Friday, 05 August 2011
That Nokia Siemens surveillance technology is being used in the bloody
hunt for Syrian dissidents is highly likely. This is according to
experts, pointing to the close ties between Syria and Iran, where the
technology was last sold Iran.
Today, when the Syrian people will be coming out of mosques after
Friday prayers, they’ll be looking on their cell phones to see where
the demonstrations will take place. These calls and text messages are
monitored by the regime through technology, including that sold by
Nokia-Siemens.
“Nokia Siemens did not want to say anything as to if they have sold
surveillance systems to Syria, or if the technology ended up in the
regime's hands in a roundabout way, most probably via Iran,” says Hanna
Nikkanen , author of The innocent empire - three reports of the Finnish
corporate responsibility (Viaton imperiumi - Kolme kertomusta
suomalaisesta yritysvastuusta).
There are several indications that the Iranian secret service and
members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are in place in Syria to
help the government quell the uprising. The brutal repression carried
out under the leadership of the paramilitary Basij organization, which
made its name when in civilian clothes attacked, shot and kidnapped
Iranians during the uprising in 2009 in Teheran.
Similar scenes appear on YouTube clips from cities around Syria.
EU and U.S. have imposed sanctions against the leadership of these
groups, as well as against top Syrian military responsible for the
carnage. Iran, according to Huffington Post has given Syria a lifeline
of the $5.6 billion just in case a collapse of the banking system was
to happen, or if management would get short of foreign currency after
an oil embargo.
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There is also
information in the media reporting on the Middle East that Iran has
constructed an advanced Nokia Siemens system in Syria to jam the
internet and monitor and identify activists who use social media.
It's the same system that was sold to Iran in 2008, and that created controversy when it was used against Iranian dissidents.
“We have said that we regret the sale of the advanced surveillance
systems that were sold to Iran,” says Riitta Mard of Nokia's
communications department.
Although it would be easy to refute the allegations of Nokia Siemens
technology in al-Assad's control, it is difficult to get any
information, when Nokia refers to proprietary information and
confidentiality practices.
“We do not want to answer any questions about other companies' operations,” says Marten.
Nokia-Siemens has now transferred the business to a new separate
company, Trovicore, and says they do not like to answer any questions
regarding the monitoring technology.
An anonymous source in the telecommunications industry in Syria told
finish newspaper that in addition to international companies such as
Nokia Siemens and Ericsson, Chinese Huawei is very active in the Syrian
market. He believes that it is the Chinese regime that caters to the
more advanced surveillance systems, while Europeans are more focused on
conventional telephone traffic.
Nokia-Siemens and other operators selling phone systems where you can
make the "lawful interception", which means that police and authorities
can eavesdrop on conversations, according to reports.
The thought now is that there is a large gap between what works on the
European market with their long tradition of democracy and
transparency, and how the regimes in the Middle East use the same
technology.
Authorities believe that the issue should be discussed at political
level: on how the regulation of exports should be introduced so that
dictatorships can not use interception to capture political opponents.
By Scancomark.se Team
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