An update on small victories

I really need to stop stealing stuff and do original content again in the near future, but this merits being stolen simply because it is an update to other stolen stuff.

 

Yahoo Settles With Chinese Families
Firm Gave Officials Dissidents' E-Mails

By Catherine Rampell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 14, 2007; D04

Yahoo settled yesterday with the families of two Chinese dissidents imprisoned after the company helped identify them to the Chinese government. The terms of the settlement are not being disclosed and Yahoo is not admitting fault, an attorney for the families said.

The announcement came a week after members of Congress criticized Yahoo executives for not assisting the families of Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning. The men were sentenced to 10-year prison terms for crimes against the state after Yahoo gave their e-mail records to Chinese officials. Their families sued Yahoo last April in U.S. District Court in Northern California.

"The pressures by Congress on [Yahoo chief executive] Jerry Yang were of tremendous importance to making this settlement happen," said Morton H. Sklar, executive director of the World Organization for Human Rights USA, which represents the Chinese families. He said a recent court decision requiring Yahoo to disclose information about its operations in China probably sped up the settlement, as did Yahoo's interest in being seen as a company that promotes human rights.

Yahoo said in a written statement that the company would start a fund "to provide humanitarian and legal aid to dissidents who have been imprisoned for expressing their views online."

In 2002, Wang, an engineer, was detained by Chinese officials for writing pro-democracy articles on a Yahoo Groups Web site. Shi, a journalist, was arrested in 2004 after he forwarded an e-mail directing him not to cover the Tiananmen Square anniversary to an overseas Web site.

Yahoo was asked to testify about its cooperation with Chinese officials in the arrests of the men at a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing in February 2006. At the time, Michael J. Callahan, the company's general counsel, denied that Yahoo had any information about the nature of the case against Shi. Callahan and Yang were called back to testify last week because the subpoena-like demand Yahoo received for information about Shi specifically said that he was being investigated for a state-secrets violation, a charge frequently made against dissidents.

At last week's hearing, Yang apologized to relatives of the prisoners, who were sitting behind him. He later met with the families privately.

Yahoo "admitted this is wrong and would not happen again," said Laogai Research Foundation executive director Harry Wu, who translated for the families during their visit to the United States. Wu said the families were returning to China but that the two imprisoned dissidents were not yet aware of the settlement.

Human rights advocates said other companies operating in China are likely to tread more carefully because of Yahoo's experience. "I think Cisco, Microsoft and Google are probably taking careful notes," said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

Some lawmakers hope to prohibit U.S. companies from giving information about their customers to foreign governments. The bill proposed by Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), the Global Online Freedom Act, would forbid sharing such information without permission from the Justice Department.

"Convening a congressional hearing every time a U.S. company helps put a human rights activist in jail should not be their only means of securing justice," Smith said. "For that reason, today's settlement underscores a million times over why it is important to give the families of victims like Shi Tao standing in U.S. courts. The Global Online Freedom Act will ensure that right."

Throwing Yahoo under the bus or stolen content time

Sometimes I take the small victories in life, knowing the big ones aren't likely to happen.  That being said, it was nice to see this in the Washington Post this morning while doing my show prep.

 

Searching for an Explanation: No Results Found.

By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, November 7, 2007; A02

Yahoo founder Jerry Yang is worth about $2.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine. The Internet giant's general counsel, Michael Callahan, received cash and stock options worth about $10 million last year.

Yesterday, the pair came before Congress to explain why they had paid not one penny to help the family of an innocent Chinese journalist Yahoo had turned over to Beijing's thought police to serve a decade in prison.

It didn't go very well for Yang and Callahan.

"While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies," Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the corporate titans.

Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) said he saw a "parallel" between Yahoo and companies that helped the Nazis locate Jews to be sent to concentration camps.

"It is repugnant," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) told the executives. "It would be funny if it weren't so sickening."

Somewhere the late Kenny Boy Lay of Enron is smiling. There's a new corporate villain in town -- and he's quite a Yahoo.

In a scene usually reserved for tobacco executives, big oil bosses and other traditional robber barons, Yang and Callahan sat sullenly through three hours of abuse and offered up weak excuses: "We did not have sufficient information. . . . It's obviously a very complicated issue."

Actually, it's not very complicated. Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist, used his Yahoo e-mail account to forward a Chinese government directive forbidding journalists from covering the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. When the Chinese government asked Yahoo to unmask the account holder, Yahoo did -- and Shi is serving a 10-year prison term.

Worse, Callahan gave a phony story to Congress in 2006, saying that "we had no information" about the case against Shi. Hauled in to testify again yesterday, Callahan claimed that he didn't know all the facts last time and apologized for failing to inform the committee even after learning that his testimony was bogus. Topping it off was Yahoo's failure to help the journalist's family.

"Shi Tao's mother is sitting in the first row right behind you," Lantos told the pair. "I would urge you to beg the forgiveness of the mother whose son is languishing behind bars due to Yahoo's actions." Callahan waited a bit before moving slightly and making a perfunctory nod in the direction of Shi's sobbing mother.

In his opening statement, Callahan made no apology for handing over Shi in response to a "lawful order" from the Chinese.

Furious, Lantos interrupted. "These were demands by a police state to make an American company a co-conspirator in having a freedom-loving Chinese journalist put in prison," he said. "Will you continue to use the phrase 'lawful orders,' or will you just be satisfied saying 'orders'?"

"I can refer to it that way if you like," came Callahan's insolent reply. Pressed further, he added: "It's my understanding that Chinese laws are lawful."

Yang fared no better on his corporate citizenship test. "Yahoo collaborated with the Chinese police apparatus in the imprisonment of a freedom-loving Chinese journalist. Do you agree?" Lantos asked.

"Mr. Chairman, I understand where you're coming from," the laconic billionaire answered.

Lantos was just beginning. "Mr. Yang, why is it that after craven cooperation with the Chinese state security apparatus, the provision of false information to Congress, the failure to correct the record . . . the only person punished is an innocent journalist?"

"At the end of the day I feel that everybody was doing the best they can," Yang answered quietly.

Lantos, usually a mild questioner, was not finished. "You still have done nothing," he said, "to help the family whose breadwinner your behavior put in prison. . . . Can you explain why?"

Yang adjusted his glasses. "I think that Yahoo could do more," he allowed.

"It couldn't do less," Lantos pointed out.

Other members of the panel joined in the abuse. Smith asserted that Yahoo had also helped the Chinese authorities unmask dissident Wang Xiaoning, now a suspected victim of torture. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) hectored the two about their failure to punish anybody for Callahan's false testimony ("The individuals involved have apologized," explained Callahan). And Rohrabacher tried unsuccessfully to secure a promise that Yahoo would not give in to similar demands by totalitarian regimes in the future. ("It's complicated," Callahan explained.)

As the hearing stretched on, Yang and Callahan busied themselves with their drinking glasses, consuming almost an entire pitcher of water between them. Finally, after three hours, they made a grudging offer to consider payments to the families of Shi and others Yahoo has turned over to the Chinese authorities -- because of "its importance to the committee."

Lantos erupted anew. "Look into your own soul and see the damage you have done to an innocent human being and to his family," the chairman said. "It will make no difference to the committee what you do, but it will make you better human beings if you recognize your own responsibility for the enormous damage your policies have created."