It's been so long since I even used this account, but, as newcomers can see, my user ID is pretty low. I've run into road-block after road-block on this holiday weekend - Doesn't Congress know that emergencies never take a holiday.
I've started emailing all of my political contacts, and to save time and energy, I'm going to cut and paste some of the text from one I just sent to Joe Trippi:
Hello, Joe, sorry for using FB, but I'm trying every option I have, especially with the holiday and the Hill being shut down.
The short of it is, my spouse, who is the Chief Technical Officer of one of the original ICANN registries, has been working around the clock to keep the Internet working in Haiti.
(Continued after the jump)
We were able to get State to commit to providing fuel, as they were down to less than a day's supply, but now we have a personnel issue. Of the three network operators, two have been removed from service by the earthquake, and now only one, Reynold Guerrier, is available to run the NAP/NOC, and he is hobbled by the need to get his wife and two infant children to safety. He is willing to remain on the job if his family can be evacuated to his sister's home in Florida, or else he will have to take them himself to the Dominican Republic. This is an incredibly brave person, as the job now is very dangerous, with people constantly trying to break into the the NOC for any of their very limited supplies (three days worth, at last count.)
I've already been in contact with an immigration law professor and her recommendation is to work three areas - tourist visas from State, a humanitarian parole from HLS, and, most importantly (in terms of time,) intervention by a legislator. My spouse has connections with people who can help with the former two, and I'm taking on the latter. I've tried the offices of my legislator, Chellie Pingree, as well at tech-savvy Ed Markey, but they are closed. I need an inside connection, so I'm turning to anyone I think understands the importance of keeping the Net running in Haiti, especially since so many NGOs and the government are dependent now upon email and most cell towers are down.
My spouse, Eric Brunner-Williams (you can google him - he's well known in internet governance) is on his way back from Geneva today, so I'm trying to help while he is in route.
Thanks for any assistance you can muster, Joe. I'm sending this to your email address as well, if I still have it in my address book.
Mary Beth Williams
Portland, ME &
Cornell Law
* * * *
I need to get back on the phones, but please, please, please understand how urgent this cause is. Reynold Guerrier is willing to risk his safety, perhaps his life, to remain at the network operations center to keep Haiti's network infrastructure running (ALL of Haiti's network traffic runs through this NOC.) Please call your legislators, or, if you have alternative numbers for legislators or their staff, please let me know. My email is m a w 2 7 8 @ c o r n e l l . e d u (remove spaces - it's bad enough I'm putting my email up here, but desperate times call for desperate measures and all.)
Sorry about any typos, I don't have time to even spell check.
Edited to add: Specifically what we need is a legislator who will intervene to get the family here. According to my immigration attorney contact, legislators can make special requests in emergency situations such as this. I have all the information on the family and should be contacted directly via email.