Duncan, A well-thought out set of replies, but entirely within your line of thinking. I apologize for not replying to your point by point, but I still have to keep my typing to a minimum due to RSI. I traded a work day for my Refutation (in typing time). I believe that you and I are working with either a subset or an almost disjoint set of facts in relation to each other on the subjects of the origins of the net, Operation Sun Devil, subsequent seizures, the operation of the IETF and InterNIC, and how physical routing policy can be used to easily implement gag orders. Rather than have us attempt to educate each other via back-and-forth messages, I will go back and re-examine some source material on each of these issues over the next few weeks. If my opinions change, I will post them to you and to this list. In the meantime, let us merely agree to disagree; your mind is clearly made up, as is mine. Cheers, _Strata