By VIVECA NOVAK AND JOHN DICKERSON
excerpts:
The Inter-American Telecommunication Commission meets three times a year in various cities across the Americas to discuss such dry but important issues as telecommunications standards and spectrum regulations.
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At least four of the two dozen or so U.S. delegates selected for the meeting, sources tell TIME, have been bumped by the White House because they supported John Kerry's 2004 campaign.
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Only after the start of Bush's second term did a political litmus test emerge, industry sources say.
The White House admits as much: "We wanted people who would represent the Administration positively, and -- call us nutty -- it seemed like those who wanted to kick this Administration out of town last November would have some difficulty doing that," says White House spokesman Trent Duffy. Those barred from the trip include employees of Qualcomm and Nokia, two of the largest telecom firms operating in the U.S., as well as Ibiquity, a digital-radio-technology company in Columbia, Md.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, politics is what did me in a few years ago, as many of you may recall. The Digest was getting, albiet a very small, allowance monthly from International Telecommunications Union in Geneva, CH. That is, until I started objecting to the way that ICANN, Vint Cerf and MCI were administering the 'new internet' (the post 1994 reforms than ICANN instituted.) Bingo, ITU cut me off with no further adieu. Of course we did not have (either) Bush in those days, we had Clinton and Gore (the man who 'invented' -- or was it 'discovered' -- the internet) but still, one does not speak against ICANN and the powers that be unless you are independently wealthy or otherwise live happily on gruel and peanut butter. You'll be sorry if you do (speak out) as many can tell you. PAT]