Alarmed, Mr. Murdoch, who had boasted that his venture's small satellite dishes "posed an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes," immediately complied in the hopes of winning access to China's booming market.

The incentive strategy can work only if it is accompanied by an explicit and unambiguous threat.

This very explicit, unambiguous threat was not like previous death threats he had received that could be ignored as protected speech or as racist comments.

If so, the justices should draw a distinction between computers and unambiguous threats to the separation of church and state, like the financing of religious education through vouchers.

"Advances in the technology of telecommunications have proved an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere," he said.

Mr. Murdoch, who paid $525 million for control of Star, made few friends in Beijing when he announced shortly after the purchase that new technology "posed an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes."

What is more, there have been unambiguous threats made against opposition leaders, such as Mr Díez Canseco, who was actually in Brussels for discussions with all political groups.

In fact, they respected only force or an unambiguous and credible threat to use it.

IT happened to Mr. Murdoch in 1993 when he declared, after buying the Asian satellite service Star TV, that satellite-delivered television "posed an unambiguous threat to the totalitarian regimes everywhere."

The only possible justification for war to an octospider, Archie continued, is an unambiguous threat to the very survival of the colony.