First it was money laundering banks convincing a Judge to order the complete removal of the Wikileaks domain - now the U.S. Treasury Department, acting on its own authority, has confiscated the domain names of a British/Spanish travel agent who specializes in Hemingway tours of Cuba.

As Cory Doctorow writes in his BoingBoing post:

Treasury claims that since Americans might have made reservations through the sites, that they were entitled to march into the domain registrar and take away a foreigner’s business.

According to the report in the New York Times:

Steve Marshall is an English travel agent. He lives in Spain, and he sells trips to Europeans who want to go to sunny places, including Cuba. In October, about 80 of his Web sites stopped working, thanks to the United States government.

The sites, in English, French and Spanish, had been online since 1998. Some, like www.cuba-hemingway.com, were literary. Others, like www.cuba-havanacity.com, discussed Cuban history and culture. Still others — www.ciaocuba.com and www.bonjourcuba.com — were purely commercial sites aimed at Italian and French tourists.

Further into the NYT article:

Susan Crawford, a visiting law professor at Yale and a leading authority on Internet law, said the fact that many large domain name registrars are based in the United States gives the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, control “over a great deal of speech — none of which may be actually hosted in the U.S., about the U.S. or conflicting with any U.S. rights.”

“OFAC apparently has the power to order that this speech disappear,” Professor Crawford said.

The law under which the Treasury Department is acting has an exemption, known as the Berman Amendment, which seeks to protect “information or informational materials.” Mr. Marshall’s Web sites, though ultimately commercial, would seem to qualify, and it is not clear why they appear on the list. Unlike Americans, who face significant restrictions on travel to Cuba, Europeans are free to go there, and many do. Charles S. Sims, a lawyer with Proskauer Rose in New York, said the Treasury Department might have gone too far in Mr. Marshall’s case.

No shit. Regardless of the name they give that list it’s the same shit that was pulled back in the 1950’s under the fear-mongering regime of Senator Joe McCarthy and his unholy alliance with the House Un-American Activities Committee. A list of supposed enemies used - and misused - to silence dissent, punish enemies, create scapegoats and reinforce the use of absolute power and control.

Fuckers.

Mr. Rankin, the Treasury spokesman, said Mr. Marshall was free to ask for a review of his case. “If they want to be taken off the list,” Mr. Rankin said, “they should contact us to make their case.”

That is a problematic system, Professor Fitzgerald said. “The way to get off the list,” he said, “is to go back to the same bureaucrat who put you on.”

Last March, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights issued a disturbing report on the OFAC list. Its subtitle: “How a Treasury Department Terrorist Watch List Ensnares Everyday Consumers.”

The report, by Shirin Sinnar, said that there were 6,400 names on the list and that, like no-fly lists at airports, it gave rise to endless and serious problems of mistaken identity.

“Financial institutions, credit bureaus, charities, car dealerships, health insurers, landlords and employers,” the report said, “are now checking names against the list before they open an account, close a sale, rent an apartment or offer a job.”

But Mr. Marshall’s case does not appear to be one of mistaken identity. The government quite specifically intended to interfere with his business.

That, Professor Crawford said, is a scandal. “The way we communicate these days is through domain names, and the Treasury Department should not be interfering with domain names just as it does not interfere with telecommunications lines.”

U.S government thugs are abusing their power in the belief they own and control the world. How much longer will it before they begin to censor your legal access to web sites and domains? Will they deem it unacceptable for you to access the official web site of Cuba? It is not beyond the realm of possibility and frankly I believe these dirt stupid fuckwads capable of anything in their blind pursuit of power and control.

I won’t get into the intense hypocrisy of the U.S. position with respect to their screwing relations with Cuba. Suffice to say it is a foreign policy based on an ethos embedded in organized crime - and has no place in the world of true human rights and the peaceful quest for democratic rule.

Personally, I like Cuba very much and look forward to returning there soon - before Fidel is gone.

Travel to the U.S.?

I don’t think I’ll be setting foot upon that patch of soil any time soon.

Cheers.

UPDATE: The Register in the U.K. has picked up the story and offers a perspective from outside North America. We are not, after all, the centre of the world.