Why would they need this?

Submitted by Farid H. (Germany), Apr 19, 2006 at 21:43

I don't know the specifics of the US GETS system, but in my country, prioritized access to the telecommunication network is reserved exclusively to military C3I, security branches of the government, and the public emergency service (like 911 in the US). Spare capacity is then allocated to hospitals,other medical facilities and civilian catastrophe relief groups; and that's all. A running joke goes so far as stating that in case of emergency, our shaky telephone network will be the first to shut down... ;-) Anyway.

That lobbyists, advocacy groups or other private organizations or commercial entities can claim access to emergency telecommunication is a very strange concept to me. But even if the US GETS system had spare capacity to allocate to this kind of stuff, the applying party must certainly show a legitimate need for this.

Now, what the heck would CAIR (whatever they may be -- I see there's a controversy here) need emergency telecommunications status? Are they in command of a vital public structure? Do they provide a vitally important infrastructure to the general public? They claim to be an advocacy group: I fail to see why an advocacy group would need this kind of prioritized access in case of emergency anyway.

Or, to put it differently: I don't get the joke. That's very strange stuff!

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