Media reports indicated that the elder son of Iraqi President, Uday complained of having his e-mail blocked by Yahoo!, the world's leading e-mail provider. The account was apparently being blocked for American security reasons.
Yahoo! told Gulf News it is cooperating with law enforcement agencies without specifically addressing the reported deactivation of the Yahoo! e-mail account of Uday.
Mary Osako, Yahoo! spokes-person, said: "Consistent with our privacy policy, we cannot discuss specific mail accounts with the general public. However, I can tell you that Yahoo! is aware of the U.S. trade law."
Without commenting on the specific question of Uday's account, Osako said: "Our general corporate policy is to cooperate with law enforcement agencies when requested to do so."
She also neither confirmed nor denied the existence or deactivation of Uday's account. A trial e-mail sent by Gulf News to the email address of Uday returned undelivered as the address could not be reached for "possible forgery or deactivated due to abuse."
This followed an earlier report in London-based Sharq Al Awsat that the U.S. Treasury Department had complained against Yahoo! and Microsoft for providing Uday with an email address.
The Department had allegedly asked Yahoo! to drop the address because "he is a murderer, a mugger, torturing people and sending threatening emails through his Yahoo address." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
