More press on syriapol and the sanctions

Reason, one of the foremost libertarian journals in the United States, has published a letter to the editor concerning syriapol in its May issue:

After the Damascus Spring

Guy Taylor did a great job writing about Syrian bloggers and Internet freedom in "After the Damascus Spring" (February). If you're looking for a delicious irony, consider my story: I created a political website for Syrians inside Syria. It was blocked and nobody in the country could view it.

Why? Not because of Assad or some other Syrian control freak—because of godaddy.com, from which I bought the domain name. Because of U.S. sanctions, no one inside Syria (or any other sanctioned nation) is able to view any site that GoDaddy registers or hosts. Is that insane or what?

George Ajjan - Clifton, NJ

This was also alluded to in an article on antiwar.com, discussing Liz Cheney's impact on American policy toward Syria.