The Quotation:  "During my service in the United States Congress I took the initiative in creating the Internet. "

This is from Phillip Hallam-Baker, a former member of the CERN Web develoment team that created the basic structure of the web:

"[the myth that Gore said that he invented the internet is] a calculated piece of political propaganda to deny Gore credit for what is probably his biggest achievement."

"In the early days of the Web," says Hallam-Baker, who was there, "he was a believer, not after the fact when our success was already established -- he gave us help when it counted. He got us the funding to set up at MIT after we got kicked out of CERN for being too successful. He also personally saw to it that the entire federal government set up Web sites. Before the White House site went online, he would show the prototype to each agency director who came into his office. At the end he would click on the link to their agency site. If it returned 'Not Found' the said director got a powerful message that he better have a Web site before he next saw the veep."

See also snopes.com

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© Douglas J. Shaw,  2002