Tony --
Congrats on your ability to crash the GAC meeting and open it a
bit. This what happens when there is government by committee
instead of government by law. We need a legitimate constitution.
--ken
>At 12:42 AM 11/8/99 , you wrote:
>>Who was that southern bell you crashed the GAC meeting with? And I
>>understand the Irish delegate allowed you to speak - what happened there?
>
>It's a wonderful story with a happy ending.
>
>The three activist lawyers in LA - Nader's
>Theresa Amato, Cleve Thornton representing
>Tajikistan, and myself decided we would
>insist on our rights under the ICANN Bylaws
>to open meetings of the GAC.
>
>So, on Tuesday morning at the appointed hour
>of the GAC, we stood in the room as all the
>good GACsters stared and wondered who we were.
>
>The GAC Secretariat representative - a slight
>young Aussie - came over and insisted that we
>leave. We respond with a polite "no," that we
>were going to stay and watch.
>
>She went and huddled with her boss, Paul Twomey,
>and then came back and re-iterated her order.
>Cleve then looked down and in a polite southern
>drawl, and said "young lady, if you want me to leave,
>you're going to have to pick me up and move me."
>
>To appreciate this sight, one has to see Cleve.
>He's about 6 ft, 5 inches, tall and must weigh
>300 lbs. He also ran the ACLU in Alabama during
>the heydays of the civil rights movement, and
>is quite experienced in passive resistance.
>
>More huddling with Twomey.
>
>Meanwhile Theresa went to the tables and found
>a list of attendees. It listed several "observers"
>at the bottom. We then approached Twomey and asked
>if we could be observers. He responded that we
>needed the sponsorship of a governmental representative.
>
>So we went over to the US government representative
>and formally asked to be observers. She firmly
>declined. However, the representative of Ireland,
>Aidan Ryan, overhearing our plea, came over and
>offered to make us accredited observers of Ireland!
>
>So we returned to Twomey with this arrangement.
>However, the response was "no can do - you need
>your own government representative."
>
>So then we noticed that ICANN staff were present,
>and questioned the appropriateness of a double
>standard. At this point, Paul Twomey to his credit
>relented and established a new rule for everyone
>that as long as there was a non-governmental person
>in the room, it would be an open meeting. As a
>result, both the ICANN report and subsequent ccTLD
>dialogue portions of the GAC became open, and a
>new, more open general rule was established.
>
>What was particularly amusing, however, was that
>a few minutes later, one of the most powerful U.S.
>Congressmen in Washington, Chris Cannon, and his
>legislative assistant Todd Thorpe, unexpectedly
>strode into the room and sat down prominently up
>front. When it came time for us to leave, the
>US GAC representative quickly added Cannon and
>Thorpe as observers, and were not asked to leave.
>
>During the open ccTLD session, Twomey even volunteered
>to distribute the Internet Rights Coalition brief
>to the GAC and allowed a short presentation on the
>legal issues.
>
>--amr
