December 5, 2000

China Frets Over Online Freedom
Did U.S. Action Cause USS Cole Reaction?
Robert Downey Jr.: During Prohibition

China Frets Over Online Freedom

In its latest effort to place restrictions on Internet usage, China intends to tighten regulation of online bulletin boards, Beijing's top telecommunications official said today, according to the Associated Press.

Wu Jichuan, head of the Ministry of Information Industry, said the Chinese government was working on a "better way" to manage the Internet.

"Don't misinterpret this. The Chinese government absolutely is not saying people can't use these things, but we must find a more healthy way to manage them to ensure the protection of individuals' reputation and privacy," Wu told reporters on the sidelines of the International Telecommunications Union's conference.

"Anyone who has used the Web knows already that people always use false names. No one uses their own name," Wu said. "If someone attacks someone else there is no way to catch them, no way to sue them."

China has consistently sought to strengthen regulation of the Internet. Last month, the country added restrictions on Web sites offering news reports and required chat rooms to use only officially approved topics.

Speaking in Shanghai three years ago, Cato President Edward H. Crane said that "as world trade develops, as the peoples of the globe get to know one another, to appreciate the traditions of other cultures, to form communities through the Internet and other means that transcend mere political boundaries, they will develop a growing distrust of and disinterest in the pronouncements of the political class." He added that "control over how human beings communicate with each other around the globe -- efforts at censorship -- are increasingly futile. And that is good news."

Did U.S. Action Cause USS Cole Reaction?

The United States bears some responsibility for the attack on the USS Cole because it helped create the terrorists who now consider America their greatest enemy, Yemen's foreign minister said yesterday, according to The Washington Post.

Foreign Minister Abdul Kader Bajamal said that because the investigation is still underway, he could not comment on the possibility that Yemeni or other Arab veterans of the Afghan war were involved in the Cole attack.

But, he said, "terrorism did not appear by accident. It is a historical phenomenon. Just as the Soviet Union created a man like [the international terrorist] Carlos, the other side created the Afghan Arabs. We have inherited the remnants of the Cold War."

In Washington, a senior U.S. official said the Clinton administration rejects any suggestion that the United States is somehow responsible for the Cole attack.

In "Does U.S. Intervention Overseas Breed Terrorism?" Director of Defense Policy Studies Ivan Eland writes that there may be too much focus on deterring terrorism rather than understanding what motivates it. He concludes that a strong correlation exists between U.S. involvement in international situations and an increase in terrorist attacks against the United States.

The Cato Institute recently hosted the policy forum "How Should the United States Respond to Terrorism?" Video of the event can be seen on the Cato Web site.

Robert Downey Jr.: During Prohibition

In a Washington Times commentary, Michelle Malkin looks at the recent drug arrest of actor Robert Downey Jr. and writes that his case "simply underscores that the drug war is a costly and selective form of government paternalism that has done far more harm than good."

She cites the new Cato book "After Prohibition: An Adult Approach to Drug Policies in the 21st Century," writing that it "sheds harsh light on what eminent economist Milton Friedman calls the 'social tragedy' of drug prohibition. "To order the book online, visit the Cato Web site.

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