i dunno, i saw this and was sondering if it sounded paranoid or what.. merry xmas.. -------------------- Forwarded Mail -------------------- [headers deleted..] Ex-spooks take over Internet domain name registration The press recently reported that the National Science Foundation has turned over Internet Domain Name registration to Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) of Herndon, VA. The press failed to note some interesting connections. Tomorrow morning (Sept. 26), Web Review, a biweekly online magazine (see Special Report at http://gnn.com/wr/) will reveal that NSI was purchased in May by Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC) of San Diego. SAIC is a $2 billion company indicted by the Justice Department on ten felony counts for fraud in managing a Superfund toxic cleanup site (SAIC pleaded guilty) and sued by the Justice Department for civil fraud on an F-15 fighter contract. SAIC's board members include Admiral Bobby Inman, former NSA head and deputy director of the CIA; Melvin Laird, Nixon's defense secretary; and retired General Max Thurman, commander of the Panama Invasion. Recently departed board members include Robert Gates, former CIA director; William Perry, current Secretary of Defense; and John Deutch, the current CIA director. Current SAIC government contracts include re-engineering information systems at the Pentagon, automation of the FBI's computerized fingerprint identification system, and building a national criminal history information system. "At the very time the Internet community is struggling with the issues of encryption and privacy, I'm more than a little uneasy to find this bunch of ex-spooks sitting at the very entry point of the Net," says Jim Warren (a leading activist in making government records accessible) in the article, which was written by investigative journalist Stephen Pizzo, Web Review Senior Editor and co-author of the book Inside Job, an expose on the savings & loan looting.