Talk:Iraqi Pro-Democracy Party

If people have questions of concerns about the role that non-Iraqis are playing in the upcoming elections, please feel free to ask me Tom Villars.

--68.40.177.229 19:34, 25 Jan 2005 (EST)

Hi Tom, I've restored "despite the party's title" to the text, as I believe this is justified given that the Iraqi Pro-Democracy Party website is registered to an American. I've also reverted it to "is registered to" - you are currently the legal registrant and owner of the domain name, unless I'm mistaken. Writing "was registered by", (the text you substituted), could give the impression to a casual reader that you registered the domain name for some Iraqis, but that they are now the legal owners of the domain name. --Neoconned 21:16, 25 Jan 2005 (EST)

I've also made it clear that the rationale that you added to the article about why you got involved in the Iraqi Pro-Democracy Party, is a personal statement on your part. And I've tightened up the listing of contact info for that press release - your name appears much more prominently than that of Fayrouz Hancock, and I've mentioned Jeff Jarvis too. --Neoconned 22:00, 25 Jan 2005 (EST)

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Neoconned, the domain is registered to the Iraqi Pro-Democracy Party. Are you sure you didn't mix this up with the Admin and Tech contacts? I did remove Omar's last name recently at his request but I beleive that to be the only change to the domain.

Yes Tom, I am quite sure I didn't mix the domain registrant up with the Admin and Tech contacts. This is because I took the precaution of saving the WHOIS info for iraqdemparty.org both as a .txt file and as a screenshot, on 13 Dec 2004. I'm going to upload the screenshot to SourceWatch. As a courtesy to you, I've redacted from the screenshot details of what is presumably your home address. I've also redacted some of my bookmarks which appear on the Mozilla Firefox bookmarks toolbar.

Here is the 13 Dec 04 WHOIS info in text form (also with your home address redacted):

Domain ID:D104662262-LROR
Domain Name:IRAQDEMPARTY.ORG
Created On:22-Jul-2004 16:23:57 UTC
Last Updated On:21-Sep-2004 03:46:49 UTC
Expiration Date:22-Jul-2005 16:23:57 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:New Dream Network, LLc (R173-LROR)
Status:OK
Registrant ID:ndn-19403
Registrant Name:Tom Villars
Registrant Organization:Tom Villars
Registrant Street1:(REDACTED BY NEOCONNED)
Registrant Street2:(REDACTED BY NEOCONNED)
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Ann Arbor
Registrant State/Province:MI
Registrant Postal Code:(REDACTED BY NEOCONNED)
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:(REDACTED BY NEOCONNED)
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:tvillars@gmail.com
Admin ID:ndn-19403
Admin Name:Tom Villars
etc...

You say that "I believe that to be the only change to the domain". I find that hard to square with the current WHOIS entry for iraqdemparty.org, and the entry on 13 Dec 04. --Neoconned 19:50, 4 Feb 2005 (EST)

OK here is the uploaded screenshot: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Image:Redacted_iraqdemparty.org_whois_screenshot_13Dec04.jpg

--Neoconned 19:59, 4 Feb 2005 (EST)

--Tvillas 23:37, 8 Feb 2005 (EST)

Neoconned:

It seems you are correct that when I was registering the iraqdemparty.org domain my name and address was used for all four parts, Registrant, Admin, Tech and Billing. If you feel this is important I guess you’re entitled to your opinion, but does anyone seriously consider the registrant when judging the content of a site? The IraqTheModel brothers are regularly read by gov't officials in the Whitehouse and DOD, numerous mainstream media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal editorial staff, plus links from hundreds of blogs. With traffic in the 5000+/day, they have built a very large world wide audience. Hell, the last time Omar and Mohammed where in Washington DC, the Whitehouse called them to arrange a 30 minute meeting with the President.

While I’m flattered to have my name mentioned nine times in an article with such mover and shakers, I can hardly be considered the source of their fame. They accomplished that all by themselves and your focus on the trivia of Internet domain registration seems rather loony tunes to me.

But as I said before you’re entitled to your opinion, so feel to edit the article anyway you want as I’m not going to spend any more time on this. After all, I can work with people who have a real impact on US Foreign policy so why should I spend any more time debating with someone called Neconned?

Have a nice life,

Tom Villars

426 S. 4th Ave.

Ann Arbor, MI 48104

+1 734 332-8136

I really think you can do better than this, Tom. You could have accepted with good grace that your statements about the ownership of the Iraqi Pro-Democracy Party domain name were incorrect, and mine were correct. Instead, you have chosen to respond with boasts about your supposed easy access to President Bush, and disparaging remarks about the SourceWatch project.

The ownership of the domain name is not "trivia". Being the owner of the domain (which you were) gave you total control over the use of the domain name. If, for example, the members of the IPDP had developed policies which as an American you found objectionable, you could have revoked their use of the domain name. By the way, I'm not suggesting for one moment that you would do such a thing. But legally, that situation was possible.

I would also suggest that:

i) your repeated efforts to edit the section of this article that deals with the ownership of the domain name

ii) the misleading nature of those edits, and

iii) you resorting to name calling only after I proved you were wrong

indicates that you regarded this issue as rather more important than "trivia".

By the way, changing the registration so that you are only the Admin and Tech contacts, and one of your Iraqi bloggers is the registrant, has clearly put the situation (finally) on a proper footing. Well done.

--Neoconned 16:17, 13 Feb 2005 (EST)

PS. While we're on the subject of your unrivalled access to Mr Bush, it would be of great interest to many SourceWatch contributors if you could kindly give us a few details about how the December meeting between Pres. Bush and the Fahdil brothers was arranged. Who phoned whom? --Neoconned 16:24, 13 Feb 2005 (EST)