INTERVIEW — MORGAN WRIGHT – Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government (Morgan is a signer on the letter to the Sec of Defense)
- Republicans Say Obama Administration Is Giving Away The Internet. Republican lawmakers are accusing the Obama administration of allowing countries like Russia, China and Iran to take control over the Internet. Their beef with the administration focuses on a relatively obscure nonprofit overseen by the U.S. government that is scheduled to become fully independent Saturday. The organization is called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN for short. Its history traces back to a graduate student at UCLA named Jon Postel. He started keeping track of the unique numbers assigned to particular computers using the Internet, during its early days. Jonathan Zittrain, an Internet law professor at Harvard, says Postel kept a clipboard to make sure no user had the same number — sort of like a phone book.
- National Security Leaders Oppose Obama’s Oct. 1 Internet Handover. Military and cybersecurity experts send letter to top Pentagon officials urging intervention in irreversible transition. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, a broad coalition of 77 national security, cybersecurity, and industry leaders sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford calling on the top military officials to intervene in opposition to President Obama’s radical proposal to relinquish American guardianship of the Internet and give it to foreign corporations and countries, including Russia, China, and Iran. This letter follows a joint statement issued by 10 Republican senators urging Democratic senators to oppose the Obama administration’s proposed Internet handover set to take place on October 1. “As individuals with extensive, first-hand experience with protecting our national security, we write to urge you to intervene in opposition to an imminent action that would, in our judgment, cause profound and irreversible damage to the United States’ vital interests,” the letter reads. “…Indeed, there is, to our knowledge, no compelling reason for exposing the national security to such a risk by transferring our remaining control of the Internet in this way at this time. In light of the looming deadline, we feel compelled to urge you to impress upon President Obama that the contract between NTIA and ICANN cannot be safely terminated at this point.” The distinguished group of signers includes former Assistant Secretary of Defense Frank Gaffney, Jr., former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin (Ret.), former Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, former Director of the Defense Nuclear Agency Vice Adm. Robert Monroe (Ret.), and former Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Andrew McCarthy, among others. Congress must act by September 30 in order to stop this Internet handover, which poses the risk of increased censorship and loss of free speech online, possible legal repercussions, and national security vulnerabilities.
- UN Takeover of U.S. Internet Saturday– Arizona’s State Attorney asked a federal judge to block or at least delay Saturday’s handover of the U.S. internet to the United Nations. When the internet was developed it allowed for unique domain names so someone could go to”Arizona.gov” instead of having to remember “159.87.85.253” which is the official address. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN has a federal government contract to register and monitor those unique domain names. The White House is set to let that contract expire Saturday. At that point, UN expert Brett Schaefer says control of U.S. domain names will go to an international consortium under the United Nations.
