A small correction by Congressman Issa…

He's not going to give up gracefully, is he? Having been exposed in a factual inaccuracy - the GSM network isn't French, as he claimed - Congressman Darrell Issa has removed the allegation that it is. And then he's resorted to innuendo...

Here's the original quote from his first draft lobbying letter, which reads:

We have learned that planners at the Department of Defense and USAID are currently envisioning using Federal appropriations to deploy a European-based wireless technology known as GSM ("Groupe Speciale Mobile" - this standard was developed by the French) for this new Iraqi cell phone system.

And here's the new version:

We have learned that planners at the Department of Defense and USAID are currently envisioning using Federal appropriations to deploy a European-based wireless technology known as GSM (Groupe Speciale Mobile) for this new Iraqi cell phone system.

So, has he corrected the error? Well, check the top of his page, where you'll see "Parlez-vous francais? Congressional Lawmakers Balk At Plan To Deploy French/German Cell Phone Technology In Post-War Iraq"

In other words, Darrell, anybody who can spell can tell that Groupe Speciale Mobile is French, right? And we might as well shove "German" in there, too, right?

Issa might like to have a word with Motorola, a prime manufacturer of GSM technology, both switchgear and phones, for world-wide markets, and see how "French" they think they are!

Meanwhile, who benefits from his lobbying? Well, hard to say. Of course, all the CDMA patents are held by Qualcomm, which is a firm in his representative area - but that could hardly be part of the argument, surely?

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