They did not need access to other sites, and they did not want outsiders intruding into their sites and consuming their resources. This resistance was stronger in the east than in the west. This corridor handles approximately 35 percent of the telecommunications traffic in the U.S and is a vital route connecting Internet traffic between the United States and Europe. There's a price to pay for being in the center of the information age. I don't know how people ever got along without them.
Information is the currency of politics.
Without it, you're out of the loop.