo.. and for, *GASP*, computer parts!) How is InfoCom supposed to know their customers background? How many customer(s) were involved in Hamas and how were they connected to InfoCom (if the money was funneled, why haven't we heard of any sort of medium or who/what the money was funneled through).. I mean.. an IT company based in Texas.. only just after 9/11 convicted of funding terrorists?
And why why why does the media never tell us the entire story? etc..
Again.. just my 2 cents.. and no.. i'm not unpatriotic.. I speak based on what I observe..
Its not the American government holding it up. If you actually RTFA (yeah, I know, too much to ask these days), America is trying to get the TLD back from ICANN.
Oh wait, this is what we called ignorance on Slashdot, where reading a simple article is too hard.
The full text of this article from The Economist follows. The original content is subscriber-only; it is reproduced here in the hope and expectation that you will find it useful.
--
Rebuilding Iraq
Without peace, reconstruction stalls
May 13th 2004 | BAGHDAD
From The Economist print edition
Why it is proving so hard to rebuild the country
[Image]
IF THE Americans left Iraq today, their most obvious physical legacy, in the eyes of ordinary Iraqis, would be concrete blocks. The big slabs protecting administrators, soldiers and contractors from the 30-odd countries in the ruling coalition, which is due to be dissolved at the end of June in favour of an interim government run by Iraqis, jut into Baghdad's main roads and often reduce traffic in the capital to a standstill. Meanwhile, as the violence sputters on, the country's reconstruction--witness, for example, its communications system--is a shambles.
The insurgency, aimed at America's foreign and Iraqi contractors as much as the soldiers of occupation, is largely to blame. Last month 90 foreigners were kidnapped, prompting Russia, Portugal, Poland and France to urge their nationals to go home. Another bomb this week targeted a Baghdad hotel full of contractors. Kellogg Brown & Root, which has won the biggest building contracts in the new Iraq, has seen 34 of its staff killed, a higher toll than has been sustained by the military forces of any of America's allies bar Britain's.
Security squads and the protection of buildings, along with insurance and the soaring costs of transport on dangerous roads, account for as much as 30% of the costs of some of the companies trying to set up in business. The Californian building and engineering giant, Bechtel, which is handling contracts with the Agency for International Development (USAID) worth around $2 billion, has pulled half of its staff out to neighbouring Jordan and Kuwait and has assigned two Gurkha bodyguards to each of its 33 expatriates left in Baghdad. After last month's insurrections in Fallujah, to the west, and in Shia towns to the south, many of its key people have, for the time being, gone.
An official at the planning ministry, which oversees Iraq's reconstruction effort, says that productivity has slumped virtually to nil. When the militia of a rebel Shia firebrand, Muqtada al-Sadr, swooped through towns to the south of Baghdad, water, sewage-treatment and other projects were abandoned to scavengers, who stripped plants of machinery. Other than looters, the beneficiaries have been the 20,000-odd men working for security companies. They have blurred the lines between civilian and military contractors. Both are targets of the insurgents.
As the summer heat rises, many essentials are getting scarcer. The schools are still open and exams held on time. But after months of regular electricity at night, long power cuts have become frequent again, plunging the capital into darkness and increasing crime. Promises that by next month the country's output would have risen from 4,500 to 6,000 megawatts (the amount a biggish American town consumes) look unlikely to be kept, especially since all of Siemens's specialists and most of General Electric's have left. This week another Russian engineer was killed and two more kidnapped at a power plant, prompting a further flight of foreigners.
In their effort to achieve as smooth a handover as possible to Iraqis at the end of June, the American authorities are letting their generals make deals with the rebels to get the show back on the road. In Fallujah, the hottest cauldron of Sunni hostility, the marines have lifted their siege, leaving the insurgents to run the town's security; they have even staged a joint patrol. In Shia towns, including the holiest, Najaf, General Martin Dempsey has offered to tur
And Bush just registered low.iq for his website.
This space left intentionally blank.
I was as pissed as you were when goatse.cx was taken down. Especially since it was a fellow australian who complained. God some of my countrymen/women are such absolute assholes.
Think nothing is impossible? Try slamming a revolving door.
Your babelfish-translated german has a few spelling mistakes and lots and lots of typos. Plz fix k thx bye!
Think nothing is impossible? Try slamming a revolving door.
I don't understand, so what the company has been indicted.
Just move the domain. They don't need to physically move anything, heck they claim that domain names aren't even property.
We should invade ICANN HQ with a squad of Marines!
"Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares; the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things - bread and circuses." - Juvenal
The first sentence seems somewhat less applicable in current times, however.
Meanwhile the new government, national institutions or regular Iraqis are having to register themselves as ".com," ".org" or ".net".
.us
Dagnabbit! Those domains belong to God's Blessed America! Not the international community! Give em a TLD of their own that won't infringe on our territory. Perhaps
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
I am waiting to register high.iq.
......Stephen Hawking
Hmmm, I wonder why they're going have to rebuild their country in the first place....could it be....oh never mind. What's the point. I don't even get a DA to file charges, whatever the fuck that means. Must be some inside joke they share at The Southern Baptist Church.
My Favourite Meme
And Bush just registered low.iq for his website.
Oh man if i ever needed mod points, now is the time. I should have saw it coming, but that made me laugh HARD.
You're right on.
Hamas commit terrorist acts. But so do their enemies. Hamas at least helps the poor, too.
Slaugtering the leaders of group that fights oppression, let alone one that builds schools etc., is not going to pacify your enemies.
Extending the argument beyond Hamas, I think anti-US groups, including Al Quaeda, are more powerful now than before the US decided to attack their opponents. Aggression only gives rise to support of your enemies.
I am sad that my country sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. We have no business showing support for the aggressor. However, if we left it all to the USA, they might make it even worse. Not that I believe they would - I think the USA doesn't mean evil, they are just blinded by arrogance and ignorance.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
RTFA ... the .iq domain was given by ICANN to the Texas company to administer when Saddam was trying to block use of the Internet in Iraq (at least that is the explanation given). Accepting the above, was ICANN right in doing this because it disagreed with the Iraqi government's views? Questionable perhaps. Could be interesting if they tried to assign China's domain to a Texas company because of Chinese censorship of the Internet.
This is surprising, considering how smooth and flawless the rest of the Iraq operation has been.
I belive it was Uday, Saddam's now dead son, who ran the Internet in Iraq. Citizen could not access it, but he himself was usually found surfing online when not attending to his daily torture-sessions afaik. Uday got hold of this kind of administrative jobs after his younger brother Qusay was given executive power due to him being disabled after assassination-attempts.
"-Who said sit down?!"
-- S. Ballmer @ MSDC 2003.
quite probably they just got the domain because they pulled the right strings at the right time and nobody from iraq could stand up.
.iq , it's a quite 'sexy' tld anyways if you don't know it stands for iraq so quite many should be wanting it to show that they have high iq(and of course all the test-your.iq and related thingys..).
it doesn't take a genius to see that they saw a money oppurtunity in holding the
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Perhaps you're right about Kerry (I happen to disagree), but The Economist certainly doesn't seem to mind him too much:
Hmm... I suppose that could be taken either way. Let me just put that in context by saying the rest of the article spends its inches fawning over Clinton's economic policy. See for yourself.
It seems to me that investigators could subpoena whatever hardware is necessary to make their case, while Iraq can start using the .iq legitimately.
It's not as if someone's going to walk into court with a plastic bag labeled "Exhibit A" with the letters ".iq" in it, right?
But actually it is not a star, rather it is drop of oil ;-)
Visit Tutorials & guides collection
You're mistaken on one count. I'm no frikkin' liberal. I'm right-of-centre. But that doesn't mean that Bush isn't a fucking idiot.
My Favourite Meme
Prove us wrong.
yeah, but when blowing up ambulances, schools, bars, planes, nightclubs and busses you pretty much ensure civvie death. that is the favorite islamofascist and arab pastime, murdering innocents.
I checked that one and (not?) surprisingly I was redirected to an advertising company... :-P
So at least some IQ domains have been registered.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Why doesn't the Iraqi government just use .gov? I mean, let's be realistic here...
This has got to be one the least of the problems the new Iraqi government is facing right now.
.org domain somewhere instead of .iq
Let's see: the new gov has a legitimity problem, a lot of people want to blow them up, neighbours are considering making things even harder, they have to justify a continued US presence to a skeptical population, they have to organize free elections in a country racked by terrorism, and hmm, oh yes, their web site is on a
Jeez, which problem should they tackle first?
At least there's some comfort in knowing that ICANN's incompetence transcends political, economic and social barriers.
-L
Don't Panic.
...did it HAVE to be Texas?
All it takes is to change one record in the root DNS servers. It can be done in a few minutes and will propagate in 72 hrs max.
It is a political, or more correctly, a legal rather than a technical problem. ICANN has contractual obligations toward ccTLD operators (including the current .iq operator) and can't just do that without exposing themselves to liabilities.
IANAL, but can't the US DoC and DoJ cooperate to get a quick warrant from a judge, ordering ICANN to transfer the domain to another ccTLD operator? Or ICANN could even manage the .iq domain themselves, until the Iraqi government appoints their own ccTLD?
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
Methinks they should get a new domain: .tiq for "transitional iraq"...
Or .qi for Iraq, written from right to left the arabic way. After all, they are iraqi domains.
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
until real Iraqi sovereignty is restored via elections.
If it were done when 'tis done, then t'were well it were done quickly... MacBeth
we dont?
Well, they own the DNS root, so in a sense, you're right. However, this is purely based on free will. If you disagree with this, use an alternate root.
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
"... the (American) company running the Iraqi .iq domain name..."
Huh??? The tld ".iq" is NOT Iraqi (yet). I agree they "should" get it, but it is not theirs yet. Saying it is so is jumping the gun.
This is like saying John Q. Citizen is guilty of XYZ before his trial, rather than saying "alleged" first. The internet suffix ".iq" remains under the control of InfoCom (albeit by litigation only) until ICANN is able to rule otherwise.
It would have been a lot more accurate to say "presumptive tld recipient" or something like that.
end wordsmithing rant.
.
uR iGn0ranc3, Their Power
You can also spell Iraq --> Irak
.iq and use .ik instead?
So why don't they just drop the
Look, I didn't want to know about Clinton's sex life, and I don't want to know if Bush has been handcuffing himself to the CEOs of companies that support him. Can't we judge our politicians on their public actions and not their kinky sex lives?
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
Well now hold on a second... dangerous path, or common sense ?
Hicksville, population:2000.
A woman gets raped.
The police, after a long investigation, are at a loss.
They decide to run a wide-scale voluntary DNA test (can't force them anyway, at least not here).
700 of the men fit in the age group that the woman could at least identify the rapist into.
699 cooperate and have a DNA sample taken.
1 does not cooperate.
No matter what excuse this 1 person comes up with (civil liberties, slippery slope, dangerous path, yadda yadda), please tell me how the police should just say "Okiedoke, your fair right" and not have a closer look and see if maybe there's a different/another reason for him not to cooperate ?
And that is the police, who at least have to live by some form of rules, however arbitrary they may seem sometimes.
In the case of people saying "We shouldn't block websites that are arbitrarily judged to be child pornography websites", you better understand that a vast majority of the population is going to at least raise an eyebrow. It is in the best interest of those people to state that they explicitly don't condone child pornography, and are only trying to point out that there will be unjust collateral damage. Though that will only offer a partial redemption.
And it doesn't help that people like Hugh Russ Campbell have used these same arguments before, and then get convicted (on a guilty plead) of not only owning and distributing child pornography, but creating it as well.
With such circumstances - well, I'm sorry, but I too would be suspicious of such people.
The difference between suspecting a person and doing something about it is the 'vigilante' aspect. If one is worried about vigilantes, deal with them - but you can't blame a person for having a pretty reasonable opinion for this day and age.
Just my 2 cents.
Seeing how they've never used the .iq domain, why can't TPTB make a new domain for them like say, .iraq?
New government, new domain. Problem solved.
Screw that. The entire state needs a good Baghdading.
Cheers,
Craig
Corollary to Clarke's Third Law: Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
-L
Don't Panic.
Corruption on the part of one group does not excuse corruption on the part of that group's successor. In fact, since the successor was run by the United States -- which represents and is accountable to me -- I hold it up to higher standards than something run by the UN, which is accountable to nobody.
Finding God in a Dog
Is any aspect of our modern world free of the taint of the Evil Empire pulsating between America and Mexico?
--
make install -not war
In other news, the next installment in the Zork series has been delayed.
You see, the US hasn't beheaded any iraqis on TV. So the US automatically has the higher ground.
Oh, you meant the US must be 100% flawless...yah...sure...
Blar.
no.iq
LOAD "SIG",8,1
LOADING...
READY.
RUN
(sorry, somebody had to make that reference, grin..)
I don't like Kerry either, but the whole Jane Fonda thing is bullshit. All he did was appear at the same rally as her, and at the time, he had no way of knowing she was gonna go do the Hanoi thing two years later.
The link you provided is a real eye-opener. Sure, I always knew that those guys were interested in ruling the world, but I had NO IDEA they were so open about it...
Can't we just invade ICANN?
Maybe the US government could set up a web site to get things going. I recommend that it be called, "allyourbasebelongto.us". It's easy to remember & it reflects the history of the country, so why not?
testing out my trending skills
___
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
The Iraq chapter of Mensa is going to have a real field day.
This must be the part of the internet and ICANN's domain holder/owner scheme that is "robust".
Cheers,
Craig
Corollary to Clarke's Third Law: Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
Pardon my ignorance, but why would ICANN have anything to do with this? Aren't the international domains handled by IANA? Last I checked, they were not the same organization.
This signature has Super Cow Powers
Business losses are all that matter.
Go back to 1917, commie.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
Not on the list:
high.iq
low.iq
When it comes back up, I'm so registering those. (Also hi.iq and lo.iq, for the spelling-impaired.)
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
...they should all use .them as their TLD.
w .them
foreigner.them
other.them
outsider.them
scre
getridof.them
idontwanttohearabout.them
And so on.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
I SUSPECT Saddam the INFIDEL is involved.
Have you not being reading the news lately? Or are you intentionally ignoring them?
The Coalition Provincial Authority cannot account for a few billion dollars worth of oil revenues since Iraq resumed production right after the invasion.
Michael Moore did not invent that ...
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
This is the same company that at one time hosted many Arab or Muslim web sites, including:
And other sites too.
Just before September 11, 2001, the FBI confiscated the servers that hosted all those sites, causing them to go offline for days. This was covered on Slashdot at the time, finding the link is left as an exercise to the reader :-) Later, the servers were returned, but most of the above customers have already switched to other hosting firms to host their web sites. Al Jazeera was one of those.
Then, Ashcroft caused the Holy Land Fund assets to be frozen, claiming they are funding terrorism. A court battle wass underway to challenge that decision. Don't know what the status is right now.
Then the owners of Infocom (all of Palestinian origin, all Muslims) were personally charged for shipping computer parts to countries under embargo, so they are put out of business
This is the background that leads to, and keeps, the .iq TLD in limbo.
Here are some articles:
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
The Coalition Provincial Authority cannot account for a few billion dollars worth of oil revenues
Well, the EU can't account for a few billion here and there either. That's the nature of government. There's zero evidence that any of that money went to the military (which was the original point I disputed). More likely it went on bribes to UN people.
I didn't say that 500 people matching a vague profile meant they would be under suspicion of guilt.
If the police decides to go a voluntary DNA test, and invites 500 people who fit the vague profile (seeing as how testing a woman, geriatric and toddlers are most likely ruled out, along with whatever other information they may have to rule people out), and only 1 refuses, then I would suspect them.
Your points about reasons to not do so are all fine - but don't detract from myself (and I would imagine a vast majory of people) thinking it a bit suspicious that they declined when 499 others did not. And I do believe the police should then have a closer look at this person through other means. Otherwise we run the riskkof some of the reasons you mentioned becoming a safe-haven.
Thanks for replying.
There are clear differences between the two cases: the EU may be missing some money under its own control. This happens in many governments, passively, or actively. Passively due to lack of accountability, or actively because of corruption, embezzelment, ... etc. In Canada, there was the HRDC scandal a few years back. That part is normal.
However, in Iraq, the situation is different: The US has actively sought to occupy an oil rich country at a time where world oil reserves are limited or declining. Iraq's oil production was very limited for 12 years after the UN sanctions spearheaded by USA and UK. Once the country was occupied, oil wells and pipelines were operating at full capacity again within weeks.
The funds were supposed to go to a fund. That fund was controlled by the US CPA. The US Administration keeps asking Congress for more money to stay there (was it 4 billion a month?). Both Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz never wanted to pin down a figure when pressured to come up with one. It would be really convenient to get hold of some of that money, and not have to beg the Congress for money every now and then. Or, you can compare that with the Iran-Contra scandal: The Pentagon and/or the Administration get money under the table and funnel it under the table.
This is to say nothing about Cheney, Halliburton, et al, which are motivated by greed, and are a major supporter of this war, out of financial gain.
I think this goes far beyond a simple misplacement of funds.
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