The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

Today's WSJ column (sub req'd) by Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman is a must read. As I pointed out in Inside the Asylum back in June '04, the UN's "World Information Society" has been planning to take control of the Internet away from the US and place it in the hands of nations that have an antipathy to free speech and freedom of the press. John Tabin and I talked about this problem here a few days ago.

Coleman's money quote:

The U.S. must do more to advance the values of an open Internet in our broader trade and diplomatic conversations. We cannot expect U.S. high-tech companies seeking business opportunities in growing markets to defy official policy; yet we cannot stand idly by as some governments seek to make the Internet an instrument of censorship and political suppression. To those nations that seek to wall off their populations from information and dialogue we must say, as Ronald Reagan said in Berlin, "Tear down this wall."

We need to hear from Condi Rice or the president on this. Are we going to allow the UN to roll over us, or are we going to plant our feet across the path and say, "stop, no farther shall ye go"?

topics:
Trade, Business