Congressional Commitee Rips Yahoo Execs

A number of readers sent word of the hearing by the US House Foreign Affairs Committee in which committee members raked two Yahoo execs over the coals. "While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies," the committee chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said angrily after hearing from Jerry Yang and Michael Callahan about Yahoo's actions that resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of a Chinese dissident. In 2004 Yahoo turned over information about journalist Shi Tao's online activities requested by Chinese authorities. In Feb. 2006, Yahoo's General Counsel Callahan testified that he had not known the nature of the investigation the authorities were conducting. He later learned that several employees of Yahoo China were aware at the time that the investigation involved "state secrets," but Callahan did not go back to Congress to amend his testimony. Committee members were withering in their disdain for Yahoo's refusal to help Shi Tao's family after his arrest.

Re:PKB

[Anonymous Coward]

I wondered the same thing.. I'm not a fan (or foe) of Lantos. But his record seems to be pretty consistent on China [ontheissues.org]. I don't know about the rest of the committee. Congress as a whole, yes, definite PKB.

Good ol' Tom Lantos

[seaturnip]

From Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:

During a 1996 Congressional inquiry into the "Filegate" scandal, Rep. Lantos told witness Craig Livingstone that "with an infinitely more distinguished public record than yours, Admiral Boorda committed suicide when he may have committed a minor mistake." Boorda, the Chief of Naval Operations, had recently taken his own life after his right to wear Combat V decorations had been questioned. Lantos was criticized by some (including fellow Congressman Joe Scarborough) who interpreted the remark as a suggestion that Livingstone too should kill himself.

On May 3, 2000, Lantos was involved in an automobile accident while driving on Capitol Hill. Lantos drove over a young boy's foot and then failed to stop his vehicle. He was later fined over the incident for inattentive driving.

In June 2007, Lantos called former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder a political prostitute.

In October 2007, Lantos insulted Dutch parliament members, while discussing the War on Terrorism by stating that the Netherlands had to help the United States, because they liberated them in the Second World War, whilst adding that the upheaval over Guantanamo in Europe was bigger than over Auschwitz at the time.

Re:PKB

[rtyhurst]

From the article:

"Shi Tao was sent to jail for 10 years for engaging in pro-democracy efforts deemed subversive after Yahoo turned over information about his online activities requested by Chinese authorities."

Guy gets 10 years for *having an opinion*?

What happened to "YRO"?

What's the Chinese government going to do if Yahoo! doesn't roll over and rat out Shi Tao?

Put the website in jail?

What a bunch of belly-crawling cowards...

There's no excuse for this.

Re:I'm sure this is redundant already

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong.

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1868328,00.html [guardian.co.uk]

Re:I'm sure this is redundant already

[trolltalk.com]

Last stats I saw were net ouflows of $69 billion in one month. That's a lot of investment "pulling up stakes."

If push comes to shove, why should China not use all the levers it has - including the "dump the dollar" nuke option - if the US keeps acting stupid wrt either currency or politics?

BTW - the US economy has had real double-digit inflation for the last 5 years. Taking the three things that people actually spend money on all the time - food, energy, and mortgages - out of the index is just as bad as the ratings fiascos by Moodies and S & P, et., The rest of the world doesn't want US financial paper - not until they know the REAL value of the underlying assets. Do YOU believe Citibank is solvent? How can you know for sure, when nobody knows just how over-valued everything still is. With 1 out of 8 homeowners facing foreclosure over the next 3 years, you're looking at 2012 before there's a real recovery, if then. The chance of a Japan-style ding to the economy is real. The next 5 years are going to be painful for the whole world, but the weight of the USD in the reserve basket of currencies of most nations is going to be lightened as quickly as they can w/o causing the dollar to crash completely.

Heck, if things keep going the way they are, within a few months the Australian dollar will be trading at par. There's talk of Canada hitting $1.50 US over the medium term, because Canadian dollars are a petro-currency, and the bad lending practices of the US, and to a lesser extent England ("ninja" mortgages, no-doc and stated income mortgages, etc.) never caught on in Canada and many other countries.

Re:I'm sure this is redundant already

[trolltalk.com]

You can't keep running a "War on Terror" if you're broke. The US is dependent upon foreign lenders. And like the old saying goes, the debtor is slave to the lender.

China [census.gov] - on track to beat last year's 232 billion dollar deficit.

Japan [census.gov] - another 80 or 90 billion

OPEC [census.gov] - add 110 billion this year (or more likely 130 billion)

Oh, what the heck - lets just do the WHOLE DARNED WORLD [census.gov] Another $800 Billion Dollar trade deficit this year. The US consumer's credit card is maxed out.