Iraqi Internet communications still working 3/21/03

Sat Mar 22 00:03:27 UTC 2003

The main Iraqi network connections are still functioning.  Uruklink.net,
Iraq2000.com, Baghdadlink.net, etc systems are responding.  The public web
servers appear to be very congested or non-responsive; but because I can
reach other systems (mail, dns, etc)  I suspect people are overloading
the webservers.

And to answer the question, no I don't know why the .IQ top-level domain
is registered in Richardson Texas, nor do I know why the official state
provider uses .NET and .COM instead of .iq.

Since either the Iraqi government or the US government could shutdown the
relatively limited external links from Iraq; I'm guessing both governments
have decided its worth leaving the Internet links in place.  Or its not
worth the hassle of trying to shut them down.