On Monday, April 23, 2001, at approximately 5:30 PM, the We hold These Truths Website disappeared from cyberspace without warning. Several hundred pages of articles and information, including advertising and order forms for its books and audiotapes, became unavailable to WHTT subscribers. In place of its informative Homepage, the message “Forbidden site” appeared on the browser everywhere.

At the same time, all e-mail addressed to and from WHTT ceased. Messages and orders for books and tapes sent by subscribers and comments and inquiries were all bumped back to senders noting the address was “undeliverable.” We Hold These Truths might as well have not existed. Web traffic was at a peak because of a new and vital Pharisee Watch press release that morning, the release was a red-hot subject among Christian circles involving abusive fund raising by missionaries claiming to free slaves in Sudan.

Two days later, after an around-the-clock effort, the WHTT Website was restored on a new and more secure home server, but for 48 hours the organization all but ceased to exist. Some have invested their precious time and their savings to create WHTT with its unique ability to expose the traceable links to critical events of our day. Its goal from the start was to expand as an electronic form of media. But for two very busy days WHTT was a recovering victim of mugging and assault on the Internet.

What caused this interruption? Did someone forget to pay a bill… was there a earthquake, power outage, some unforeseen act of God or death of a key person? No, in fact “We hold These Truths” ceased to be because of complaints of one or a very few individuals who had absolutely nothing to do with its business. We shall call the last complainer known to us, “Wes@address”. But to get angry with Wes is to lose sight of the real problem we face.

Wes alleged that he had received an unwelcome piece of E-mail from WHTT–Pharisee Watch Pseudo-Slavery in Sudan. Wes does not claim WHTT was lying, cheating, stealing, killing or defiling. No, he simply claims he received a single piece of e-mail that he did not want. He did not offer evidence of anything he said. And he clearly knew exactly where and how to complain. Wes knows the system is stacked in his favor, though he may not know why. Wes did not voice a word of complaint to WHTT. He complained instead to Qwest, a giant communications company that provided no service of any kind WHTT, nor apparently to Wes himself.

Qwest does, however, provide service to Siege Net, a medium-sized provider of internet services that in turn hosted WHTT’s Website for a monthly fee of $19.95. Upon receipt of Wes’s complaint, it appears Qwest immediately called Siege Net and, with intent to put WHTT out of business, intimidated Siege Net into doing the dirty work. How and why would such a complaint affect Qwest, which does no business with WHTT?

The plot thickens

Qwest apparently received Wes’s 41-word e-mail complaint on Monday, April 23, a copy of which went to Siege Net (but not WHTT). Before the afternoon was over, an employee of Qwest called Siege Net to blackmail the latter to turn off service to WHTT, permanently. A representative of Siege Net told WHTT that he must terminate WHTT’s service that day, and that if he did not do so, Qwest would shut off all commercial internet service to Siege Net–a terminal act for a young and growing internet communications business.

After a courtesy call to WHTT, Siege Net complied with the intimidation and issued an e-mail stating that WHTT service had been “terminated on 4-24-01 for spamming.” Powerful Qwest simply ordered Siege Net to shoot one of its customers after four years of uninterrupted, contractual service, or itself be shot. WHTT