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Nortel CEO takes swipe at clueless Feds

Declan McCullagh Former Senior Writer
Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET. You can e-mail him or follow him on Twitter as declanm. Declan previously was a reporter for Time and the Washington bureau chief for Wired and wrote the Taking Liberties section and Other People's Money column for CBS News' Web site.
Declan McCullagh

Nortel CEO Bill Owens took a swipe at clueless government officials during a speech on Tuesday.

Owens talked up the benefits of always-on wireless networks and location-identifying technologies (think geography-based dating services). But he said that the Feds are a little behind: "I wonder if the cabinet members, the policymakers, the key people in our government understand how quickly this is changing."

"Who in the United States government is at a level where they're seeing that vision (and saying) they must do something?" Owens said at a Progress and Freedom Foundation conference in Aspen, Co. "The FCC does a great job of looking at all the policies -- but you all realize the FCC knows a lot more than most of the people in Congress."

Owens should know. He was previously the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the second-ranking military officer in the United States.