[iwar] [fc:Ex-.ICANN.CEO.outrages.with.11.September.outburst]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-29 07:29:32
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 07:29:32 -0800 (PST)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Ex-.ICANN.CEO.outrages.with.11.September.outburst]
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Ex- ICANN CEO outrages with 11 September outburst

By Kieren McCarthy

Posted: 29/10/2001 at 11:57 GMT

The former president and CEO of Internet overseeing body ICANN, Mike
Roberts, has angered members of Internet community including an ICANN
director, a well-respected computer scientist and various lobby groups with
a political diatribe on the 11 September terrorist attacks, posted on a
newsgroup for the At-Large Study group.

Mr Roberts, who was the organisation's first CEO and left his post in March
this year, wrote extensively on his feelings towards the attacks and the new
terrorism bill that president George W Bush and Congress have just signed.

The newsgroup's purpose is to seek to agree on how many of ICANN's directors
should be elected from Internet users. The members felt Mr Roberts had made
an attempt to hijack the strong emotions felt over the terrorist attacks to
argue that criticism of emerging proposals is out of place and
counterproductive. 

"Today marked a watershed day in the history of the Internet," his message
began. "In some sense, the real date was September 11, when the leadership
role of the United States in world peace, in economic development, and in
technology innovation was challenged by a group of determined religious
fanatics using our own technology on us to cause the death of thousands of
innocent people." 

He continues: "But the legal date between the 'old' Internet and the 'new'
Internet was today, October 26, 2001, when President George Bush signed the
anti-terrorism bill that was passed by the upper house of Congress yesterday
with one dissenting vote.

"This legislation brings the Internet and its developers, providers and
users directly into the new war on terrorism. It extends extensive new power
to law enforcement to find, capture, and punish those who use the network
for terrorism or other criminal activity. It removes the previous barriers
between foreign and domestic anti-terrorism investigations and establishes
the principle that whoever you are, wherever you are, if you use the net for
terrorism, you are in the sights of the FBI, the CIA, the NSA and their
foreign counterparts."

The message then goes on to quote from "widely respected columnist Tom
Friedman", who is also widely acknowledged as a man that won't let an
important point get in the way of a carefully worded tear-jerker.

And here comes the kick
After more personal reflections, Mr Roberts then asks of himself: "So what
does this have to do with At Large?" He then goes on to suggest that
restricting dialogue and ignoring criticism is the most appropriate way of
reaching consensus on the At-Large question:

"First, don't expect to get the attention of the study committee, your
fellow stakeholders in ICANN, the dedicated members of the Board, or the
governments whose sanction makes this privatization effort possible, with a
continuation of the shallow rhetoric that has characterized the postings on
this list. 

"Second, think seriously about constructive improvements in the
recommendations of the ALSC [At-Large Study Committee]. Nobody cares that
you don't like a particular recommendation, they want to know whether you
have a better idea, an idea that is good enough to gather the support of a
lot of other interested parties that may not share your individual political
or social or economic background but are nevertheless interested in the
future welfare of ICANN.

"Third, be prepared to compromise your goals in the interests of forging an
At-Large organization that contributes to an ICANN that is going to operate
in a far different environment than its founders envisaged."

His comments caused recognised authority Bob Frankston to attack Mr Roberts'
fundamental assertions and comment "September 11th hysteria is a poor
substitute for reason."

Mr Frankston's comments elicited a response from current chairman of ICANN,
Vint Cerf who agreed with Mr Frankston's analysis but stopped short of
criticising Mike Roberts.

Not so, ICANN director Karl Auerbach, who said of Mr Roberts' "mediaeval
mentality" that "unlike Mr Roberts, I have not surrendered my principles to
the terrorists who so heinously attacked our democratic nation last month."

Lauren Weinstein of People For Internet Responsibility said: "As much as we
respect Mike Roberts and his work, it is difficult to find his recent
statements, about the 'new ICANN' as anything other than extremely
'problematic' at best."

Those following the At-Large study were equally unimpressed by Mr Roberts'
insistence that those in charge be left to decide without outside input. "A
declaration that we have no rights in the internet and that his people will
decide what is right is shameful," wrote one. "Not listening is a form of
abuse Mike!", wrote another.

One poster was angry at the suggestion that ICANN members had been twidling
their thumbs over Internet security: "You were repeatedly warned that the
DNS had and still has security problems," one wrote in direct response to Mr
Roberts. "Most of the Root servers have security problems. The IP addressing
system is strewn with security problems, and the registration database is
wide open for terrorists activities! We [INEGroup] again warned you over a
year ago about most of these problems, and all of them long before Sept 11.
YOU Mike, and the ICANN Board of Directors basically ignored those warnings.
Many others also warned of these same problems. YOU called them 'Kooks' in a
Wired article in July '99! Remember that Mike!?"

From techie to politician in two easy steps
A fundamental concern for many Internet users since ICANN was created in
1998 has been its movement from a technical body charged with running the
Internet to one that is a political beast and which attempts to control all
elements running over the infrastructure. Mike Roberts is widely
acknowledged as the man behind this change.

Even though Mr Roberts' desire for political influence is well noted, his
use of the recent terrorism on an unconnected newsgroup has been a step too
far for many. One user wrote: "ICANN is not the US Government and therefore
any attempt to capture the operation of the Internet through non-open and
transparent means is a threat and should be viewed as such."

A posting in watchdog site ICANN Watch.org says: "It's impossible to
adequately capture the fanatical, thanatotic zeal with which Roberts
embraces the proposition that Bush's signing of the deeply disturbing
USA-PATRIOT Act of 2001 'brings the Internet and its developers, providers
and users directly into the new war on terrorism'."

All of this zealotry comes just weeks before ICANN meets in its home town of
Los Angeles. The organisation has already infuriated many by insisting that
all groups put Internet security as the overriding discussion topic. This
insistence - to the extent that those who refuse to discuss security risk
having their funding removed - has been widely seen as an effort to avoid
discussing (again) issues over new top-level domains, Board secrecy and
domain dispute rules. Ž

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