-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Der Fuhrer Invades Yugoslavia Yugoslavia May Be Cut Off from the Internet NATO must be planning to stage a new "Serbian atrocity" Parts of Yugoslavia could lose Internet access because an American satellite company might be ordered to stop transmitting into the country under a U.S. trade embargo. Loral Space and Communications Ltd. of New York said Thursday it could be forced to cut transmissions into Yugoslavia from one of its satellites, which serves at least two of the country's major Internet providers. Earlier this month, President Clinton issued an executive order banning U.S. companies from selling or supplying to Yugoslavia "any goods, software, technology or services." "We're still not clear on this whole thing," Loral Space spokeswoman Jeannette Colnan said, adding that the company was seeking advice from the Treasury Department. "It depends on the interpretation of the executive order." The government that issued the order wasn't any clearer Thursday. David Leavy, spokesman for the National Security Council, said that "generally informational material is exempt" but that electronic commerce would likely fall under the ban. "We'll need to inquire further about the appropriate applications of the law," he said. Word of the threat to shut down Internet access to parts of Yugoslavia spread quickly across the worldwide computer network, where it was mostly condemned in e-mail messages and online discussion groups. "To put it bluntly, we somehow got used to air-raid sirens, bombings and threats of invasion, but we don't know how we're going to survive without the Internet," said Alex Krstanovic, co-founder of Beonet, one of the affected Internet providers in Yugoslavia. "If NATO or the U.S. wants to cut us out completely in order to be able to do whatever they want here, this is probably the best way." But some people argued that Internet access should be cut off. "Continuing to provide these services would be kind of like giving aid to the enemy," one person wrote. U.S. civil liberties groups urged the Clinton administration to allow citizens in Yugoslavia to continue using the Web. "The Internet remains at this point one of the major sources inside Yugoslavia for objective news reporting about the war," said Jim Dempsey of the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology. "It also remains one of the main sources for any remaining democratic voices within Yugoslavia to communicate with the outside world." Computer traffic in Yugoslavia uses both satellite and traditional land-based telephone lines, but the loss of the Loral satellite could dramatically reduce the Internet bandwidth available to citizens there, causing slower connections or even blackouts. It wasn't immediately clear whether the White House intended its May 1 executive order to include U.S. satellites, but U.S.-run telephone lines were still operating in Yugoslavia. Web sites in Yugoslavia continued to be accessible from the West late Thursday evening, and there were no substantiated reports of anyone unable to use the Internet to retrieve information from outside the country. A spokeswoman at the organization that registers Web addresses ending with the country's "yu" suffix said she was familiar with the reports but that there had been no problems yet. Some U.S. experts on information warfare said it was improbable that the Clinton administration intended that its executive order also would apply to Internet communications. "Information war is being waged today through public information — we're over there broadcasting, jamming radios," said Alan Campen, a retired Air Force colonel and author of several books on cyber-warfare. "But I would be very surprised if they" shut down Internet satellite transmissions. Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists in Washington agreed. "I would be extremely surprised if the U.S. government or NATO forces deliberately sought to cut that channel of information off," he said. "It's a pretty lame form of information warfare because it cuts off the flow of information, and I don't see whose interests that serves." Fox News, May 14, 1999 Russian Follies Communists Set to Impeach Yeltsin Who, however, is still dead MOSCOW - Still smarting over the latest political blow from President Boris Yeltsin, the lower house of Russia's Parliament struck back Thursday, opening a formal debate on impeaching Mr. Yeltsin for high crimes in the turbulent years after the December 1991 collapse of the Soviet system. The session was not lively, but the mere fact that the impeachment issue had arrived on the floor of the State Duma, which Mr. Yeltsin had long sought to avert, added a sense of gravity and political portent to the atmosphere. It came one day after President Yeltsin dismissed Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov, who had broad support in the Duma. The campaign to impeach Mr. Yeltsin has been driven for months by hard-line Communists who are his most die-hard opponents. What they began last summer as a long-shot has now become a genuine irritant to Mr. Yeltsin and is expected to result in passage of one count of impeachment, of the five being examined. That count, charging that Mr. Yeltsin ''unleashed'' the war against the breakaway autonomous republic of Chechnya in 1994, is expected to win more than the 300 votes necessary in the 450-member chamber. Grigori Yavlinsky, leader of the centrist Yabloko bloc, confirmed again Thursday that his faction would vote for this count, saying it was important to hold officials accountable for their actions. The charge is also backed by the Communists and their allies, who dominate the house. The vote is scheduled for Saturday. The approval of an impeachment count is only the beginning, however, of a longer process that wends through Russia's highest courts and the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Parliament. If the Duma votes for at least one count, it gains a political shield in the fight with Mr. Yeltsin, under the constitution, the Parliament cannot be dissolved from the time it votes impeachment until the final decision by the Federation Council, in a maximum of three months' time. Thus, giving priority to the impeachment vote, leaders of the lower house set aside the question of how they would vote on the nomination of Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin, the law-enforcement careerist whom Mr. Yeltsin has proposed to succeed Mr. Primakov. Gennadi Seleznov, the Duma speaker and Communist, said the chamber would not take up Mr. Stepashin until next week, after the impeachment vote. The Duma must consider Mr. Stepashin before next Wednesday. If they reject Mr. Yeltsin's nominee three times, Mr. Yeltsin must dissolve the chamber and move to early elections under the constitution. But at the same time, the constitution says the Duma cannot be dissolved while the impeachment charge is being considered by the courts and upper house. It is not certain what would happen if both provisions came into force simultaneously. The opening day of the impeachment debate was a series of long, dry speeches laced with legal arguments. The five counts accuse Mr. Yeltsin of illegally conspiring to destroy the Soviet Union in 1991, overthrowing the constitutional order and violently dispersing the elected Parliament in 1993, launching a two-year civil war in Chechnya that cost tens of thousands of lives, undermining Russia's national defense by ruining its armed forces, and committing genocide against the Russian people by pushing market reforms that led to failing birthrates, plunging life expectancy and widespread poverty. The Chechnya war charge carries saliency among politicians because of the enormous costs and humiliation of the failed battle to suppress the separatists. Vadim Filimonov, the lawmaker who headed the impeachment commission and who presented the charges, claimed that Mr. Yeltsin's decrees in setting the war in motion were beyond his authority and ''led to violence which resulted in the death of tens of thousands of people, extensive damage and the violation of the rights and freedoms of hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens.'' Mr. Yeltsin's representative to Parliament, Alexander Kotenkov, delivered a long rebuttal. International Herald Tribune, May 14, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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