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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > No Pushback from Team Obama on Massive Proposed U.N./ World Health Organization Global Internet Tax

No Pushback from Team Obama on Massive Proposed U.N./ World Health Organization Global Internet Tax

May 13, 2010

May 13, 2010 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Hidden inside a near 100 page 2010 report by the World Health Organization's "Expert Working Group," [an arm of the United Nations] devoted to new methods of raising revenue for the WHO, is a proposal for a global tax on internet activity, levied by the United Nations.

The digital tax involves a charge on traffic over the Internet. It was first discussed in the 1990s, and various proponents have suggested different versions. Examples include a tax of 1 US cent on every 100 e-mails of 10 KB sent, a charge per number of e-mail messages (e.g. 10 cents per 1000 messages). The key element is a very low charge." [source, World Health Organization, Research and Development - Coordination and Financing, pg. 58, http://www.who.int/phi/documents/RDFinancingwithISBN.pdf]

One can almost visualize greedy UN bureaucrats and murderous despots rubbing their hands with glee in anticipation of such a windfall.

"[A] Digital tax or "bit" tax: Internet traffic is huge and likely to increase rapidly; this tax could yield tens of billion US dollars from a broad base of users...This could be estimated conservatively to raise about US$ 3 billion per annum... An indirect tax like a digital tax might be appealing to politicians and consumers, who will accept a low tax across a broad base with an altruistic purpose." [source, ibid, pg. 58]

As noted above, the controversial proposal has been kicking around the halls of the UN - an organization legendary for its financial and sexual impropriety, gross mismanagement and generalized scandal - for 20 years and until recently has been looked upon with disfavor by Democrat as well as Republican administrations.

However with the arrival of team Obama in DC, all bets in that regard appear to be off, with the administration apparently amenable to yielding considerable U.S. sovereignty to U.N. schemes.

Indicative of the degree to which this administration seems to be in lockstep with even the most egregious UN actions is the recent silence of the U.S. in the face of the organization's more than questionable moves.

"...the United Nations General Assembly has just elected Libya's dictatorship to...the U.N. Human Rights Council. Where...was...U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice?...where was Rice when the misogynist rulers of Iran, murderers last year of peaceful protester Neda Soltan, won a seat last month - by acclamation, no less - on the U.N.'s commission for women's rights? Where was Rice when Libya's candidate won the presidency last year of the current General Assembly?...For America to swim along with this is not smart diplomacy. It is at best naïve. It emboldens the worst violators of civilized norms, and further compounds the already alarming failings of the U.N., a sprawling and opaque collective which lends itself to exploitation by the most ruthless and corrupt of its 192 member states..." [source, Forbes, Paging Ambassador Susan Rice, http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/13/united-nations-libya-human-rights-opinions-columnists-claudia-rosett.html]

Against the backdrop of increasing threats to U.S. security, that team Obama would be such a lackadaisical steward of American sovereignty in this matter - possibly ceding taxing authority to the UN's den of thieves - that it would not kill such a proposal outright sends perhaps the worst message imaginable to a world starved for true American leadership.

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http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=who5.13.10%2Ehtm

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